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I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.

blog.hooktheory.com

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Re: I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.

#61

Post by [deleted] »

dooq wrote: post #38
snorkel wrote: post #28

Reason: It's easier to play these chords on a 6 string guitar, which has been the dominant instrument of choice for pop song composers. The first C chord on a guitar is easy to hit with no finger twisting required. It's also easy to switch between the first C, Am, and G chord, you can even do it quickly and repeatedly while drunk as you can imagine many pop songs are written. The first F chord requires a little more…

Em is probably the very simplest guitar chord to play, only needing 2 fingers beside each other. Yet it doesn't come in at the top of the list. So I don't think your explanation is the dominant force here.

[deleted]

Re: I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.

#62

Post by kevincennis »

dooq wrote: post #38
snorkel wrote: post #28

Reason: It's easier to play these chords on a 6 string guitar, which has been the dominant instrument of choice for pop song composers. The first C chord on a guitar is easy to hit with no finger twisting required. It's also easy to switch between the first C, Am, and G chord, you can even do it quickly and repeatedly while drunk as you can imagine many pop songs are written. The first F chord requires a little more…

Em is probably the very simplest guitar chord to play, only needing 2 fingers beside each other. Yet it doesn't come in at the top of the list. So I don't think your explanation is the dominant force here.

No way. Em7add11 is waaaayyy easier if you use the right voicing.

Re: I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.

#63

Post by sliverstorm »

planetguy wrote: post #25

What I'd like to see is a plot of the number of chords used in a song versus time. Possibly even broken down by genre, or correlated to other qualities (sex of singer) et cetera. If you start at the 1950s, you'll see very simple rock songs; your classic three-chord rock songs. As you hit the 1960s you'll see more complexity; The Beatles, for instance, had more harmonic complexity than what had come before, which cont…

I think there is one thing you are overlooking: IMO, the reason the 1980s had simple music wasn't anything complicated; it was the electric guitar. Power chords are super easy to use, and with an electric guitar they still sound good.

Re: I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.

#64

Post by shaggyfrog »

terryk88a wrote: post #41

Snnnzx.. wha? This may best thought of as a lexical analysis of 1300 popular novels. E.G. what is the most popular word following the word "it". The key of a tune 'controls' the chords available, using a typical chord progression. A song in the key of C most typically has the progression C-F-G or I-IV-V in roman numerals signifying 1 for the dominant C, and 4 and 5 for F and G respectively the fourth and fifth notes…

Charting chord progressions definitely sounds interesting. Would also like to see that based on musical style -- i.e. "blues" vs. "rock".

Re: I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.

#65

Post by Goladus »

wildwood wrote: post #27
baddox wrote: post #20

I find it hard to believe that D major wasn't one of the more common chords to follow and E minor.

Why would the II chord follow iii? Can you cite some examples of that? The only pop/rock use of II that I can think of is as a turn to drive II7 -> V7 -> I.

I agree, I'd really be interested to see what sort of pattern he's thinking about.

Re: I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.

#68

Post by UrLicht »

freehunter wrote: post #17
Brashman wrote: post #7

How does this compare to what Music Theory says about chords and chord progressions? Any Music Theory experts/aficionados around? I've unfortunately forgotten most of what I learned in my one class on it.

I would make the argument that there is little in the way of pop music that strays from traditionally accepted chord progressions. Dissonance isn't something that appeals to a broad audience, and you'll be hard pressed to find someone who can point out an interesting choice in progression for a song on the radio.

Sorry in advance for the pedantry. ;) Dissonance is when notes "clash" with each other and in traditional voice leading dissonance always resolves to consonance.

Atonality, on the other hand, is a more recent development in Western music and is defined as the lack of a tonal center. Atonality can be an extremely interesting way to write music. Some of the first atonal music (note how it's not markedly "dissonant") can be found in Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune[1] and the prelude to act I of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde [2].

I don't listen to a huge amount of pop music, but is there anyone out there that is at least experimenting with atonality?

[1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_7loz-HWUM [2]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bwl3GYBM3E

Re: I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.

#69

Post by Goladus »

baddox wrote: post #20

I find it hard to believe that D major wasn't one of the more common chords to follow and E minor.

Note that he's only searching songs written in C Major. A D Major would be outside the key so naturally it would be quite rare.

The results are exactly as I would expect. F is the most common chord to follow E, because that's the primary way to resolve the dissonance of that note in C major. When E appears in other chords in C Major it will also tend to resolve to F unless there's a good reason not to (cadential 6-4).

A minor is the next most common after F, because that's the next step in a descending circle of 5ths pattern (E, A, D, G, C)

Re: I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.

#70

Post by te_chris »

The article was down, but I assume this will be relevant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenkerian_analysis

We spent a lot of time doing this sort of stuff to flesh out harmonic and melodic patterns/meaning of pieces while at music school. To (grossly) simplify, it's essentially a form of reduction analysis, but the final step of the analysis is always I - V - I chord progression (tonic - dominant) with the 3 blind mice melody above (stepwise descending). I never found the final reduction particularly useful as, though he had a point about the prevalence of the tonic dominant relationship, it was over blown. The reduction steps were very useful for stripping away flourishes though, in order to see what was happening at a more base level in a piece (we analyzed a lot of Mahler this way).

Kinda like Map/Reduce in some ways.

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