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Nevermind, an album on major chords

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Re: Nevermind, an album on major chords

#11
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like Nirvana as much as the next 90s kid but there is no way these are the best songs in human history, or even in rock history, or even in "modern rock" history.

Some of the best. More than one in the top 10,000.

> some of the best songs in human history

I think this was the statement he/she was disagreeing with. No doubt a genius, but when you phrase it like that it's more than genius.

Re: Nevermind, an album on major chords

#12
post #3

Pretty much every chord he played was a power chord. Thats just a root and a 5th. It’s neither major or minor, because you need the 3rd to establish that And nearly every punk and metal band uses predominantly power chords, without any real care in the world as to what the progressions are. It just sounds good to them. There aren’t any rules because punk is a DIY genre. If you told him he was doing a thing, he’d do t…

That’s just not true. Off the top of my head Lithium, Dumb, About A Girl have critical minor and major chords. Also part of what made him so good was how he played vocal melody and rhythm off of chords. So in some songs you might have plain power chords but the melody hits important major or minor notes. I don’t know what your definition for genius is but the guy wrote some of the best songs in human history and did…

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Re: Nevermind, an album on major chords

#13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s just not true. Off the top of my head Lithium, Dumb, About A Girl have critical minor and major chords. Also part of what made him so good was how he played vocal melody and rhythm off of chords. So in some songs you might have plain power chords but the melody hits important major or minor notes. I don’t know what your definition for genius is but the guy wrote some of the best songs in human history and did…

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> Melodies will be in a key, using a set of notes. That’s kinda unavoidable.

Schoenberg has entered the chat.

Re: Nevermind, an album on major chords

#14
post #3

Pretty much every chord he played was a power chord. Thats just a root and a 5th. It’s neither major or minor, because you need the 3rd to establish that And nearly every punk and metal band uses predominantly power chords, without any real care in the world as to what the progressions are. It just sounds good to them. There aren’t any rules because punk is a DIY genre. If you told him he was doing a thing, he’d do t…

Yeah. And if you did want to analyze it using classical western tonality, then taking into account vocal melodies, quite a lot of it sits better in minor...

Power chords were quite heavily used by some of the bands Kurt liked and were easy to play, hence the stuff that sounded good when he was noodling used a lot of that. Nirvana weren't innovators in tonality, but they had great crunchy guitar tone, catchy hooks and a singer with a raspy voice - exactly what you'd expect a band that didn't care about music theory to potentially excel at, and exactly what was needed to breaking the trend in layered reverbs and guitar hero solos of the 80s ...

Re: Nevermind, an album on major chords

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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> Melodies will be in a key, using a set of notes. That’s kinda unavoidable. Schoenberg has entered the chat.

Arguably we tend to attempt to hear atonal music in a key (or temporal sequence of keys) despite it's attempt to avoid that.

I suspect something similar about bitonality. We hear one of the keys and then try and interpret the other notes in relation to that.

(warning. I am neither a music theorist or an expert in the psychology of music perception. But this is HN so yolo...)

Re: Nevermind, an album on major chords

#16
post #3

Pretty much every chord he played was a power chord. Thats just a root and a 5th. It’s neither major or minor, because you need the 3rd to establish that And nearly every punk and metal band uses predominantly power chords, without any real care in the world as to what the progressions are. It just sounds good to them. There aren’t any rules because punk is a DIY genre. If you told him he was doing a thing, he’d do t…

Yep 90% power chords and the sound on Nevermind was in part due to Butch Vig. It’s simple but at the time quite unheard : bit of compression a lot of overdub, maybe a little flange/chorus but it was quite minimal compared to heavy metal, guitar heroes of the time and really different from the punk bands.

Re: Nevermind, an album on major chords

#17
If you want a song with all majors, where the full chords are played on the main instrument, first thing that comes to mind is Eno's Golden Hours (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxyg3sP03Cs). For parts of songs, maybe the intro to Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1pMMIe4hb4)

Re: Nevermind, an album on major chords

#19
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the best. More than one in the top 10,000.

> some of the best songs in human history I think this was the statement he/she was disagreeing with. No doubt a genius, but when you phrase it like that it's more than genius.

I don't know that I think he was a genius? If I don't think Husker Du, the Pixies, and Sonic Youth were genius-led bands, I'm not sure how a band that basically synthesized those bands and then lensed them through Guns n Roses could be genius. Is David Bowie a genius? Maybe, if we're generous?

When I hear people call Cobain a genius I feel the way I do when I'm hear someone say they've never seen The Wire. Listen to Surfer Rosa and Rid of Me!

None of this is to say Nevermind and In Utero aren't good; they're very, very good, I listen to them all the time 30 years later. But like, I still listen to Soundgarden every once in awhile too. They're not geniuses!

Re: Nevermind, an album on major chords

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s just not true. Off the top of my head Lithium, Dumb, About A Girl have critical minor and major chords. Also part of what made him so good was how he played vocal melody and rhythm off of chords. So in some songs you might have plain power chords but the melody hits important major or minor notes. I don’t know what your definition for genius is but the guy wrote some of the best songs in human history and did…

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When it comes to cultural significance and catchiness the fact that people have been doing it for a long time doesn’t matter.

In fact, the ability to tap into mass media only makes the impact of a song greater. Access to electric instruments and effects only gave them more ability to create interesting music.

I’m a fan of all kinds of music old and new. But anyone saying German leders or old timey civil war ditties are better than Smells Like Teen spirit are high on their own supply.

Most of history humans expressed an extraordinarily limited range of emotion in song, in rigid form. Kurt Cobain wrote more than one song that you could play for a toddler and they’d love it. He wrote more than one song that hundreds of millions of people are listening to 30 years later. I’m sorry but your favorite Gregorian Chant is just not very good in comparison.

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