Spotted on: I am Bored
There are only 12 notes in Western Music. This video shows how many pop hits can come out of just one Four Chord Progression. Apparently, quite a few. This video was created by the Axis of Awesome, and they’re worth checking out. You can support them (and get some cool swag) here.
FIRST!!!!
Awesome. We wonder why it all sounds so similar..
playing guitar, ive figured this out too. i always play mashups of a ton of songs together, same progression.
people who still come out wit hnew songs just based on this progression are kind of soft
Nice job.
Had seen something like this with the Pachelbel Rant a couple of years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM
Anything written in key and 4/4 timing will match up to that
There are only 12 chords in western music? pop music does not represent western music sire
Wow this sounds familiar… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM
alot of these songs don´t have this progression even though it fits the melody
Matt, first of all, there are more than 12 chords in Western music. What was posted above said “only 12 notes”. Notes are different from chords. Chords are two or more notes put together.
Second of all, pop music uses only these notes as described above, and only the chords that exist out of these notes. If this weren’t true, than no one would be able to play these songs with a guitar or a piano. Any instrument you’ve ever heard, other than a didgeridoo or something only use these notes.
Also, “Western Music” doesn’t necessarily refer to the genres Western, Country, or Folk. Western Music refers to this whole society’s concept of music, and any genre that falls into it. Ever noticed that Far Eastern music sounds very different than ours? It’s because they don’t typically use the same scales that we do.
So, next time you feel the desire to comment with a snotty little “sire” at the end of it as if you are actually schooling someone, make sure you actually know what the heck you are talking about. Your ignorance is incredibly obvious. Do your research before you speak, sir.
each key has 7 basic chords, and since it only takes a pitch shift to match the keys to each other, theres going to be a lot of songs that are compatible. no reason to believe that there’s a lack of variety.
Dizzle that just isn’t true at all.
and Matt, it says there are 12 notes, not 12 chords–which is true.
chords are 3 notes or more. two notes coupled are known as diads
The basic progression you hear here is, in Roman numerals, I IV iv V. It moves from the tonic (home) to a nearby major (a lift), shifts it (a turn), and brings it back to whats known as the dominant, a chord that’s major purpose is to signal a return to the tonic.
But more than that, this progression has a mostly happy sound to it, short of that third -minor – chord. Combining these with effective lyrics is why so many people lean on this structure. Actually inventive chord progressions are hard to come by.
Most repliers to this are idiots and know nothing about music.
A prime example of a band the uses four chords or less is AC/DC that’s why every song sounds the same, albeit they still rock !
“Descent” would like to think that he/she knows what they’re talking about, but they don’t.
The ACTUAL roman numerals to the progression are I V vi IV. Which, in turn, contradicts everything they have to say. Including the fact that dominants purpose (in that chord progression) is to return it to dominant.
Blablabla I know more about music than you do blablabla.
That’s hilarious. And why radio gets old so fast.
A couples notes on the idea of limited musical space:
-In the space of four chords, how many possible chord progressions are there? Using only the 7 triads in the major scale, there are 2,401 possible progressions (7x7x7x7=2,401).
-What if you use all the chords heard commonly in pop music? Let’s call those I, ii, II, iii, III, IV, iv, V, v, vi, and bVII – that’s 11 chords I could easily find for you in American pop music. Using these in a sequence of 4 chords, there are 14,641 possible progressions (11x11x11x11). For an 8 chord sequence, there are 214,358,881 possible progressions (11 to the 8th power). That’s quite a lot of space to work with. And there are still plenty more triads that can be (and are) used in pop music.
-How many possible melodies can there be? We must’ve about exhausted every possibility by now, right? Let’s check it out: Take a four-note melody, using only one octave (8 notes). The number of unique melodies possible in this space is 4,096 (8x8x8x8). Let’s try something a little closer to what you’d realistically hear in a pop song – say an 8-note phrase (still only part of a song’s melody, mind you), sung by a vocalist in a 2-octave range (15 notes). There are 2,562,890,625 (15 to the 8th power) possible melodies here. 2.5 billion. Google “permutations” and check the math if that sounds odd to you.
-We haven’t even talked about the possible number of variations in rhythm yet.
To conclude, it’s a lot more laziness (on the both producers’ and the consumers’ parts – and I’d argue it’s more on the consumers), than it is inevitability.
Thanks for posting that. I love that video.
Umm, well, considering I can play alot of those songs on guitar let me just say this.
Yes the same chords are used a lot in different songs. It’s the Tempo/Rhythm emphasis etc.. that changes the song.
2nd He used Glycerin, by Bush, as one of his examples, which is written in the Key of F, while another song he used, “Wherever you will go” which is written in D.
Since the Key of F has B-Flat in it, and D has a C-Sharp, that kinda blows his set.
Sounds nice tho.
Transposition can be your friend.
@Luke, there may be that may possible melodies, chord progressions, etc. However, the vast majority of those will sound terrible to any human on the planet. Even just restricting ourselves to the ones used in pop music, most of them still sound horrible. (try it yourself and see).
The chords that we use fit together through a combination of frequency relations and expectation built up from repetition. That is why different cultures have vastly different musical styles and scales, but there are always commonalities. Thus, certain chord progressions will come up a lot, especially within a culture, because they sound “right”.
I do agree, though. the fact that pop music all sounds so similar is an issue. One of the things that makes good music good is that is subtly violates your expectations of what comes next. Much of the time, I can think a bar or two ahead of the musician in a pop piece on the first time I hear it. I love when I am unable to do that, when the musician leads. I can, in five minutes, come up with 10 different variations on a theme that sound completely different, and reasonably original, so why can’t the music industry?
Chords are 3 or more notes, by the way. If it is only 2 notes, it is an interval.
@Aeiluindae
Good points, especially the one about different cultures having commonalities yet producing such vastly different sounds. That’s what I love about music – it can seem simple and limited but in reality there’s an incredible amount of things you can do with it. And I’m TOOOTALLLLLY with ya on thing about the musician leading (it’s like when you can tell which rhyming word is coming up in the next line of a poem – kiiinda boring). I think we’re on the same page. And I know a lot of the “possible melodies” won’t sound like much, I’m just attempting to illustrate that the space itself is not nearly as limited as it might seem. Even if most of 2.5 billion possibilities don’t sound like much (sorry, I don’t really have time to test all those right now
, there’s still plenty of room left, as well as variations left to be considered in rhythm, tempo, time signature, duration, timbre. If you can come up with 10 reasonably good melodic variations on a whim, we’re doin’ just fine.
Axis of Awesome has created yet another of these four chord chants (one of the less pleasing, to my ears). Each musical piece, including theirs, ultimately stands on its own and on some sort of peer review. Like the state of television today, this is more a comment on the taste of the listening public than on the composers. What is it about these four chords that speak to us?
whoever is singing all of these songs just ruined this video.
deress is right about I IV V. willbest..a cunt
To paraphrase something I heard on TV the other day –
Talking about Music is like
Dancing about Architecture.
Some composers (like me) don’t think in terms of note intervals, progressions or chord structure. Some of us just hear the tune in our heads and go running for the guitar or piano, etc. I don’t know what key most of my music is in. It doesn’t make a bit of difference to me. It was just something that came to me.
I’m in Houston, TX. Let’s do some tracking.
It’s the myth of the naive genius.
It’s the myth of the babbly writer.
Long ago there was babbly writer. Often he rode his motorbike across the fields of wheat in the summer. Or the fall, or spring. Not the winter, though. Brrrrrr! One day he was riding his motorbike across the golden wheat fields when what should pop up in front of him but a giant squirrel! “Give me that motor bike!” the squirrel thundered. “No! It’s mine,” returned the writer, quite certain that the speed his Honda Powersport was readily cabaple of would be more than enough to ensure his confidence would no go unwarranted. “Yes! It’s no longer yours, because I have giant squirrel teeth,” returned the squirrel, the thunder in its voice weakening ever so slightly. “No,” answered the babbly writer firmly, detecting the squirrel’s vulnerability, and remembering his childhood D.A.R.E. classes, and temporarily failing to live up to his name. “Y-E-S” said the giant squirrel, fully living up to his (the squirrel’s name was Yanni Evan Stewart). “Go read Breaking Dawn,” said the babbly writer, ironically/not ironically. This caused Yanni the Giant Squirrel to pause, ever so briefly, so the babbly writer got all carpe diem or something and hit the throttle like there was no tomorrw (because, at the moment, there wasn’t, there was only the present), and made for the hills. Well, they were already on some hills, so really he was just riding fast, on hills, away from Yanni.
My kids love that story.
Brilliant! Lots of work gone into that… good job lads.
Within a key, there are only 7 different triad chords available.
The 7 chord only sounds good in a few rare situation.
That leaves 6 chords.
The 6 chord is just an extension of the 1 chord. The 3 chord is just an extension of the 5 chord.
That leaves 4 chords.
Hence, the 4 chord song.
Actually only 2 chords are possible, though one of them rarely sounds good. Hence, techno.
It’s not I IV vi V, Descent. Don’t play Mozart unless you know what you’re talking about. It’s I V vi IV. It ends on the subdominant. It would be a very different sound if it was the progression you said. The subdominant can act as the dominant in pop music. Also, about halfway through the progression changed to either vi IV I V or i VI III VII in the key of vi. Neither one of these progressions are functional. We’re all impressed that you know roman numeral labeling of chords, just do it right next time. Of course people rip each other off. It’s been happening forever. It’ll never stop. There are about 6 or 7 progressions, at most, used in pop music. I can promise if a band came out and started using unfamiliar progressions ONLY, not many would like them. It’s what you do with the progressions that count.
Completely random and not on topic, but I find it interesting how almost immediately, comments always turn into intelligence battles…
I love you.
Ladies and gentlemen – do we have a NEW CONTEST???
I don’t even know half those songs! Interesting, but a few of those sound a little off from what I remember. Probably just played on the piano instead of a guitar, though.
Definitely cool, though. Of course, you could put a monkey in a room with a piano, and he’d eventually play Mozart. So, no wonder AC/DC put out so many hits!
I do agree that a LOT of bands rehash the same tunes over and over and over again. By the way, I know very little about music. I love listening to it, but I can’t play much of an instrument or know much theory. So, my opinion isn’t based on any fact, only my opinion. I’m not smarter than you, or anything like that, so don’t go off on me!
More please! I agree with Luke. New contest!
Contest #3 WINNERS – Luke and CJ!!! ha. thx man
I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your posts!! Its hilarious to see how even something as little as a video clip can turn people against each other lol….Gotta love Stumble for showing me the video
check out the song “8 become 1″ by norwegian recycling, it has three of the songs on this (where is the love, she will be loved, with or without you) plus others, wicked good
Classically there are three components of music: melody, rhythm, and harmony. Of the 3, it’s usually rhythm that most clearly informs us whether what we’re listening to should be considered music or not.
Interesting that the most successful pop trend of the last 20 years–rap/hip-hop/etc.–pretty much shatters classical theories of melody and harmony and puts all its musical eggs in the rhythm basket. The persistent/insistent rhythm of rap forces us to treat the atonality of the vocal performances as a new kind of melody, with the overlaying and interceding vocals defining a new atonal harmonic structure, and shattering all the formerly accepted rules. Quite simply, we’re being trained to hear a new kind of music, one that doesn’t depend on classical music theory or any fixed scale, diatonic, microtonic, or otherwise.
you can transpose just about any song in the same time to this progression, all you have to do change what key they’re in, probably only half or so of these would fit if you just put the original vocals or sang in the original keys.
Considering that all but about 10% of popular music consists of 4/4 time with all or nearly all major chords, this isn’t surprising, anyone who took any kind of music class in school could probably reason this out, or maybe they just think it’s coincidence the all their music is in e-flat b-flat and c.
Wow, so many people replying to this have no idea about music at all. Three or more notes = chord. Two notes= interval one note=unison. 12 notes in a western scale, each note has a couple different scales (major, minor, modes, etc.) which include seven different chords. There are also modulations, root variations, added 7ths, 9ths, etc. etc.
A lot of you comment that if the song is in 4/4 and in the same key of course its going to match up. First of all, when’s the last time you heard a popular song in a waltz style (3/4)? It happens, but it is oh so rare. Also, the point he is making is that it is the same chord progression (I-V-vi-IV), not the same key. Most of those songs original recordings are in any one of the 12 keys to fit the vocal range of the singer.
PS. Not all of you don’t know what you are talking about…just most of you.
PSS. Listen to jazz, its much more interesting.
PSSS. There is no such thing as originality when it comes to chord progressions.
PSSSS. don’t be a dick like me, just enjoy the music for what it is
Mote people who think they know about music don know very much at all. Most people who think they know about music are musicians. Coincidence?
How many 3 note chords can be built using the notes in a diatonic scale? Not triads, but combinations of 3 notes? The answer is 35. What does this tell us about music? Absolutely nothing.
Yes, there are so many chords that can be built on a scale, and so many scales, and then there are modes, and this, and that, yada yada, and all that combinatorial math is wonderful, but the simple fact is that not all chord progressions sound good. In fact, most of them sound just awful. Which is one of the reasons we study music theory.
The question of why a particular progression sounds good while most of them sound like crap is one of the mysteries of music. How much is due to physics, like the fact that a major chord contains its fifth in its higher overtones? And how much is due to culture, to being accustomed to hearing certain progressions as musical?
Stravinsky had to “train” Parisians to accept the tritone (the flatted fifth, the infamous “devil’s interval”) as musical and it caused riots. Now we think nothing of it. Schoenberg tried to train the public to hear his “tone rows” as music and the results…? Well, maybe not so good. Why’d we take to the tritone but not Schoenberg’s method? Good question.
Anyhow, using the same progressions for different songs is nothing new, and nothing especially sneaky or underhanded, and it comes as no surprise to any musician worth his salt. If you play jazz, then you’d better be damned well acquainted with “rhythm changes” (I,vi,IV, V), and anyone who doesn’t know a 12-bar blues when they hear it needs to have their ears examined. In fact, in blues you have a whole genre of music based on the same single chord progression (okay, there are exceptions, 8-bar blues, etc., but still…)
Music Theory 101. Simple tonic expansion thru circle of fourths. It’s how our western ears have been trained to hear what sounds “right” for how music is supposed to progress. When you set up a tonal center to a song, western ears have to hear dominant – especially dominant with a seventh – leading to tonic. There is music that doesn’t do this, but most groups that play it have strings and winds and percussion, and people get overwhelmed by the complexity, because it doesn’t fit their preconceptions, and then they call it “boring.”
2 notes can too make a chord. Play C & E together; it sounds like C major. Play C & Eb together; it sounds like C minor. You dont need the 5th [G] to make it a chord. Well, Mozart didnt but what would he know? Intervals are 2 separate notes, 1 played after the other.
Harmony & chords are overrated anyway, melody & rhythm are more primal. For starters non-Western music doesn’t even consider harmony & if it wasnt for some monks in the Middle Ages analysing the occurrence of certain pitches together we probably wouldnt be talking about chords either.
Like what you like, then if you want to analyse it, go ahead, but music should be enjoyed most of all.