Four Chord Song

[arsenicCatnip]

Hilarious, but at the same time, does anybody else find this a bit eerie?

I see your four chord song and raise you one classical music!

Pachelbel, Pachelbel, I'll see your ass in hell!

OT: Punk uses the same 3 chords for nearly every song: E, C, G. Simple stuff. Even I can play this.

 

[zen5887]

See.. I never got this. There is only a finite amount of chord progressions you can use that'll sound any good, so people rely on the melody, lyrics and clever arranging to make songs interesting.

So what is pop songs use the same 4 chords? The blues has been using the same 3 chords for awhile, and so has Jazz for that matter (over simplification I know, but my point is the same).

 

[Meemaimoh]

Have you heard pretty much every punk song ever? I understand that the idea of punk melodies is simplicity, but wow.

 

[TheKruzdawg]

Great video. Found that myself a few days ago on Stumble. This kind of thing is why so many artists sound exactly the same and you only recognize who it is if you know the words to a particular song. For example, I can't tell the difference between 90% of the songs by All-American Rejects, Yellowcard, and those who sound like them. It also explains every Green Day song ever, at least their older stuff.

Yeah, I feel the exact same way about Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco. In fact, usually when I hear a song by one of those two I can't tell which band the song was made by.

Those are the other bands I was thinking of and the fact that I couldn't remember them proves my point

 

[the Dept of Science]

There is nothing new under the sun. To ask a musician to use a completely original chord progression is almost like asking an artist to invent a new colour. All arts are built on the past, its what you do with the given toolset that makes it interesting.

Considering the thousands of songs released each year, its an inevitablility that some will use the same chords. If they did it on variations of the I-IV-V progression, then that video could go on forever.

 

[Riobux]

It's nothing new, but is a problem? No. There's more to music than chord choice. There's lyrics, there's tempo and drum choice.

Besides, for all you know, it could just be "the power of suggestion".

 

[The Maddest March Hare]

Surely the fact that it is made of certain chords and rhythms effects the genre it is part of? I've never done music theory, so I can't be sure.

But if they used, say, Metal chords, beats and riffs, it wouldn't be pop music, would it?

Music is defined by how it sounds. That is a pop sound. It's not unoriginal, it's good song writing for that particular genre in much the same way Metal would sound weird with such upbeat and dancey chords and beats.

 

[Aerodyamic]

No. Blues uses the same three chords for 95% of songs. So does 50's rock. Pop also has its idioms. If anything the video just shows how important other factors like melody, texture, lyrics, and arrangement are in songwriting.

Exactly. The only people who think there is a clever subtext behind this are the ones with no understanding of music theory/composition.


Up until the 19th century, classical music wasn't too different from in terms of harmonic homogeneity.

I agree, classical music is one of the worst offenders of all, with everything essentially being subservient to the deity of V-I.

But... But.... what about Yngwie Malmsteen?!
*snicker*

 

[cocoadog]

Well hey everybody already knew this anyway right?

At least we still have Jeff Loomis.

 

[Koeryn]

Old Video is old (But awesome.).

Also, this:

No. Blues uses the same three chords for 95% of songs, but nobody ever complains or says "gee just shows how unoriginal blues is". So does 50's rock. Pop also has its idioms. If anything the video just shows how important other factors like melody, texture, lyrics, and arrangement are in songwriting.

And this:

A lot of those songs don't use those four chords, either that or I'm playing them way out of key.

So basically what Insomniac is saying.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

No. Blues uses the same three chords for 95% of songs, but nobody ever complains or says "gee just shows how unoriginal blues is". So does 50's rock. Pop also has its idioms. If anything the video just shows how important other factors like melody, texture, lyrics, and arrangement are in songwriting.

Exactly, you can write brilliant songs with next to nothing chords-wise, if it's arranged and written well. Chords are merely a tiny part of the overall effect.

 

[Rakkana]

So the music industry is a giant scam?

 

[HoverWhale]

As far as comedy is concerned, I prefered the Pachelbel rant, but it's good to know that more people have started noticing this.

 

[tehweave]

No. Blues uses the same three chords for 95% of songs, but nobody ever complains or says "gee just shows how unoriginal blues is". So does 50's rock. Pop also has its idioms. If anything the video just shows how important other factors like melody, texture, lyrics, and arrangement are in songwriting.

Edit: I wrote something in here previously that was wrong. I'll rephrase.

Most music uses those chords. They sound good together and make for a nice melody/harmony with singing.

...Yeah. We'll go with that.

 

[BonsaiK]

No. Blues uses the same three chords for 95% of songs, but nobody ever complains or says "gee just shows how unoriginal blues is". So does 50's rock. Pop also has its idioms. If anything the video just shows how important other factors like melody, texture, lyrics, and arrangement are in songwriting.

My father (who is older and wiser than me, knows more about music than me, and also was a DJ for a while) told me that although the song is clever, this isn't really unoriginal songwriting. These four chords are known as 'power chords' and that most modern music was built off of them. 70s rock (other than Led Zeppelin who apparently just made up chords and wrote music around that) used almost exclusively these chords and most mainstream rock from that era used them as well. Our generation's pop music isn't so much unoriginal as using themes to make popular music that were used 30+ years ago and stuck with it to today.

Your father is wrong. A power chord is something different. The Wiki will explain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_chord

The "four chords" in the Axis Of Awesome song are three major chords and a minor chord: E B C#m A, or I V vi IV. The guitarist in the AOA video can be seen clearly using the open E and A shapes as well as barre versions of B and C#m. He is not using power chord shapes (although if he were it wouldn't matter much as the far more audible keyboardist is using three-note major and minor triads anyway).

Chords that are major or minor are not power chords, as the defining element that makes a chord either a major or minor is the distance between the root and the third degree of the chord. Power chords contain no third, only a root and a fifth, and therefore are not major or minor.

 

[Plank of Wood]

No. Blues uses the same three chords for 95% of songs, but nobody ever complains or says "gee just shows how unoriginal blues is". So does 50's rock. Pop also has its idioms. If anything the video just shows how important other factors like melody, texture, lyrics, and arrangement are in songwriting.

My father (who is older and wiser than me, knows more about music than me, and also was a DJ for a while) told me that although the song is clever, this isn't really unoriginal songwriting. These four chords are known as 'power chords' and that most modern music was built off of them. 70s rock (other than Led Zeppelin who apparently just made up chords and wrote music around that) used almost exclusively these chords and most mainstream rock from that era used them as well. Our generation's pop music isn't so much unoriginal as using
themes to make popular music that were used 30+ years ago and stuck with it to today.

Do you know anything about Power Chords, at all? Seriously, that's not what they are.

"Hey guys, this song uses an open G Major chord! How unoriganal!"

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Hilarious, but at the same time, does anybody else find this a bit eerie?

I see your four chord song and raise you one classical music!

Pachelbel, Pachelbel, I'll see your ass in hell!

OT: Punk uses the same 3 chords for nearly every song: E, C, G. Simple stuff. Even I can play this.

Ninja'd. The Pachelbel rant was the first thing I thought of when I saw the video in the OP. If anyone reading this hasn't watched it yet, do it. It's so much funnier.

No. Blues uses the same three chords for 95% of songs, but nobody ever complains or says "gee just shows how unoriginal blues is". So does 50's rock. Pop also has its idioms. If anything the video just shows how important other factors like melody, texture, lyrics, and arrangement are in songwriting.

To be fair to the Blues, in theoretical terms it's less of a genre in itself, and more of a form, such as a Courant or a Tango. If it's not sticking to a twelve bar I-IV-V progression, it's almost always either some kind of 19th century proto-blues, or not the blues at all.