The Death of the Key Change
November 10, 2022 8:28 AM Subscribe
This is an interesting observation! Both of the elements Dalla Riva identify as driving the sea change—the rise of hiphop as a production genre and the move to digital recording and DAW-based composition—really make a lot of sense to me.
And the side-point that electronic production created a more even distribution of key choices likewise. I tend to write songs on guitar or piano, so I still feel that pull to do it in E or D instead of Db if a half-step off my ideal vocal range is the only price to pay.
One thing I would like to see expanded in more detail is his point about 1990 as a turning point for the fall-off of key changes. That's a reasonable interpretation of the dynamics of his graph over time but to my eye the real moments of big change seem like roughly 2000 where it falls off not just from the previous max but to only half of even what it was ten years prior; and then again circa 2010 where it has truly flatlined entirely after a decade of steady further decline. Feels like there's a bigger, longer story in song-writing and production trends there.
posted by cortex at 8:55 AM on November 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
And the side-point that electronic production created a more even distribution of key choices likewise. I tend to write songs on guitar or piano, so I still feel that pull to do it in E or D instead of Db if a half-step off my ideal vocal range is the only price to pay.
One thing I would like to see expanded in more detail is his point about 1990 as a turning point for the fall-off of key changes. That's a reasonable interpretation of the dynamics of his graph over time but to my eye the real moments of big change seem like roughly 2000 where it falls off not just from the previous max but to only half of even what it was ten years prior; and then again circa 2010 where it has truly flatlined entirely after a decade of steady further decline. Feels like there's a bigger, longer story in song-writing and production trends there.
posted by cortex at 8:55 AM on November 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
Super interesting!
Beyonce's "Love on Top" only reached #20 on the Hot 100 (which shocks me), but jumps out as a recent example. And of course, Taylor Swift sandwiching the 2010s with 2008's "Love Story" and 2021's "Love Story (Taylor's Version)."
posted by papayaninja at 8:57 AM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Beyonce's "Love on Top" only reached #20 on the Hot 100 (which shocks me), but jumps out as a recent example. And of course, Taylor Swift sandwiching the 2010s with 2008's "Love Story" and 2021's "Love Story (Taylor's Version)."
posted by papayaninja at 8:57 AM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Too many 'trucker changes', ie 1/2 step up or down with just repeating the chorus IMO killed the key change.
Jackson saved himself from that by throwing in some new lines, but most artists at that point consider the song to be crescendo-ing and just concentrate on the existing lines, not adding new ones. That's just lazy.
Interesting that he didn't emphasize an older song that did it more like at the midway point like Sick Mode does. I'm sure there's been at least 1 number one hit that did that instead of the trucker change.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:07 AM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
Jackson saved himself from that by throwing in some new lines, but most artists at that point consider the song to be crescendo-ing and just concentrate on the existing lines, not adding new ones. That's just lazy.
Interesting that he didn't emphasize an older song that did it more like at the midway point like Sick Mode does. I'm sure there's been at least 1 number one hit that did that instead of the trucker change.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:07 AM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
Another wrinkle that seems worth digging in on is the question of bridge key changes: even if a song starts and ends in the same key, using a shift out of that key for the bridge before returning for the chorus creates a similar surge of harmonic energy in a song, which I'm not sure this analysis looks at directly at all but I'm curious if Dalla Riva explores elsewhere.
For that matter it'd be interesting to see how tightly collocated the bridge key change and the coda key change are; there former will often in a big ballad lead directly into the latter as a harmonic one-two punch.
Which, I feel like the bridge shift may not feel as unambiguously big as a full song key shift, but when it's done effectively it certainly can feel huge. And you can get two distinct big moves out of it—shifting into the bridge key, shifting back out again—in a way that feels less compositionally trite than doing 2+ steps up on the main loop. The article mentions Every Breath You Take and it's I think a middling example of this: both in and out of the bridge are good meaty changes but not humongous dynamic ones; it's enough to give a little bit of mid-song meat to what is otherwise a very intentionally repetitive and fairly sonically low-key song.
Contrast with another one that goes bigger: I was gonna use Mariah Carey's 1993 "Hero" as an example of a song using a key change into the bridge followed by a change to a third, stepped-up key on the way out, but I went and listened to it again to refresh my memory and it doesn't! Just original key, bridge key, back to the original. But it's a couple of huuuuge moves, really effective use of that key step in a big 90s pop ballad context. It feels so big that even listening back I had to scrub to early and late sections to convince myself it really didn't do a step up at the end.
posted by cortex at 9:12 AM on November 10, 2022 [8 favorites]
For that matter it'd be interesting to see how tightly collocated the bridge key change and the coda key change are; there former will often in a big ballad lead directly into the latter as a harmonic one-two punch.
Which, I feel like the bridge shift may not feel as unambiguously big as a full song key shift, but when it's done effectively it certainly can feel huge. And you can get two distinct big moves out of it—shifting into the bridge key, shifting back out again—in a way that feels less compositionally trite than doing 2+ steps up on the main loop. The article mentions Every Breath You Take and it's I think a middling example of this: both in and out of the bridge are good meaty changes but not humongous dynamic ones; it's enough to give a little bit of mid-song meat to what is otherwise a very intentionally repetitive and fairly sonically low-key song.
Contrast with another one that goes bigger: I was gonna use Mariah Carey's 1993 "Hero" as an example of a song using a key change into the bridge followed by a change to a third, stepped-up key on the way out, but I went and listened to it again to refresh my memory and it doesn't! Just original key, bridge key, back to the original. But it's a couple of huuuuge moves, really effective use of that key step in a big 90s pop ballad context. It feels so big that even listening back I had to scrub to early and late sections to convince myself it really didn't do a step up at the end.
posted by cortex at 9:12 AM on November 10, 2022 [8 favorites]
And another idle thought on the shift: I think one of the subtler ways that electronic/DAW song production has changed the situation is that there's a great deal more capacity now vs. decades ago to finesse and fine-tune the micro and macro dynamics of a song in ways unrelated to harmonic structure. Noise floors have dropped hugely. Generational loss of copies is no longer a thing. Huge memory capacity on mixing hardware and the ability to costlessly experiment with mixes and audio manipulation let people do stuff that would have had to have gotten done in one good take decades back.
When you can get your big dynamic move out of song by really working the contrasting loudness and quiet, or by building up increasing layers of non-muddy sounds verse by chorus by verse without the huge time pressure of getting it in a few takes with session musicians, etc, you can depend less on using a key change to produce that wow factor or that frisson at the move between a verse and a chorus and a bridge and a big dropout and a big beat drop.
posted by cortex at 9:17 AM on November 10, 2022 [13 favorites]
When you can get your big dynamic move out of song by really working the contrasting loudness and quiet, or by building up increasing layers of non-muddy sounds verse by chorus by verse without the huge time pressure of getting it in a few takes with session musicians, etc, you can depend less on using a key change to produce that wow factor or that frisson at the move between a verse and a chorus and a bridge and a big dropout and a big beat drop.
posted by cortex at 9:17 AM on November 10, 2022 [13 favorites]
Agree with @The_Vegetables - when I listen back to songs from the 80's you hear so many "clunk-clunk" shifts that it's distracting. Told my wife (who's a fab singer) about it and she was annoyed because now she can't help but hear it.
What I want to know is what killed all the great bass lines of the 60's and 70's? Can we have those back?
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:18 AM on November 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
What I want to know is what killed all the great bass lines of the 60's and 70's? Can we have those back?
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:18 AM on November 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
⌘-f funk
⌘-f james brown
I kind of think he’s not seeing the big picture here.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:18 AM on November 10, 2022 [8 favorites]
⌘-f james brown
I kind of think he’s not seeing the big picture here.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:18 AM on November 10, 2022 [8 favorites]
One point raised in the article that I'd like to read more about is the fundamental difference (not a great one, imo) that hip-hop has made in the American songbook: the irreproducibility of songs. The writer talks about there not being a melody in a Notorious B.I.G. song, which means one can't hum it. One also can't cover it in the same way that pop songs have been covered since the 19th c. ticked over into the 20th.
There was a period from the '30s through the '50s where multiple artists and dance bands would swarm around the latest Gershwin/Porter/whoever song and all record versions of it, hoping to be the one that hit with the public. This faded a bit with the advent of rock and electronic music (although the melody-driven nature of much of rock made the well-crafted cover song its own subgenre), but hip-hop drove the stake through its heart. If you don't have a melody, what are you covering, the lyrics? the production? In my limited exposure to contemporary hip-hop, I don't sense that a lot of people are doing verbatim covers of someone else's rap.
At any rate, thanks for sharing this article.
posted by the sobsister at 9:21 AM on November 10, 2022 [10 favorites]
There was a period from the '30s through the '50s where multiple artists and dance bands would swarm around the latest Gershwin/Porter/whoever song and all record versions of it, hoping to be the one that hit with the public. This faded a bit with the advent of rock and electronic music (although the melody-driven nature of much of rock made the well-crafted cover song its own subgenre), but hip-hop drove the stake through its heart. If you don't have a melody, what are you covering, the lyrics? the production? In my limited exposure to contemporary hip-hop, I don't sense that a lot of people are doing verbatim covers of someone else's rap.
At any rate, thanks for sharing this article.
posted by the sobsister at 9:21 AM on November 10, 2022 [10 favorites]
Noise floors have dropped hugely.
he writes in what we call cortexameter
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 9:24 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
he writes in what we call cortexameter
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 9:24 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Hip-hop stands in stark contrast to nearly all genres that came before because it puts more emphasis on rhythm and lyricism over melody and harmony.
I have a strong preference for melody and harmony, so I've never been a big fan of hip-hop.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:24 AM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
I have a strong preference for melody and harmony, so I've never been a big fan of hip-hop.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:24 AM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm curious about the opposite question: when did key changes become a thing, and how globally prevalent are they?
For example, AFAIK all of India's vast array of music forms - including all classical, folk, or popular forms - do not do key changes, ever.
posted by splitpeasoup at 9:28 AM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
For example, AFAIK all of India's vast array of music forms - including all classical, folk, or popular forms - do not do key changes, ever.
posted by splitpeasoup at 9:28 AM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
You see folks in hiphop doing lots of quotation and reference and callback; you see people doing hip-hop at karaoke, and hanging with friends; and I guarantee you anyone who has managed to get even a little bit decent at rapping could give you a solid verbatim take on a whole bunch of hip-hop standards. It's a different mode and a different creative circle, but it's not the disappearance of reproducibility or musical traditions. Different people have different song books; rap doesn't lend itself to melodic recital, for sure, but then again neither does a lot of Laurie Anderson's work. Nobody hums Music for Airports. What's the melody to What's He Building In There? We've had all sorts of non-melody-centric music and un-"singable" song traditions for a long time.
The thing that strikes me about Dalla Riva's observation about the influence of hip-hop on this change is that it can only be part of it: we didn't get to effectively zero key changes in pop hits by moving to literally only loop-based rap stuff charting. This is a compositional trajectory that also very much includes everything else charting huge in the last 10-20 years. So it's not an absence of melody making the change, though I think the greater focus on production and loop-based work under straight rap has probably carried over a lot of new ideas and production sensibilities to the stuff that is still unambiguously chordal and melody-driven. Genre is a marketing tool; the people doing the work behind the scenes aren't gonna be siloed in the same way.
posted by cortex at 9:36 AM on November 10, 2022 [14 favorites]
The thing that strikes me about Dalla Riva's observation about the influence of hip-hop on this change is that it can only be part of it: we didn't get to effectively zero key changes in pop hits by moving to literally only loop-based rap stuff charting. This is a compositional trajectory that also very much includes everything else charting huge in the last 10-20 years. So it's not an absence of melody making the change, though I think the greater focus on production and loop-based work under straight rap has probably carried over a lot of new ideas and production sensibilities to the stuff that is still unambiguously chordal and melody-driven. Genre is a marketing tool; the people doing the work behind the scenes aren't gonna be siloed in the same way.
posted by cortex at 9:36 AM on November 10, 2022 [14 favorites]
I'm curious about the opposite question: when did key changes become a thing, and how globally prevalent are they?
I don't know when they started, but I'd suggest they reached their peak (and have had their longest life) in live gospel music. Every gospel pianist needs to know how to make a key change that will lead a congregation to the new key.
posted by clawsoon at 9:42 AM on November 10, 2022 [8 favorites]
I don't know when they started, but I'd suggest they reached their peak (and have had their longest life) in live gospel music. Every gospel pianist needs to know how to make a key change that will lead a congregation to the new key.
posted by clawsoon at 9:42 AM on November 10, 2022 [8 favorites]
The thing that made key changes turn from unique to trite was when audiences would applaud them.
I was in a singing group about 25 years ago, when key changes were already considered hackneyed. When we would hear other groups perform a key change, we would always make sure to clap and nod our heads knowingly.
I continue to do this to this day. Never fails to crack up my other musician friends.
posted by rouftop at 9:44 AM on November 10, 2022 [6 favorites]
I was in a singing group about 25 years ago, when key changes were already considered hackneyed. When we would hear other groups perform a key change, we would always make sure to clap and nod our heads knowingly.
I continue to do this to this day. Never fails to crack up my other musician friends.
posted by rouftop at 9:44 AM on November 10, 2022 [6 favorites]
I didn't really notice key changes in 80s pop music until I started singing at karaoke bars and struggled to make those changes, and then I really noticed them when I started playing piano versions of 80s pop songs. And then I was "whoah! I didn't realize the complexity!" True by Spandau Ballet was one of the first that really entranced me.
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:48 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:48 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Adam Neely: Why are there so few rap cover songs?
(Although there is a cottage industry of YouTube beatmakers who reconstruct classic tracks.)
posted by escape from the potato planet at 9:51 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
(Although there is a cottage industry of YouTube beatmakers who reconstruct classic tracks.)
posted by escape from the potato planet at 9:51 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I've got like 2TB of samples/presets/effects that provide endless ways to build and release energy, so I rarely think about changing keys. It's the buggy whip of music tools.
posted by Kye at 10:04 AM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Kye at 10:04 AM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
IMO, though the number of complete rap covers is pretty small, there are a number of songs that borrow lines directly from older rap songs. I'd bet in the next decade, there is a full-on cover of an older rap song hitting on the pop charts. That's the progression of music, and rap is getting old.......
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:04 AM on November 10, 2022
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:04 AM on November 10, 2022
rap doesn't lend itself to melodic recital, for sure, but then again neither does a lot of Laurie Anderson's work. Nobody hums Music for Airports.
These aren't really counter-examples, though, right? Nobody hums Metal Machine Music or Selected Ambient Works 85–92 either. I was talking about mainstream pop songs being reproduced by others: the Broadway and Hollywood songs of the '30s, '40s, '50s; the Beatles and Dylan and Aretha.
And, again, people doing hip-hop karaoke is, as you know, not the same as Big Name Hip-Hop Artist X releasing a cover of Big Name Hip-Hop Artist Y's hit song.
So, while, yes, there have been non-melody-centric musics and un-"singable" song traditions for a long time, you've missed the point of what I'm saying: Pop music has been coverable since the advent of recorded sound due explicitly to it being singable. Hip-hop has changed that. Songs are no longer "covered" in any meaningful sense of its original usage because the thing that everyone since Edison cylinders was covering, be it in vocal or instrumental form, was the melody.
posted by the sobsister at 10:08 AM on November 10, 2022
These aren't really counter-examples, though, right? Nobody hums Metal Machine Music or Selected Ambient Works 85–92 either. I was talking about mainstream pop songs being reproduced by others: the Broadway and Hollywood songs of the '30s, '40s, '50s; the Beatles and Dylan and Aretha.
And, again, people doing hip-hop karaoke is, as you know, not the same as Big Name Hip-Hop Artist X releasing a cover of Big Name Hip-Hop Artist Y's hit song.
So, while, yes, there have been non-melody-centric musics and un-"singable" song traditions for a long time, you've missed the point of what I'm saying: Pop music has been coverable since the advent of recorded sound due explicitly to it being singable. Hip-hop has changed that. Songs are no longer "covered" in any meaningful sense of its original usage because the thing that everyone since Edison cylinders was covering, be it in vocal or instrumental form, was the melody.
posted by the sobsister at 10:08 AM on November 10, 2022
Kye: I've got like 2TB of samples/presets/effects that provide endless ways to build and release energy, so I rarely think about changing keys.
Epony... epony... eponysomething
posted by clawsoon at 10:14 AM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
Epony... epony... eponysomething
posted by clawsoon at 10:14 AM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
Songs are no longer "covered" in any meaningful sense of its original usage because the thing that everyone since Edison cylinders was covering, be it in vocal or instrumental form, was the melody.
Which is why Weird Al's "Amish Paradise" never existed? I dunno. Also there was absolutely 1000% a trend of (largely white, often female) folk and indie artists covering (largely nonwhite, often male) rap and hip hop tracks which everyone obviously hated because it was appropriative and also because women were doing it. I would not be at all surprised if hip hop covers become more prominent as nonwhite musicians begin having better representation across music genres.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:22 AM on November 10, 2022 [5 favorites]
Which is why Weird Al's "Amish Paradise" never existed? I dunno. Also there was absolutely 1000% a trend of (largely white, often female) folk and indie artists covering (largely nonwhite, often male) rap and hip hop tracks which everyone obviously hated because it was appropriative and also because women were doing it. I would not be at all surprised if hip hop covers become more prominent as nonwhite musicians begin having better representation across music genres.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:22 AM on November 10, 2022 [5 favorites]
We've also moved hugely away from covering standards in general with the rise of commercial music distribution, though. It hasn't disappeared entirely from the commercial music scene, but there's been an absolute seismic shift over the last 50-60 years (and I'd reckon more so particularly in the last 30) as music production and music distribution have both become more decentralized and broad and independently accessible. As it has become easier to make, and to hear, a wider variety of songs, it has become more practical for folks to create and succeed with independent compositions instead of depending on a fairly narrow songbook.
Like, I don't disagree with your premise that it's hard to do a melodic cover of a non-melodic song, and I agree that that creates a structural difference in the dynamics of hip-hop charts over time. But I think there's a real risk, in saying that e.g. the lack of melody means these songs are un-coverable, of both erasing the actual tradition of quotation and iteration and collaboration that does exist in hip-hop and of reiterating a long-standing chauvinistic definition of rap as a music form as "less-than" because it doesn't lend itself to melody-centric music tastes.
posted by cortex at 10:23 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Like, I don't disagree with your premise that it's hard to do a melodic cover of a non-melodic song, and I agree that that creates a structural difference in the dynamics of hip-hop charts over time. But I think there's a real risk, in saying that e.g. the lack of melody means these songs are un-coverable, of both erasing the actual tradition of quotation and iteration and collaboration that does exist in hip-hop and of reiterating a long-standing chauvinistic definition of rap as a music form as "less-than" because it doesn't lend itself to melody-centric music tastes.
posted by cortex at 10:23 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
(Yes, yes, a parody is not identical to a cover but it is certainly covering a melody and rhythm. Obviously there is something to reproduce besides the lyrics or else it literally could not exist!)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:24 AM on November 10, 2022
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:24 AM on November 10, 2022
After James Brown, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Parliament, Funkadelic et al -- won't somebody please think about taking it to the bridge!?
posted by y2karl at 10:25 AM on November 10, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by y2karl at 10:25 AM on November 10, 2022 [12 favorites]
When you can get your big dynamic move out of song by really working the contrasting loudness and quiet, or by building up increasing layers of non-muddy sounds verse by chorus by verse without the huge time pressure of getting it in a few takes with session musicians, etc, you can depend less on using a key change to produce that wow factor
Yeah, but I'm not convinced that's what's happening. If anything, there's less dynamic contrast to pop music today, a lot of it enforced by streaming music loudness standards and the "loudness wars" of the 2010s etc.
I think this article lays excessive burden on hip-hop and not enough on the trend toward algorithm-friendly production, where musical form and content get pushed more and more toward maximizing profit.
posted by daisystomper at 10:25 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yeah, but I'm not convinced that's what's happening. If anything, there's less dynamic contrast to pop music today, a lot of it enforced by streaming music loudness standards and the "loudness wars" of the 2010s etc.
I think this article lays excessive burden on hip-hop and not enough on the trend toward algorithm-friendly production, where musical form and content get pushed more and more toward maximizing profit.
posted by daisystomper at 10:25 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
A rap cover is called a remix. WTF.
And covers are a huge part of reggae which has melody and harmony; but especially with dub the covers are built off the reused 'riddim.' Connected from there to breakbeat, the Amen Break and the whole taxonomy on Ishkur.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:29 AM on November 10, 2022 [6 favorites]
And covers are a huge part of reggae which has melody and harmony; but especially with dub the covers are built off the reused 'riddim.' Connected from there to breakbeat, the Amen Break and the whole taxonomy on Ishkur.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:29 AM on November 10, 2022 [6 favorites]
one of the things i've been contemplating recently is how the term musician seems to be slowly replaced by the term producer - i'm learning that being a producer in today's music is much more than just telling musicians what to do or helping them get their sound on tape - no, it's sound design from the ground up and the emphasis is more on groove, feel and sound with harmony quite a bit behind - and seeing as the mid song key change is often used to give a lackluster tune a little extra push and has gotten to be a real cliche - well, there are other ways of doing that which don't involve having to figure out what the new chords, etc, have to me
it's just not as interesting anymore
also if you have real musicians playing, it's difficult - switching from g to g# is going to be pretty challenging for guitar players and even if they're comfortable in g#. it's really not going to sound the same as there's no real open chords in that key
even older musicians who are quite good were known to downtune their guitars from e to eb because then the keys they end up playing in - eb, ab, gb, db instead of e, a, g and d are better for horn players, and it's just not real easy to play the guitar with all those flats
of course with DAWs and computers, you can do any key you want
posted by pyramid termite at 10:29 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
it's just not as interesting anymore
also if you have real musicians playing, it's difficult - switching from g to g# is going to be pretty challenging for guitar players and even if they're comfortable in g#. it's really not going to sound the same as there's no real open chords in that key
even older musicians who are quite good were known to downtune their guitars from e to eb because then the keys they end up playing in - eb, ab, gb, db instead of e, a, g and d are better for horn players, and it's just not real easy to play the guitar with all those flats
of course with DAWs and computers, you can do any key you want
posted by pyramid termite at 10:29 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
splitpeasoup: I'm curious about the opposite question: when did key changes become a thing, and how globally prevalent are they?
Here is an answer which goes into detail to suggest that the "trucker gear change" does not come from European classic music, either, despite all the other key changes that go on.
posted by clawsoon at 10:30 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Here is an answer which goes into detail to suggest that the "trucker gear change" does not come from European classic music, either, despite all the other key changes that go on.
posted by clawsoon at 10:30 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I know someone who always says "Gratuitous key change!" whenever he hears a key change. I think this kind of think might make people think that all key changes are gratuitous, self-indulgent, or pandering. They are not.
posted by amtho at 10:32 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by amtho at 10:32 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I liked the stair-step key change ending on Beyonce's Love on Top. It reminded me of Stevie Wonder's Golden Lady, a stair climb I can't help but sing along to when I play it in the car.
Louis Cole's latest album has a song that ends with a very impressive stair climb, which is kept interesting by changes of instrumentation among other things: Let It Happen
posted by pianoblack at 10:33 AM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
Louis Cole's latest album has a song that ends with a very impressive stair climb, which is kept interesting by changes of instrumentation among other things: Let It Happen
posted by pianoblack at 10:33 AM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
Also there was absolutely 1000% a trend of (largely white, often female) folk and indie artists covering (largely nonwhite, often male) rap and hip hop tracks which everyone obviously hated because it was appropriative and also because women were doing it.
I'm not 100% convinced of that last clause, Dynamite Hack's and Nina Gordon's respective NWA covers are... comparably egregious, let's call it that. Comfortably toothless both.
posted by mhoye at 10:34 AM on November 10, 2022
I'm not 100% convinced of that last clause, Dynamite Hack's and Nina Gordon's respective NWA covers are... comparably egregious, let's call it that. Comfortably toothless both.
posted by mhoye at 10:34 AM on November 10, 2022
also if you have real musicians playing, it's difficult - switching from g to g# is going to be pretty challenging for guitar players and even if they're comfortable in g#. it's really not going to sound the same as there's no real open chords in that key
Capo if you are lazy and different chord shapes than standard if you are not. it's no big deal to change keys on guitar - that's why punk bands and country music love it still, but that's far from the pop charts.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:37 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Capo if you are lazy and different chord shapes than standard if you are not. it's no big deal to change keys on guitar - that's why punk bands and country music love it still, but that's far from the pop charts.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:37 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
But I think there's a real risk, in saying that e.g. the lack of melody means these songs are un-coverable, of both erasing the actual tradition of quotation and iteration and collaboration that does exist in hip-hop and of reiterating a long-standing chauvinistic definition of rap as a music form as "less-than" because it doesn't lend itself to melody-centric music tastes.
I don't disagree. Personally, I've always been a fan of the quote-unquote Great American Songbook, which I see as one of this country's great cultural accomplishments of the 20th century. And I've been a big fan of listening to how artists from Sonny Rollins to Shirley Horn to Emily Remler can all cover and interpret "Softly As in a Morning Sunrise," for example.
While I'd say that quoting and reiterating from previous raps, depending on the extent of the citation, is closer to Charlie Parker dropping a snippet of a pop song in a solo than to a "cover" as traditionally understood, I'm interested in seeing how this develops. I thought sampling was going to be the thing that really transformed the notion of covering and reinterpreting music, but it may be that the future of covering may be more lyrical than melodic.
posted by the sobsister at 10:46 AM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
I don't disagree. Personally, I've always been a fan of the quote-unquote Great American Songbook, which I see as one of this country's great cultural accomplishments of the 20th century. And I've been a big fan of listening to how artists from Sonny Rollins to Shirley Horn to Emily Remler can all cover and interpret "Softly As in a Morning Sunrise," for example.
While I'd say that quoting and reiterating from previous raps, depending on the extent of the citation, is closer to Charlie Parker dropping a snippet of a pop song in a solo than to a "cover" as traditionally understood, I'm interested in seeing how this develops. I thought sampling was going to be the thing that really transformed the notion of covering and reinterpreting music, but it may be that the future of covering may be more lyrical than melodic.
posted by the sobsister at 10:46 AM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
The TVTropes article reminds me how popular the gear change was (is?) in country music, e.g. "Harper Valley PTA"
posted by credulous at 10:48 AM on November 10, 2022
posted by credulous at 10:48 AM on November 10, 2022
There are probably actually fewer chord changes, too, no? As an electronic music guy this all seems rather unsurprising to me - yeah. songs are more loop-based and textural now.
The big trend in rap in the last decade has been for the vocals to get more melodic, though, so I’m not sure the bit about not being able to hum songs is that accurate.
posted by atoxyl at 10:48 AM on November 10, 2022 [6 favorites]
The big trend in rap in the last decade has been for the vocals to get more melodic, though, so I’m not sure the bit about not being able to hum songs is that accurate.
posted by atoxyl at 10:48 AM on November 10, 2022 [6 favorites]
(One way you can tell you're getting old is when someone includes a statement like "...Audiomack, a popular music streaming service" (emphasis mine) about something I've never heard of in my life.)
posted by maxwelton at 10:48 AM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by maxwelton at 10:48 AM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
And I feel like there should be more context for beat switches here. Sicko Mode is unusual in that it has two, including a key change, and was a Number One. But they aren’t all that rare these days. I guess they are more directly comparable to a breakdown or middle eight or whatever, except that not a lot of songs switch beats and then switch back.
posted by atoxyl at 10:52 AM on November 10, 2022
posted by atoxyl at 10:52 AM on November 10, 2022
Capo if you are lazy Wait y'all slap a capo on mid-beat to get a key change in a song or am I missing something? Seriously curious, I don't know much about capo use.
posted by SaltySalticid at 10:57 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by SaltySalticid at 10:57 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I've seen people be fast with capos but as a guitarist I'm not slipping one on mid-song unless there's an actual break. If it goes from D to Eb for some reason I'm just switching to a barre form and hating myself and whoever came up with that.
Passing shout-out to one of my favorite classic key changes, the one so far at the end of Build Me Up Buttercup that it the song begins immeeeediately fading out. Killer song, great "leave 'em wanting more, fuck 'em" execution of the big move.
posted by cortex at 11:02 AM on November 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
Passing shout-out to one of my favorite classic key changes, the one so far at the end of Build Me Up Buttercup that it the song begins immeeeediately fading out. Killer song, great "leave 'em wanting more, fuck 'em" execution of the big move.
posted by cortex at 11:02 AM on November 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
I know next to nothing about music but even I was forced to notice for a moment how rare key changes are these days when a big thunk-pause-thunk key change was used *as a parody* in the movie Don't Look Up in Ariana Grande's diagetic pop song, Just Look Up.
posted by MiraK at 11:08 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by MiraK at 11:08 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
> not a lot of songs switch beats and then switch back
Oo, now that I think about it, my son's EDM/adjacent playlist seems to have several songs in it with quite dramatic beat changes. I can't remember if it goes back to the original (I'll ask the kid).
Also what's it called when the song has a whole section that's dramatically different from the rest of it? Sometimes it's right up front, sometimes it's in the end? An example is Billie Eilish's Bad Guy which has a totally different song tacked onto the end of it. To me this thing, whatever it's called, is the stylistic successor of the key change.
posted by MiraK at 11:21 AM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
Oo, now that I think about it, my son's EDM/adjacent playlist seems to have several songs in it with quite dramatic beat changes. I can't remember if it goes back to the original (I'll ask the kid).
Also what's it called when the song has a whole section that's dramatically different from the rest of it? Sometimes it's right up front, sometimes it's in the end? An example is Billie Eilish's Bad Guy which has a totally different song tacked onto the end of it. To me this thing, whatever it's called, is the stylistic successor of the key change.
posted by MiraK at 11:21 AM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
I have no idea on the larger musical movements in play, but it was being in choirs since I started reading chapter books that made me aware of this, which I refer to as "modulate up to show you mean it"
posted by DebetEsse at 11:36 AM on November 10, 2022
posted by DebetEsse at 11:36 AM on November 10, 2022
I would now like to introduce you to my favorite key change fake out - "Circle" by the late 90s band Swan Dive. [NOTE: If you want to guess the chords on your own, stop reading and go listen to it before reading the rest of this.]
After an short initial fake-out in F, the song begins with the first verse in G major. It shifts up to Bb major for the chorus, which leads to a nice V chord (F major) that pleasantly leads back to G major for the second verse.
After the second chorus (back up to Bb major), it hits a short bridge that is in sort of an amorphous Bb minor, and then an instrumental section (sitar solo!) that moves from Bb minor to Eb major and sort of emulates the chords of the verse. That brings us back into a new chorus that is now in Gb major (the same up-a-minor-third jump as the G-to-Bb transitions earlier on).
At the end of that chorus, they sit on a big V chord (now Db major), and then do a super-cheesy-on-purpose gear shift up to D major, which resolves into a new verse in........
G MAJOR - THE SAME KEY AS IN THE BEGINNING!!! So it's cheesy-ass half-step modulation like you'd hear in a million other songs, but it's not until you really sit down and bang out all the changes that you realize that they have just returned you exactly to where the song began.
Like a Circle.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 11:37 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
After an short initial fake-out in F, the song begins with the first verse in G major. It shifts up to Bb major for the chorus, which leads to a nice V chord (F major) that pleasantly leads back to G major for the second verse.
After the second chorus (back up to Bb major), it hits a short bridge that is in sort of an amorphous Bb minor, and then an instrumental section (sitar solo!) that moves from Bb minor to Eb major and sort of emulates the chords of the verse. That brings us back into a new chorus that is now in Gb major (the same up-a-minor-third jump as the G-to-Bb transitions earlier on).
At the end of that chorus, they sit on a big V chord (now Db major), and then do a super-cheesy-on-purpose gear shift up to D major, which resolves into a new verse in........
G MAJOR - THE SAME KEY AS IN THE BEGINNING!!! So it's cheesy-ass half-step modulation like you'd hear in a million other songs, but it's not until you really sit down and bang out all the changes that you realize that they have just returned you exactly to where the song began.
Like a Circle.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 11:37 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Oo, now that I think about it, my son's EDM/adjacent playlist seems to have several songs in it with quite dramatic beat changes. I can't remember if it goes back to the original (I'll ask the kid).
I was really talking about beat switches in rap songs (where it generally means there’s some transitional bit and the whole backing track changes). In the electronic dance family it depends a lot on genre. Like obviously many, many tracks will take out the bass or the actual beat for a a breakdown/build section and bring it back (modern hip hop does this too). Some genres, especially the more aggro ones, will do breakdowns or multiple drop sections that suddenly shift to a different kind of rhythm (as one also finds in metal or punk). And some electronic music totally changes what it’s doing, like, whenever. But since a lot of dance-y stuff is designed to be mixed into other dance-y stuff by a DJ, those transitions are often where the big changes happen.
posted by atoxyl at 11:52 AM on November 10, 2022
I was really talking about beat switches in rap songs (where it generally means there’s some transitional bit and the whole backing track changes). In the electronic dance family it depends a lot on genre. Like obviously many, many tracks will take out the bass or the actual beat for a a breakdown/build section and bring it back (modern hip hop does this too). Some genres, especially the more aggro ones, will do breakdowns or multiple drop sections that suddenly shift to a different kind of rhythm (as one also finds in metal or punk). And some electronic music totally changes what it’s doing, like, whenever. But since a lot of dance-y stuff is designed to be mixed into other dance-y stuff by a DJ, those transitions are often where the big changes happen.
posted by atoxyl at 11:52 AM on November 10, 2022
What I want to know is what killed all the great bass lines of the 60's and 70's? Can we have those back?
Sadly, James Jamerson died in 1983.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:03 PM on November 10, 2022 [6 favorites]
Sadly, James Jamerson died in 1983.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:03 PM on November 10, 2022 [6 favorites]
Re: Amish Paradise, Weird Al's cover of Gangsta's Paradise wouldn't exist without the Stevie Wonder song that Gangsta's Paradise heavily relies on. The chorus of Gangsta's Paradise and Amish Paradise are singable because of Stevie Wonder's song.
Stevie Wonder's worst key change is in this song of his. You think it's We Are The World, but you're wrong.
posted by emelenjr at 12:40 PM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
Stevie Wonder's worst key change is in this song of his. You think it's We Are The World, but you're wrong.
posted by emelenjr at 12:40 PM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
There was a period from the '30s through the '50s where multiple artists and dance bands would swarm around the latest Gershwin/Porter/whoever song and all record versions of it, hoping to be the one that hit with the public. This faded a bit with the advent of rock and electronic music (although the melody-driven nature of much of rock made the well-crafted cover song its own subgenre), but hip-hop drove the stake through its heart. If you don't have a melody, what are you covering, the lyrics? the production? In my limited exposure to contemporary hip-hop, I don't sense that a lot of people are doing verbatim covers of someone else's rap.
WIth hip-hop, what you get instead is sampling, and artists swarming around beats hoping to be the one that makes a hit with it. In this recent Number Ones column, Tom Breihan goes into this a bit with Dancehall (not hip-hop but hip-hop-adjacent, I'd say.)
posted by Navelgazer at 12:57 PM on November 10, 2022
WIth hip-hop, what you get instead is sampling, and artists swarming around beats hoping to be the one that makes a hit with it. In this recent Number Ones column, Tom Breihan goes into this a bit with Dancehall (not hip-hop but hip-hop-adjacent, I'd say.)
posted by Navelgazer at 12:57 PM on November 10, 2022
After James Brown, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Parliament, Funkadelic et al -- won't somebody please think about taking it to the bridge!?
Zep's got you covered.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 1:09 PM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Zep's got you covered.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 1:09 PM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Stevie Wonder's worst key change is in this song of his
*Two* key changes, a vocoder, and a cha-cha-cha at the end. The secret recipe for an international best-selling single.
posted by credulous at 1:12 PM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
*Two* key changes, a vocoder, and a cha-cha-cha at the end. The secret recipe for an international best-selling single.
posted by credulous at 1:12 PM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
WIth hip-hop, what you get instead is sampling, and artists swarming around beats hoping to be the one that makes a hit with it. In this recent Number Ones column, Tom Breihan goes into this a bit with Dancehall (not hip-hop but hip-hop-adjacent, I'd say.)
There was a period in which American hip hop was getting a bit like dancehall in it being common to rap over beats made famous by other rappers, but it was mostly a mixtape thing (for copyright reasons) and kinda died off (presumably for the same reasons).
We are at the point where some 90s/00s rap hits are classic enough that they get sampled for new songs, though. And there was always a thing of producers trying to use famous samples (in the sense of sample sources) in a new way - look up the sample history for something like Bob James’ “Nautilus” - but there’s less of that now simply because the genre is less sample-oriented now (also because of copyright, probably).
posted by atoxyl at 1:22 PM on November 10, 2022
There was a period in which American hip hop was getting a bit like dancehall in it being common to rap over beats made famous by other rappers, but it was mostly a mixtape thing (for copyright reasons) and kinda died off (presumably for the same reasons).
We are at the point where some 90s/00s rap hits are classic enough that they get sampled for new songs, though. And there was always a thing of producers trying to use famous samples (in the sense of sample sources) in a new way - look up the sample history for something like Bob James’ “Nautilus” - but there’s less of that now simply because the genre is less sample-oriented now (also because of copyright, probably).
posted by atoxyl at 1:22 PM on November 10, 2022
Oo, now that I think about it, my son's EDM/adjacent playlist seems to have several songs in it with quite dramatic beat changes.
I mean, this is dubstep's big gimmick. Or the 'DJ, Rewind!' version in house and jungle.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:50 PM on November 10, 2022
I mean, this is dubstep's big gimmick. Or the 'DJ, Rewind!' version in house and jungle.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:50 PM on November 10, 2022
Every dollar lost in crypto was acquired by someone else. No money disappeared and the rich are still rich, probably even more so.
posted by hypnogogue at 2:52 PM on November 10, 2022
posted by hypnogogue at 2:52 PM on November 10, 2022
Every dollar lost in crypto was acquired by someone else. No money disappeared and the rich are still rich, probably even more so.
Disagree: A lot of it went up in smoke from coal-powered power plants.
posted by clawsoon at 2:55 PM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Disagree: A lot of it went up in smoke from coal-powered power plants.
posted by clawsoon at 2:55 PM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
I would now like to introduce you to my favorite key change fake out - "Circle " by the late 90s band Swan Dive.
Ha, that's some good squirrelly movement for a pop song, yeah. Reminds me of another recurring thought today thinking about this: how frequently New Pornographers puts an internal secondary key into their songs, something that I really genuinely love about their whole discography.
posted by cortex at 2:55 PM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Ha, that's some good squirrelly movement for a pop song, yeah. Reminds me of another recurring thought today thinking about this: how frequently New Pornographers puts an internal secondary key into their songs, something that I really genuinely love about their whole discography.
posted by cortex at 2:55 PM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
When you can get your big dynamic move out of song by really working the contrasting loudness and quiet, or by building up increasing layers of non-muddy sounds verse by chorus by verse without the huge time pressure of getting it in a few takes with session musicians, etc, you can depend less on using a key change to produce that wow factor or that frisson at the move between a verse and a chorus and a bridge and a big dropout and a big beat drop.
Brian Eno has more-or-less said this about his own progression as an artist: the evolution of texture, both in electronic composition and in music production in general, means that vastly more subtle ground can be covered within realms that felt "simple" before, which is why he spends such a weird amount of time producing Coldplay records. He's likened this to the way that scents work: because there's never been a useful way of classifying scents, and because even "individual" scents can vary widely based on where exactly you get them from—there is no singular rose smell, there are hundreds—perfumes avoided the kinds of rigid "genre" classification or structural analysis that music has always dealt with. (And he writes this in the context of wanting music to be more, not less, like perfume in that regard.)
Different genres lean towards different approaches. Honestly, I'm unsurprised that hip-hop, electronica/techno/dance, and pop have all converged on this front right now. We're still a weirdly short distance away from digital music production becoming, not just doable, but accessible, and all three genres take advantage of digital production in ways that, to me, feel like the same kind of big-deal as the electric guitar. (I know, I know, what a wild thing to say. But I mean specifically in the sense that one or two bored teens can just up and make something with it, in a way that wasn't remotely as plausible twenty years ago.)
The old ways didn't die out. They're just a little bit more niche. Big band is making a bit of a comeback, in certain circles. And, of course, the longer something stays out of the spotlight, the likelier it is that somebody discovers it, falls in love with it, gets absolutely obsessed, and brings it back in a major way. Hell, if Holly Herndon can bring back sacred harp music, of all the wondrous and purportedly-obsolete things in the world, then just about anything can be reborn. And I have a feeling that the Great American Songbook is due for a rebirth.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 3:55 PM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
Brian Eno has more-or-less said this about his own progression as an artist: the evolution of texture, both in electronic composition and in music production in general, means that vastly more subtle ground can be covered within realms that felt "simple" before, which is why he spends such a weird amount of time producing Coldplay records. He's likened this to the way that scents work: because there's never been a useful way of classifying scents, and because even "individual" scents can vary widely based on where exactly you get them from—there is no singular rose smell, there are hundreds—perfumes avoided the kinds of rigid "genre" classification or structural analysis that music has always dealt with. (And he writes this in the context of wanting music to be more, not less, like perfume in that regard.)
Different genres lean towards different approaches. Honestly, I'm unsurprised that hip-hop, electronica/techno/dance, and pop have all converged on this front right now. We're still a weirdly short distance away from digital music production becoming, not just doable, but accessible, and all three genres take advantage of digital production in ways that, to me, feel like the same kind of big-deal as the electric guitar. (I know, I know, what a wild thing to say. But I mean specifically in the sense that one or two bored teens can just up and make something with it, in a way that wasn't remotely as plausible twenty years ago.)
The old ways didn't die out. They're just a little bit more niche. Big band is making a bit of a comeback, in certain circles. And, of course, the longer something stays out of the spotlight, the likelier it is that somebody discovers it, falls in love with it, gets absolutely obsessed, and brings it back in a major way. Hell, if Holly Herndon can bring back sacred harp music, of all the wondrous and purportedly-obsolete things in the world, then just about anything can be reborn. And I have a feeling that the Great American Songbook is due for a rebirth.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 3:55 PM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
⌘-f Barry Manilow
Nothing? Really?
His may have been egregious, but they were egregiously glorious.
posted by Mchelly at 4:06 PM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
Nothing? Really?
His may have been egregious, but they were egregiously glorious.
posted by Mchelly at 4:06 PM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
Obligatory for the new people in these parts
posted by JoeXIII007 at 4:11 PM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by JoeXIII007 at 4:11 PM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
Sadly, James Jamerson died in 1983.
Just a couple of months after he had to buy a ticket from a scalper to see Motown 25, per Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Neither he nor the other Funk Brothers were acknowledged during a segment on the Motown Sound. The Funk Brothers "played on each of Motown's 100-plus U.S. R&B number one singles and 50-plus U.S. Pop number ones released from 1961 to 1972." When Motown moved from Detroit to Los Angeles in 1972, many of the Funk Brothers found out they were fired from a note on the studio door.
In related news, Barry Gordy is a giant asshole.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:34 PM on November 10, 2022 [5 favorites]
Just a couple of months after he had to buy a ticket from a scalper to see Motown 25, per Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Neither he nor the other Funk Brothers were acknowledged during a segment on the Motown Sound. The Funk Brothers "played on each of Motown's 100-plus U.S. R&B number one singles and 50-plus U.S. Pop number ones released from 1961 to 1972." When Motown moved from Detroit to Los Angeles in 1972, many of the Funk Brothers found out they were fired from a note on the studio door.
In related news, Barry Gordy is a giant asshole.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:34 PM on November 10, 2022 [5 favorites]
On the other hand there is Texas Slim (John Lee Hooker) -- Slim's Stomp (1949) to consider.
posted by y2karl at 5:16 PM on November 10, 2022
posted by y2karl at 5:16 PM on November 10, 2022
Just a couple of months after he had to buy a ticket from a scalper to see Motown 25, per Standing in the Shadows of Motown.
And one woe doth tread on another’s heels: also in the months before he died, someone stole the Funk Machine, the ’62 Fender Precision that everyone who has listened to pop music in the last sixty years has heard on innumerable songs. It is out there somewhere.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:26 PM on November 10, 2022
And one woe doth tread on another’s heels: also in the months before he died, someone stole the Funk Machine, the ’62 Fender Precision that everyone who has listened to pop music in the last sixty years has heard on innumerable songs. It is out there somewhere.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:26 PM on November 10, 2022
A key change in a well crafted song (like Penny Lane for example) can be incredibly effective, and if you pair that with a masterful performance it becomes a moment! I'm no Celine Dion fan, but I have to admit she really nailed this Modal Mixture Common Tone Enharmonic Double Chromatic Mediant Modulation.
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:30 PM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:30 PM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
One trend the original article does not mention, is that the decline in popularity in key changes within songs - has come in parallel with the Rise of the Playlist. As listeners, we are now less focussed on the stand alone 3-minute chunks that comprise chart hits - and we are more interested in how strings of songs go together. That means the way in which the key of a song affects that of the one that follows it - is now more important. Thirty years ago - to play song X from source a before song Y from source b (let along to cross fade between them) - you would have needed a whole bunch of DJing equipment. Now we get this from all the streaming services.
We now also have a method of knowing what key a song is in - not by sitting down with a piano and a notebook while it plays - but by running a software scanner on it or just looking up its metadata. When you start trying to arrange songs in a playlist, it quickly becomes obvious that changes in key make some transitions sound great and others jarring. Hence the interest in "Harmonic Mixing" and in the "Camelot key wheel". If I am playing a song that is in G minor can follow with
- something else in G minor - sounds perfectly matched but does not really boost energy on transition.
- something in G major - again a smooth transition, sounds happier probably.
- one step clockwise on the wheel to D minor - sounds uplifting and positive on transition.
- two steps clockwise to A minor - gives an energy boost.
- one step anticlockwise to D minor - dark and moody key change.
- something further away on the wheel - ARGHH!!! (sometimes in a good way, usually not)
These are the same rules of key choice followed by composers - or by musicians that arrange their songs into sets - but the key thing here is that it is also possible to get an auto-generated playlist to follow by these rules. For that reason, I would expect we are hearing a lot of this in auto-generated playlists on streaming services.
posted by rongorongo at 4:41 AM on November 11, 2022 [5 favorites]
We now also have a method of knowing what key a song is in - not by sitting down with a piano and a notebook while it plays - but by running a software scanner on it or just looking up its metadata. When you start trying to arrange songs in a playlist, it quickly becomes obvious that changes in key make some transitions sound great and others jarring. Hence the interest in "Harmonic Mixing" and in the "Camelot key wheel". If I am playing a song that is in G minor can follow with
- something else in G minor - sounds perfectly matched but does not really boost energy on transition.
- something in G major - again a smooth transition, sounds happier probably.
- one step clockwise on the wheel to D minor - sounds uplifting and positive on transition.
- two steps clockwise to A minor - gives an energy boost.
- one step anticlockwise to D minor - dark and moody key change.
- something further away on the wheel - ARGHH!!! (sometimes in a good way, usually not)
These are the same rules of key choice followed by composers - or by musicians that arrange their songs into sets - but the key thing here is that it is also possible to get an auto-generated playlist to follow by these rules. For that reason, I would expect we are hearing a lot of this in auto-generated playlists on streaming services.
posted by rongorongo at 4:41 AM on November 11, 2022 [5 favorites]
These are the same rules of key choice followed by composers - or by musicians that arrange their songs into sets -
Or as David Bromberg is fond of saying when bombarded with requests, "You might know what you want to hear, but you don't know shit about putting together a setlist."
posted by mikelieman at 5:52 AM on November 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
Or as David Bromberg is fond of saying when bombarded with requests, "You might know what you want to hear, but you don't know shit about putting together a setlist."
posted by mikelieman at 5:52 AM on November 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
Hence the interest in "Harmonic Mixing" and in the "Camelot key wheel".
It's the Circle ofLife Fifths!
(...plus minor keys.)
posted by clawsoon at 6:49 AM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
It's the Circle of
(...plus minor keys.)
posted by clawsoon at 6:49 AM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
Coincidentally, Pat Finnerty roasted key changes in his recent What Makes This Song Stink Podcast episode about “All I Need Is a Miracle” by Mike and the Mechanics.
posted by ob1quixote at 6:52 AM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ob1quixote at 6:52 AM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
It's deeply ironic that key changes are going out of style while the piano keyboard is the primary instrument for electronic music production. The ability to play in different keys is where a piano keyboard shines. But it sacrifices expression to do so; you can either play with one hand and add expression by twiddling knobs, or you play with both hands and give up on expression.
So synthesizers, which have the potential to be infinitely expressive, are trapped behind a four hundred year old interface that forces users to be as dull as possible with them in order to achieve a functionality that few people use anymore.
posted by MrVisible at 7:15 AM on November 11, 2022
So synthesizers, which have the potential to be infinitely expressive, are trapped behind a four hundred year old interface that forces users to be as dull as possible with them in order to achieve a functionality that few people use anymore.
posted by MrVisible at 7:15 AM on November 11, 2022
It's the Circle of Life Fifths!
(...plus minor keys.)
Relative minor, not parallel minor as the original comment described it. To go from G minor to G major you’d have to, uh, add 3 as well as flipping A to B.
posted by atoxyl at 11:45 AM on November 11, 2022
(...plus minor keys.)
Relative minor, not parallel minor as the original comment described it. To go from G minor to G major you’d have to, uh, add 3 as well as flipping A to B.
posted by atoxyl at 11:45 AM on November 11, 2022
I hadn’t heard of Travis Scott before this article, but the videos for the song referenced in the article, Sicko Mode, as well as this for Highest in the Room are really surreal.
posted by larrybob at 12:59 PM on November 11, 2022
posted by larrybob at 12:59 PM on November 11, 2022
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posted by delfin at 8:49 AM on November 10, 2022 [9 favorites]