Ever notice how all music nowadays basically sounds the same? This chord progression is why!
You’ve all noticed how modern music, well, kinda sucks and all sounds the same right? …I can’t provide examples because I don’t want this video to be taken down for copyright infringement, but rest assured it does.
Why is this the case? Well, there’s several reasons, such as the fact that most popular music today is literally written by 2 guys, but a major reason for this is a very ubiquitous chord structure that is heard throughout modern music of all genres.
It is called the Four Chord Pop Progression, or the Pop Punk Progression. As the names would imply, it became very popular starting in the 80s (when the genesis of pop music can be said to have come about), and has been quite, ahem, popular to this day.
This chord progression is as follows: Major First, Major Fifth, Minor 6th, and Major Fourth. So what that means is you take a scale (this is why scales are important, people), play a major chord based on the tonic note, then move to the fifth note of the scale and play a major chord, then to the sixth note and play a MINOR chord, and then the fourth note and a major chord.
For whatever reason, this has proven to be quite pleasing to the human ear, I don’t know why, much like why the Amen Break is so catchy, it’s a mystery. We’ll talk about the Amen Break some other video, but for now…
The Four Chord Pop Progression is so useful in fact that just rearranging the order of the chords, while keeping the same major first, Major Fifth, minor 6th, major fourth units, can be used to create various moods and tones of the composer’s desire.
If you want something dour and sad sounding, play a minor 6th, major fourth, major first, major 5th, in an arrangement somewhat mockingly known as the “Sensitive female progression”, due to its overuse amongst the Lilith Fair set in the late 90s and early 2000s.
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