1. The Intro: Legs of the Song

The Intro always wears yellow flippy floppys.

If you haven’t guessed already, we are continuing with the “body” analogy. So, going back to our song specimen that we kidnapped during the last blog post, let us now examine it in full detail from head to foot;  and, just to shake things up a bit, why don’t we go ahead and start with the foot, or, more generally, the legs.

The reason why the Introduction of our song would be the “legs” in this analogy can be found in one of the 3 purposes which Introductions to songs serve:

Introductions are supposed to:

1. Catch the 1st time listener’s attention and interest
2. Ensure the song is easily identifiable for non-1st time listeners
3. Provide foundation and movement for the song

Just like our legs do, the introduction of a song should provide a solid foundation for the rest of the song (the rest of our body) and should set the song in motion (we run with our legs! duh!) Now, although there are a number of ways that an introduction could accomplish these goals, there are certain common themes in writing a good introduction that appear to work better than others. In my research about writing an effective introduction, I came across another songwriting blog written by  Tom Slatter, a music teacher and singer-songwriter from the UK. In one of his posts (which can be found here), Mr. Slatter responds  to one of his readers who had asked if he had any tips on writing a good introduction to songs. To answer this question, Slatter suggests 4 different ways to effectively introduce a song. His four are as follows:

1. Establish the Groove
2. Build Tension
3. Use Middle 8 Material
4. Surprise the Listener

As far as I’m concerned, this is pretty much correct… but if I thought it was 100% legit then this whole post would just be a picture of a woman’s legs and a giant link in 60 pt. font saying

 

CLICK HERE!

Combining Mr. Slatter’s ideas with my own ideas and examples, I came up with a list of 5 commonly used and effective ways to open up a song. And the first one is….in no particular order…..

1. Establish the Identifying Groove/Riff: If your song has one of those catchy grooves or instrument riffs (you know, the kind that when you hear it you know the name of the song within 2 seconds), then writing an introduction to your song is easy… just get going on that riff! This type of introduction thus helps to fulfill purpose #2 of introductions (see above). By beginning your song with the identifying groove or riff, you will make your song instantly recognizable for past listeners. It can be especially effective if the riff or groove is played throughout the majority of the song, like in this video example:

Hopefully, mostly all of you would have been able to identify this song within 2 seconds of hearing that opening guitar riff. Another one of my favorite examples of a song with this kind of introduction is “A Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin. Zeppelin wastes no time in introducing the identifying riff of the song. This identifying riff doesn’t always have to be comprised of just the lead guitar (although it usually is), as Mr. James Jamerson shows us in the beginning of The Tempations’ “My Girl”. What if your song does not have an identifying riff? What if you would rather focus on making 1st time listeners pay attention and listen (dammnit!)? Then you would probably want to…

2. Surprise Them!: Speech coaches often tell their students to start off all speeches with something attention grabbing, something that jolts the audience and forces them to pay attention. So why not do the same thing to start off a song? Surprise introductions fulfill purpose #1 of introductions. They grab at 1st time listeners’ attentions.  My favorite surprise introduction comes from a song of The Godfather of Soul Mr. James Brown. Take a listen:

Hope you didn’t have your volume all the way up. What i really like about this introduction is that it is so simple. It’s just one chord! But man, if you aren’t paying attention and someone starts this song up… those horns will get you. Surprise introductions are fun, and you can surprise your listener in a variety of ways. You can hit that loud in-your-face chord like Mr. Brown did, or you can simply scream in your listener’s face right from the get go like in the Wolfmother song “Dimension”, you could start off quietly and then out of nowhere hit the listener with loud craziness like Breaking Benjamin did for their song “Breakdown”. What’s really cool is that you can surprise the listener without appealing to loudness like the previous three examples do. You know that song “Sh Boom” from the movie Clue? Well, although this version done by The Crew Cuts became more popular, this song was originally recorded by The Chords in 1954. I personally prefer this original version, and I especially like how this song begins. It’s a surprise introduction, one that seems to make you listen in, and yet they do it just by breaking our schema that says “songs begin with instruments, or a full band, or a scream, or something like that…. not four part a cappella singing.” There exists another popular method of grabbing the listener’s attention besides surprising them, which brings us to…

3. Build Tension: There is a perfect example of this type of introduction. Let’s just get right on that. Just listen to the first minute of this one:

Hear how in the introduction of this song each of those synth chords just gets getting denser and denser, building more and more tension until the last chord before the big bang just sounds so dissonant you just want to explode?! Ok. I may be exaggerating. But still. This tension building introduction makes the resolving “Thriiiill-ERR!!” synth part truly music to our ears (pun intended). Another great example, one that Mr. Slatter used in his blog, is Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”. This very long, tension building introduction pumps us up, makes us beg and cry out for the rest of the song, and when that riff finally comes… we are all head-banging. Try to imagine how many fewer people would be head-banging if Metallica decided to just start right off with that main riff. Some other good examples that I have always liked and listened to are Velvet Revolver’s “Slither”, The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, Smashing Pumpkins’ “Cherub Rock”, and Weezer’s “Perfect Situation”. Whew.   Ummmmm….

4. Use Middle Material: So we have talked about introduction themes that address purposes 1 and 2 so far. What about purpose number 3: “Provide foundation and movement.” That sound’s important. Well, it is. One thing to consider when writing and introduction is to make it truly a part of the structure of the song and not just a gimmick, scream, tension builder, etc. The first theme, “Establish the Identifying Groove“, does do this, but the other two really don’t. One possibility is to make your introduction something that you will revisit later in the song (during the “middle”). In doing this, you connect the introduction to another part of the song, you sort of “bring the song back full circle,” and this can make your song seem more structured, more foundational, more whole and well-planned. The Beatles do this with their song “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” Take a look:

5. Play the Chorus Instrumentally: This is, I believe, the most popular thing to do when deciding how to introduce a song. Some bands just go right into it, like in Puddle of Mudd’s “Control”. Others like to do a little “mini-buildup” before going full scale into the all instrumental Verse or Chorus, as can be heard in “Wish You Were Here” by Incubus. If you think about it, this tactic may be the best choice after all. First of all, it is very simple and easy to do because you do not have to write more if you already have your verse and chorus (and usually the chorus is the first part of song to be born). It also covers all 3 purposes that an introduction should fulfill. 1.)  Your chorus is probably rockin’ enough to catch some attention, and adding a mini-buildup before you go full out will make it even more attention grabbing. 2.) Since most people know songs by their choruses (and not their verses, bridges, or outros) starting off with your chorus, even if it is instrumental, will make it easily recognizable for listeners. And 3.) Like I said before, if you make your intro an actual part of your song, rather than just a gimmick, it can provide structure and give the song a feeling of “completenesss.”

Well there you have it. The Intro aka. the Legs. Come back next week and find out what body part THE VERSE is!! (I have no idea…) and happy songwriting.

Yay!

The Song

Ok!!

Enough bashing. I think I have sufficiently vented about my pet peeves that I hear over and over again in the popular songs of today. I think now we should turn to dissecting the creature that keeps the music industry running. Biological analogies aside, I am of course referring to “The Song.”

If we were to turn on the radio at any station at any time, grab whatever song is playing, shove it in a bag with some air holes, bring it back to our rooms, duct tape it onto a table, and finally shine the lights on it, here is what you would probably see:

Before any dissecting is done, before we really get our hands dirty, we might notice that the length of our particular specimen (whether or not he came from a Country, Hip-Hop, Rock, or Alternative radio station) is approximately 3-4 minutes in length. This came to be solely because of technological limitations in the past that do not exist today. At the turn of the 20th century, after Edison had invented his phonograph, the popular medium for recording and distributing songs was the analog record. They are like CD’s but bigger…

I don't understand...

…

Yea, so anyway, early records like the popular 78 rpm records could only store about 3-5 minutes of sound. Thus, songwriters (like the famous Tin Pan Alley songwriters) kept cranking out 3-4 minute “hit” songs. Any longer and you risked having to use to records for one song. And who wants to have to get up and change records during the middle of a song? As a side note, Led Zeppelin almost made 7:55 the new 3 minutes, as this length of their hit single “Stairway to Heaven” proved to be the perfect amount of time for a radio DJ to leave and have a cigarette. Some music writers have even said that this may be the reason why the song got such extensive air play and why the song became a hit in the first place. There exist quite a few interesting tidbits about this song including its length and radio play as mentioned, as well as accusations of plagiarism and hidden backwards lyrics. Check it out when ya got the time=> Stairway to Heaven

Now we whip out the scalpel. Once again, the innards of a typical song are usually the same across the many different genres. Here are the organs of a song, presented in their usual order of appearance:

1. Intro
2. Verse 1
3. Pre Chorus
4. Chorus
5. Verse 2
6. Pre Chorus
7. Chorus
8. Solo/Bridge
9. Chorus
10. Outro (optional)

And there you have it. To many, writing an effective “hit”song just means writing and implementing these parts to make the whole. Over the next few posts, I’ll examine each of these parts (Intro, Verse, Chorus, Solo/Bridge, and Outro) in order, and discuss how songwriters optimize their effectiveness in doing whatever it is they are supposed to do. For my next post, let’s start at the beginning and talk about the “Intro,” the “legs” of the song that give it a foundation off which to work. See you next week.

(Sorry no playlist this week)

The Elusive Tambourine

Go ahead and watch the first minute of the above video. I’m sure many of you have seen it. Admit it…Yes it is a Fall Out Boy music video. So did you watch it? Yea? Notice anything odd besides Pete Wentz’s outfit? It happens right around the 0:49 second mark. The band is grooving on their catchy little bass riff, the crowds clapping along with the snare drum, and then…what the, WHO’S PLAYING THE GODDAMN TAMBOURINE??!

As you look around and notice that the other instrumentalists do not have a hidden tambourine somewhere on their

Guy behind Patrick=Tambourinist

instruments, and Patrick Stump’s hands are empty, the only other explanation is that someone in the throng of prom-goers must be the secret 5th member of Fall Out Boy. Yea. That must be it.

The truth is that many popular bands, if we were to examine their music like this, would also have secret 5th, 6th, or 7th band members comitted solely to full-time tambourine playing. Now, a note before I move any further. Technically this “elusive tambourine” trend is more of song producing trend rather than a song writing trend. In other words, during live performances of Fall Out Boy’s Dance Dance we may or may not hear the secret 5th member’s tambourine; and I doubt that when the band was actually writing this song one of them stopped and said, “we need to add tambourine right here.” In other words, the elusive tambourine added to the final version of a band’s “hit” song (the music video version) is a recording or production trick or technique used to add a strong rhythmic backbone to move the song along.

In some songs that use this technique the tambourine is quite audible like in the Fall Out Boy song above and Fountains of Wayne’s Stacy’s Mom. Others, such as The Jonas Brothers’ S.O.S. song, I believe are not really supposed to be noticed. Hence the elusiveness of this tambourine. There are many songs where the rhythmic backbone that is the tambourine is not meant to be heard consciously, but rather subconsciously. It is almost as if the production engineer didn’t want you to notice that there was a tambourine, but did want you to notice that there was something about the song that really “made it move.”

Since it is so often hard to hear, here (wow back to back homophones! Awkward…) are some tips for finding the elusive tambourine within the song “jungle.” It’s a treasure hunt! Crikey!

1. Very often a tambourine is incorporated into a song with a very slow tempo, as can be heard in Blue October’s Hate Me, Foo Fighters’ Wheels, and the very beginning of Weezer’s Perfect Situation. Thus the tambourine helps to “move the song along” and somehow actually weakens our perception that the song is moving at a very slow tempo.
2. Most of the time the tambourine only plays, or is predominant in the chorus of the song. The chorus is after all the most important part of the song, and often times a tambourine will just add that extra sparkle. An example of a song where the tambourine is only used during the chorus is Blue October’s What if We Could.
3. When listening for the tambourine, be aware that, relative to the meter of the song, the tambourine is almost always playing 16th notes. If the tambourines played 8th or quarter notes then they wouldn’t be the rhythmic powerhouses that they are! If they played 32nd notes or something, well, then it just wouldn’t sound humanly possible. All five of the examples given so far have 16th note tambourines.

Here is a playlist of the songs mentioned already plus other tambourine-happy songs. Enjoy, and I hope you might do some tambourine hunting yourself!

Tambourine Playlist

More Pop Song Trends!: Lyrics

Spinal Tap was way ahead of me on the topic that I would like to discuss. As a satirical rock band, Spinal Tap managed to make fun of everything rock n’ roll; their most popular skit being the “turn it up to 11!” scene from their fake rockumentary “This is Spinal Tap.” Besides the gags, they have also managed to write some very clever songs. One of my favorite Spinal Tap songs (mainly because I can remember playing it on Guitar Hero II) is “Tonight Im Gonna Rock You Tonight.” Haha they used the word “tonight” excessively! They really only needed one!.. yes I know. I know. Thank you.

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Why did they decide to use the word “tonight” instead of any other? Well, either rock n’ roll lyric writing followed the same trend as many lyricisits are following now, or Spinal Tap could see into the future. I’m open for possibilities really.

This trend in either incorporating the word “tonight” or at least having the story or content of the lyrics take place during nightime is probably the most pervasive trend that we have talked about thus far. It can be seen in pretty much all genres of music, but is especially prominent in the Pop/Alternative music coming out of B 97 everyday. Some songs, like Spinal Tap’s song, are open about its lyrical content and have the word “tonight” in the title. Examples include Chris Daughtry’s “Feels Like Tonight“, The All American Rejects’ “It Ends Tonight“, and the Jonas Brothers’ aptly titled song “Tonight” (which, by the way, can be found under countless other artists). Other songs like The Black Eyed Peas’ “I gotta Feeling” and Secondhand Serenade’s “Fall for You” don’t actually have the word “tonight” in the title but still make plenty use of it.

The #2 iTunes download right now is Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister”, and I am all over this one. For not only does it randomly throw in the word “tonight” at the end of the chorus, but it uses that darn I V vi IV chord progression for the majority of the song. An interesting similarity arises when comparing this Train song with Boys Like Girls’ song “Great Escape.” During the choruses of both of these songs, the singer is going along telling his story all fine and what not, only to pause for a second at the end to insert a “tonight” to qualify it as a hit song I guess. I don’t know.

Like I said earlier, while some lyricists don’t actually overtly use the word “tonight” or “night” in their song, many of them still center the lyrics around nightime. Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” (#4 iTunes download) and Owl City’s “Fireflies” are both popular examples of this.

In thinking about why this trend exists, I have come up with a number of reasons. The first two deal exclusively with the songwriter. 1.) Since I enjoy writing songs as well, I understand that the usually ideal time to really write a song (especially the lyrics) is nightime. Nightime provides the quiet atmosphere often times needed to sit, reflect, and write. 2.) Many songs are about emotional encounters or aspects of the songwriter’s life, and, in my opinion, I would say that most of these emotional encounters occurr during the nightime. If you just broke up with someone, you can’t stop thinking about someone, your best friend just got way to drunk and did something stupid, it is probably nightime. Or not.

The other two reasons deal with the listeners or audience that the music targets. 3.) Alot of the Pop/Alternative songs are being heard primarily in dance clubs and bars by this target audience, and what time of day do you go to bars and clubs? Thus it would only make sense for the music to which they are listening to talk about how “tonight’s going to be a good, good night.” 4.) Teenagers are also the other big target audience, but they are too young to go to clubs and bars. But that’s OK. Nightime is the teenager’s world. After being in school all day, they listen to their music and talk to their friends primarily at night. So, it would only make sense for Boys Like Girls to sing to them about how we are going to make a great escape tonight and not today. Where does a song like Train’s “Soul Sister” fit in? It’s definitely not club music, and judging by the age of these guys, are they really going for teenagers? Is the word tonight just thrown into the song because the lyricist saw this trend? Once again, I don’t know. What do you think?

Here is a playlist of the songs mentioned in this post as well as other relevant songs:

“Tonight” Playlist

The Future of Music: A Chaos Theory (finale)

 

What kind of popular music will we see in the world 10 years from now? Twenty years from now? I have relentlessly given my opinion that whatever kind of music is in store for the future, it will surely be even more experimental, unformulaic, and creative. But hey, maybe this theory is just my subconscious trying to make my hopes and dreams for the future of music a reality. 🙂

Some other questions that I have asked myself when thinking about the future of popular music and popular songs. What kind of genres will be popular 20 years from now? An even more mind-boggling question: what will the popular instruments be for making music and writing songs? What kind of crazy instruments might come out of near future technological advances?

I would like to first talk about the questions dealing with instruments. Looking through history, there is no doubt that a major change in technology will always create  a major change for the music industry. Songwriters, musicians, and producers are eager to use the latest up-to-date instruments, software, and hardware to more easily and creatively make and distribute music. Who knows what new instruments will be availble 20 years from now. Thinking about your typical popular band, the bass guitar, electric guitar, keyboard, and drumset have been the instruments of choice for quite some time now. But these instruments can’t reign forever…can they? A friend of mine and I were discussing the possibility of “mind based” instruments becoming popular in the future. Whatever you need to write and make music is implanted right into your brain. You can then wirelessly connect your “brain instrument” to a speaker and manipulate the sounds coming out just by thinking about them. You could form a band with other mind musicians and play in front of your local audience as you stand shoulder to shoulder with your band mates, no instruments to come in between you and your audience, and stare blankly into space to start your song.

Wow.

As far as popular genres go, it doesn’t seem like rock n’ roll, rap, or country are going anywhere. Will a new genre only emerge alongside new instruments? I think so. And if no new popular instruments should appear… well the songwriters only other choice is to experiment more and more within your instrument and your genre as you slowly seem to run out of “new” and “exciting” things to do.

I’ll keep this one nice and short so as to allow plenty of time for contemplation on the topics just discussed. What do you think we will hear when we tune into our HHHHD radios in our flying cars 20 years from now?

The Future of Music: A Chaos Theory (part 2)

So.

Let us see if progressing through the different periods of European art music (“Classical European Music”) would yield any evidence for this entropic theory.  The history of European music is normally broken down into the following periods:

1. Medieval (500 -1400)
2. Renaissance (1400-1600)
3. Baroque (1600-1760 )
4. Classical (1750-1820)
5. Romantic (1815-1910)
6. Impressionist (1890-1940)

The music of these periods have characteristics unique enough to set them apart from the music of other periods, and, as we shall see, these defining characteristics became more and more experimental, chaotic, and disorderly over time.

The 1. Medieval (500-1400) period basically gave birth to Western music. During this time, earlier, cruder versions of instruments like the guitar (the “lute“), the trombone (the “sackbut“), the flute (made out of wood instead of metal e.g. the “pan flute“), and the violin (the fun-to-say “hurdy gurdy“) were prominently used to create music. Much of Medieval music, especially during the beginning of the era, was sacred music used in churches and monasteries. However, more important for our discussion was the fact that early medieval music was also largely homorhythmic and monophonic. In terms of music, this is about as orderly and anti-chaotic as you can get, for it says that a typical song or piece of music consisted of one melody with no harmony or accompaniment (monophonic), with each part moving in the same rhythm (homorhythmic). Think Gregorian chant… Towards the later Medieval period, regular harmonies began to be introduced, and our increase in entropy or disorderliness in Western music began. However, things are still pretty orderly, for the only prevalent harmonies in this late Medieval period were octaves, 5ths, and 4ths; harmonies that were considered “pure”, “stable” or “consonant” in relation to the melody.

Often grouped with the Medieval  period, the 2. Renaissance (1400-1600) period further developed the instruments used in the Medieval period; and by the end of Renaissance period the four basic categories for musical instruments that are still used today (brass, strings,woodwind, and percussion) had emerged. This is something that I would like for you to remember, that since the end of the Renaissance period no new types of musical instruments used to make popular music have emerged. Rather, instruments such as the piano, electric guitar, the drum set, and even the modern day kazoo are all just modernized versions of a type of instrument that already existed back in the Renaissance period or maybe even earlier. Sure, you could say that electronic keyboards like the one I am sitting next to right now can make sounds that a Renaissance musician would never have dreamed of hearing, yet the basic way in which you manipulate the instrument (via a “keyboard”) is not at all new. As we all saw in the movie Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Beethoven had absolutely no problem playing the three  double-tiered keyboards (even though he was too deaf to hear the 80’s music emanating from them in the beginning). So, holding on to that point, besides finalizing the array of popular musical instruments today, the Renaissance period also gave rise to the popular use of “polyphony,” which is the use of two or more independent melodic lines in a song. Also, the interval of a 3rd became accepted as a consonant interval (which was probably made by the same person who decided Pluto wasn’t a planet anymore…who has the authority to decide these things???).

After the Renaissance period came the 3. Baroque (1600-1760) period of music. During this time composers such as Bach, Handell, and Vivaldi really began to incorporate even more elaborate musical ornamentation, experiment with new playing techniques for the instruments already set down in the Renaissance period, and began to make changes in musical notation to better notate the new music. Tonality was in full swing, and the polyphony from the Renaissance era now became counterpoint. In fact, I would probably say that by the end of the Baroque period the true roots of the music we listen to today took shape  in terms of instruments used; how the instruments are played; how melodies, chords, and harmonies interrelate; and how music is notated. And people in instrumental bands rejoice! During this time it started to become all about the instruments. During this time people would actually listen to a group of instrumentalists without singing! Holy crap where did that go?!

Next came the 4. Classical Period (1750-1820) that contained some of our most famous early composers like Mozart good ole’ Ludwig Van. Now, the Classical period is a bit tricky to talk about when I’m trying to develop a theory that says our popular music is growing more and more unorganized, complex, and experimental because during this period there was actually a big push towards simplicity of form in all things such as music, art, and architecture. Known as “Classicism,” the Europeans tried to emulate Classical antiquity, especially the Greeks, and favored order, clearer divisions between parts, and simplicity. This simplicity was shown in the music with the rise of homophony

O Amadeus. You're so silly.

instead of polyphony, where one main melody was harmonized by underlying chords, rather than have 2 or more separate melodies. In other words, people were being retro. The past was cool. Does this put a hole in my theory? Nah. Just shows that the past was more structured and ordered, implying that the future becomes less structured and ordered. At least that’s the way I’m spinning this. Moving on…

The 5. Romantic period (1815-1910) more than made up for the apparent oxymoron that is the Classical period. Experimentation was abound in this time! Composers widely expanded previous “acceptable” forms of music like the “sonata” or the “minuet” and developed free-form songs like “nocturnes” and “fantasias.” The music suddenly was getting more chromatic, dissonant, and doing crazy stuff like switching in and out of different key signatures. Nowadays the use of resolving dissonance and the changing of key signatures, or modulation, are no big deal; but it was back then.

The experimental fervor of the Romantic period naturally flowed into the 6. Impressionist (1890-1940) period. Still the experimentation was taken a step further. Whereas the Romantic period still used the common major and minor scales predominantly, the Impressionist period started using uncommon scales like the whole-tone scale, and dissonance (like the dissonance found in the beginning of our Alice in Chains song from part 1) was even more common.

Well. This one is getting a little long. So I will bid you farewell for now. The next post will conclude this whole spiel, where we discuss the implications of what was just laid out and see what this may mean for the future. Until then, enjoy Beethoven rocking out on the electronic keyboards:

The Future of Music: A Chaos Theory

Most of us can probably remember our high school physics or chemistry teacher mentioning the word “thermodynamics” at some point during the semester. Maybe as you were drawing random geometrical shapes in your notebook you also picked up that there were these “laws” of the thermo-whats its. And as the end of the class drew near, you may have even heard over your impatient pen-tapping a brand new word that was recorded as… “trophy??” in your notebook just before it was slammed shut for the day. It wasn’t until the night before the test that “trophy??” became “entropy,” and fit nicely in a set of parentheses on the reverse side of a flash card entitled “Second Law of Thermodynamics.”

Hello again.

As I tried to illustrate with the trippy-looking image above, the Second Law of Thermodynamics states that in any isolated system (not in equilibrium) the amount of entropy or disorderliness will tend to increase over time. When explaining this to me, my Physics teacher reminded us that at the beginning of time and space as we know it, the Universe was one big organized point of energy. You basically can’t get more “orderly” than this. The Big Bang then hurled all this energy and newly created mass in all directions, and since then the Universe has been constantly expanding, getting more and more unorganized.

Keeping all this in mind, I happened to listen to Alice in Chains’ newest single called “Check My Brain” over the weekend. It’s a pretty rockin’ song with a catchy chorus and your typical Alice in Chains vocal harmony arrangement.

However, the main Intro and Verse guitar riff of this song really threw me off guard. The riff basically revolves around one note, on one fret, on one string of the guitar that is bent to create the particular sound. When I first heard this riff and realized that it played a very important part in the song,  I immediately thought:

“Huh, that’s interesting. It seems as if they have chosen to abandon any sense of melody or chordal progression. Well, why shouldn’t they, when there are people like me yelling at other bands for using the same chord progressions. I guess that is one way to avoid copying other artists’ melodies or chord progressions in your “hook”…just abandon traditional concepts of melodies and chord changes. Interesting.”

Alice in Chains

After thinking this over a little more last night, this particular decision that Alice in Chains made in writing this song reminded me very much of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Would it not make sense, given that there are a finite (although large) number of chordal progressions, melodies, harmonies,etc., for the art of writing music or writing a “song” to follow the Law of Entropy? Since the number of chord progressions and melodies not yet “written” decreases everyday, how can songwriters continue to press out new and interesting music everyday? The solution seems to be to branch out, to experiment, to mold or even sometimes completely abandon the available orderly set of melodies, harmonies, and chords dictated by the concept of Western tonality.

Does there exist other evidence throughout the history of the music we have been listening to that suggests this trend towards disorderliness and experimentation? If so, just how disorderly can you get? Will this continue? What does this mean for the future of music?…

O darn. Looks like we are out of time. Tune in later on this week to see what I’ve found out.       Later.

DUN DUN DUN!!!!!!!!!

The Clave: Hip Hop/Rap’s I V vi IV Chord Progression

Welcome back. Let’s review.

Previously, we discussed:

1. Many pop, R&B, and alt. rock songs past and present have relied on the I, V, vi, IV chord progression.
2. This progression probably stemmed from the I,vi, IV, V chord progression popular in the 50’s and 60’s.
3. Judging by recent popular songs, this progression which hints at some serious musical stagnation is not going anywhere. (See the end of this post.)

We now turn our attention to some on-going trends in different genres of music that were not really talked about in the last post: Hip Hop and Rap. Analyzing chord progressions of popular Hip Hop and Rap songs would not be very fun at all. Mainly because the majority of the songs in these genres make use of creative beats and riffs (repeated musical phrases) to create the “hook” rather then chord progressions and melodies.  Some of these songs do not have any discernible chord progressions, or rather seem to hang on one note or chord for most of the song. So I guess you could say that there is a chord progression trend in Rap music; that is, to not have one. But that is not where the true trend lies. And, believe me, each and every genre of music has its true trends that so often play an integral part when writing its music. So what is Hip Hop’s I V vi IV chord progression? For this answer, we need to look to the beat…

Meet the “Son Clave:”

The Son Clave

The “Son Clave” is a musical beat. A rhythm. For those who can’t read music that well, this  is one and the same with that catchy little beat from the hit song “I Want Candy” (that song that Aaron Carter sang when he was like 8. Seriously look at the video. Judging by his prepubescent voice in the beginning, he can’t be older than 10 .) It’s that “Boom Boom Boom… BOOM BOOM” going throughout the whole song. This particular beat, mainly due to its syncopated first half followed by the forceful two beats at the end, can be quite memorable.

I would also like to introduce a different type of clave rhythm, the “Bossa Nova Clave:”

Bossa Nova Clave

The “Bossa Nova” is only slightly different from the Son, with the last note shifted one “eighth” note further, giving the beat a revolving quality and even more syncopation.

Together these two clave rhythm formulate the underlying beat behind almost all modern day Hip Hop and Rap songs. (A bold statement indeed!) Take that beat from prepubescent boy’s “I Want Candy,” slow it down a heck of a lot, maybe chop off that last quarter note, insert Snoop, and you’ve got yourself a Top 20 song on Q93. How the clave rhythms came to find their place in Hip Hop glory is a very interesting story, I’m glad you asked.       Let’s do it!

The clave rhythms derive from early Afro-Cuban music. For instance, the “Son Clave” was a particular clave rhythm that accompanied the Cuban musical style called “Son.” Clave rhythms were a central part of many different types of Cuban music such as the salsa and rumba, hence the name “clave” which means “key” in Spanish (since they were a “central” or “key” part of the music.) Claves like the “Son Clave” were very popular, but there existed other claves like the “Rumba Clave” and the “Bossa Nova Clave” as mentioned. Since Cuba, as well as the other surrounding Caribbean islands, saw heavy European and African influences during the slave trade, it only makes sense that Cuban music became a mesh of both European and African influence. However, it was the African cultures, cultures whose music relied heavily upon beats and polyrythms, that probably influenced these different clave beats the most. Thus the African influence on American music began. The syncopated clave beats made their way to America through ports like New Orleans, were integrated and accepted into American music largely through jazz music (look out for the “Son Clave” during Mardi Gras…it’s out there), while a syncopated “African type music known as “Ragtime” had already begun to sweep America off its feet.

Scott Joplin, King of Ragtime says: "Chicks dig Syncopation."

Fast forward a few years (just a few), and we get to Hip Hop and Rap music and…what do you know, the clave and other African influenced syncopated beats are still very much alive, and helping to shape a genre of music that will come to be a very important symbol of African-American culture.

So is the clave beat as pervasive as the I V vi IV chord progression? Yep. However, while all the songs I presented in my last post truly had that particular chord progression, the following popular Hip Hop and Rap songs don’t all follow the clave rhythm precisely. Like I said, sometimes a quarter note is chopped off, sometimes an eighth note is added, etc. It really is up to you to see whether all these songs really do have something in common or if I’m just crazy. So without further ado, the following songs all have a clave based beat that form the backbone of song:

1. “Drop it like its hot” by Snoop
2. “Say Aah” by Trey Songz
3. “Carry Out” by Timbaland feat. Justin Timberlake
4. “I think they like me” by Dem Franchise Boyz
5. “Laffy Taffy” by D4L
6. “Crank That” by Soulja Boy
7. “Bed Rock” by Lil Wayne
8. “How Low” by Ludacris

The best representative of the “Son Clave” is probably “Drop it like it’s hot.” The snare drum during the riff at around 0.19 seconds replicates the “Son Clave” with an added quarter note where the first quarter rest is located. Ludacris’ “How Low” pretty much truthfully represents the “Bossa Nova Clave.”

So what do you think? Am I crazy? I don’t think I am. As far as how and why this beat has survived for so long, and why it came up in the first place, I think it all pretty much has to do with syncopation. African tribal music was mainly about dance, thus African music centered around danceable beats. And there is something about syncopated beats that make your brain and your body want to both locate and move to the actual beat, that is, the “1,2,3,4” or “1,2,1,2” pulses of the song. Use the clave at a slow tempo in a song, and watch the listener’s body sway to the “1,2,3,4” in a smooth, slow manner. After all, isn’t that what most of the Hip Hop and Rap songs are about? Being smooth, cool, gangsta, whatever. Maybe that’s why slow motion is so popular in music videos (see “Drop it like its hot”), why there is so much dancing associated with this music, and why syncopated beats like the clave are still being used. See you next time.

*Back to the whole I V vi IV thing…In his transition into the world of alt. rock, Lil Wayne’s right on track with the rest of ’em! He’s no dummy!

• “Knockout” by Lil Wayne

O Boy, Here we Go.

Now let’s see…………….Where to begin?

O yea! Why don’t we talk about the subject I knew I would first talk about from the very moment “Songwriting Blog” popped into my head? Now, I will truthfully say before I say anything further that this blog will not turn into a “song-bashing” donnybrook (a new word of mine, finally able to use it) where everyone is saying how much this song sucks and how much that song sucks. However, I simply cannot pass up this perfect opportunity to vent publicly about a little problem in today’s music industry, a little “pet peeve” that has been bothering me for a long time.

You see, as many of you may have guessed after visiting my new bandcamp site, for the past 10 months of my life I have worked for a company called Raising Canes (where our sauce is, in fact, “the boss”). The job is great, the crew is friendly, and we even get to listen to music while we work. Fun, right? Well, it was a fine June day at Raising Canes. I was going about, doing whatever job they had me doing in the kitchen, talking to my crew, and listening to the music being played of course. As most of the Raising Canes restaurants do, the Cane’s for which I work was playing music from a “pop” satellite radio station. So I’m doing what I’m doing, listening to “Don’t Matter” by Akon, digging the auto tune and what not, and next comes “She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5. This being a little more my style with the whole “full band” thing, I was dissapointed when Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” came on next. So after Rihanna was done convincing me to hate men yet again, you can imagine my frustration when for some reason…the song came on again! Why would they do this to me? Is it that popular? What the…and then I realized something. This was definitely not the same song, it was “Tattoo” by Jordin Sparks. Oh…

So how was I tricked like this? And why, besides these two songs, was I increasingly getting more and more pop songs confused with each year? And then my curiosity led me to a variety of people, of whom all had discovered a certain trend in popular songwriting. And thus I came to know the monstrosity that is the I V vi IV chord progression.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH RUN AND HIDE!!!

No, but seriously the I V vi IV chord progression (which, for instance, would be C G Aminor F for the key of C) is everywhere, including all four of the previously mentioned songs. Other popular songs that make use of this chord progression for the “hook,” many of which you will be able to hear in the below videos, include “With or Without You” by U2, “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz, “Wherever You Will Go” by The Calling, and about 7 Blink 182 songs. The evolution of the I V vi IV chord progression is interesting to follow. It seems to be a direct descendant of the once more popular I vi IV V (e.g. C Aminor F G) during the late 1950’s and 1960’s “doo wop” and Mo-town era of popular music. Songs like “Last Kiss,” “This Magic Moment,” and “Stand by Me” are all classic examples of the I vi IV V progression of this era that does not seem to be that popular anymore (although The Police may have tried to bring it back with “Every Breath You Take”, and later Pearl Jam with their own version of “Last Kiss”.)

So what’s the problem I have? Are all these songs crap because they use the damn I V vi IV progression? No. I love blink 182 and they would not have survived without it. I also understand that it is not usually the pop star artist who writes these hit songs, so I don’t blame them. I don’t blame anybody really. I merely imploring anyone and everyone involved in writing and  producing songs, like Ne-Yo and Stargate (who are behind many of the R&B pop songs mentioned) to be a little bit more creative and imaginative like the artist you are. Paintings would be boring if all the artists started using only four colors in the same order would they not? Then again, I guess the majority population can see these kinds of things but not hear them… SO! I CHALLENGE YOU THE READER TO USE YOUR EARS AND FIND MORE SONGS USING THE I V VI IV CHORD PROGRESSION AND TELL ME. It will be fun, we can make a definitive list. And you can start by checking out these videos.

About this Blog

Hello. My name is Mark Johnson and I am a musician and guitar instructor from New Orleans. I wanted to start this blog to highlight one of my favorite parts of the music industry: The Song. Without “The Song” there is no music industry. It is how we write music, how we categorize music, how we speak about and share music. A song is a perfect example of  human creativity and imagination, carefully crafted to persuade, to lament, to tell a story, to celebrate, and to illicit just about any human emotion. In this blog you will find discussions, thoughts, and opinions on the art of songwriting, analyses of popular music song structures, featured songs, as well as stories and examples of my own endeavors into songwriting and commercial songwriting, both now and in the past. Musician or not,  I hope that you will find this site both enlightening and inspiring. Now let us all go out and create  that which the world cannot do without!