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.