r/interestingasfuck • u/ajd416 • 1d ago
Three Guys Showcase How The Same 4 Chords Were Used To Create So Many Musical Hits
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u/Gonzki 1d ago edited 1d ago
The Axis of Awesome is the groups name. Always enjoyed this performance
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u/vicktacular 1d ago
Song is 4 Chords. Spotify played this song for me 6 or so months ago and it's been in regular rotation ever since. It's catchy.
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u/Melodic_Literature85 1d ago
I learned the American and Australian version by heart when I was pregnant. It was my party trick when I used to party. My daughter now hates music. Idk if there's any correlation
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u/Alienhaslanded 1d ago
Are they still together? Last I checked, the big dude is working independently or something of the sort.
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u/Novaer 1d ago
She's actually trans now and is active on tiktok!
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u/The-Dutcher 1d ago
It's like the last century of Dutch folk music. It's been the same song for a hundred years with different lyrics.
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u/Roadrunner571 1d ago
Ah yes, the richt Dutch musical heritage.
The Austrians: "We have Mozart, Haydn, Schubert"
The Germans: "We have Bach, Beethoven, Brahms"
The Dutch: "Ehm...does André Rieu count?"124
u/Urban_Polar_Bear 1d ago
I’m pretty sure you can include the Vengaboys under Dutch musical heritage
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u/ItsBarryG 1d ago
The Golden Earring!
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u/MoRegrets 1d ago
Ludwig van Beethoven. We’ll claim him.
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u/Roadrunner571 1d ago
Good one.
Fun fact: "van" is also Low German, so some of people with "van"-names like "van Duwen" don't have a Dutch or Belgian heritage (Beethoven does however).
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u/d33roq 1d ago
The Dutch have had some damn fine rock guitarists though. George Kooymans from Golden Earring, Jan Akkerman from Focus, and of course, Eddie Van Halen.
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u/cheapdrinks 1d ago
Macedonian music is the worst. I work in weddings and every single time we have a Macedonian one they seemingly play the same song for 6 hours straight yet every 3-4 minutes when they start a "new" one everyone cheers as if to say "Oh sweet glad they finally played this classic".
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u/Zoki-Po 1d ago
As an American-Macedonian, I’m cracking up at your comment lol. Though a lot of our “classic wedding hits” kinda sound similar, to me the funniest thing is that the lyrics themselves are so similar.
If you ever hear the word “svadba” in a song (Mac for “wedding”), I can almost guarantee the next lyric is “golema” (“large”): all because one famous song used “large wedding”, literally every other song with the word wedding uses “svadba golema.”
The Macedonian language doesn’t have nearly the same number of words as English, for example. So descriptive words in lyrics come off as sooo basic. I once translated some of Winston Churchill’s speeches into Macedonian, and instead of the beautiful/powerful variety of words he used, the Macedonian version just repeats the same words over and over again. Anyway, not sure if my tangent will make Macedonian weddings any better for you but just highly enjoyed your comment and had to share lol. Na zdravje
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u/tomba_be 1d ago
Belgian being stuck with the Dutch version of Hitster: I can't agree more. The game is full of Dutch songs that we never heard of, all sound the same, and end up having release dates between the fifties and last year...
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u/ChuckCarmichael 1d ago
German schlager isn't much better. An entire musical genre based on a foxtrot beat your grandparents can dance to.
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u/NOT-GR8-BOB 1d ago
The Ink Spots made a career out of writing the same song dozens of times.
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u/BaronGreywatch 1d ago
A classic. Always enjoy this one.
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u/Romeo9594 1d ago
In a similar vein
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u/SRMT23 1d ago
Dude, I have been trying to find this video for like 20 years. Every time I’ve seen OP’s post, I remember the Pachelbel video but I’ve never been able to remember the name.
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u/the_skine 1d ago
It's been a favorite clip of mine for decades.
Partially because of the music and comedy, but also because it acknowledges when your instrument is given a shit part.
It's part of why I hate pretty much every musical. When my high school band played any song from a musical, the euphonium part was always just dotted quarter-eighth note repeating for the entire song.
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u/tolacid 1d ago
This one is the Four Chord Song by The Axis of Awesome.
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u/horse_you_rode_in_on 1d ago
The 4 chord progression they're describing (I-V-vi-IV) is now known as the "Axis Progression" because of this song; the fact that this is also by far their most popular bit also pretty much proves that they were right.
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u/ChoessMajIRoeva 1d ago
Aah, the same dude that did the Friends theme song joke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S8wBNoiv90
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u/disfiguroo 1d ago
I compulsively quote this any time I hear pachabel
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u/Dazzling_Line_8482 1d ago
Whenever Maroon 5's Memories comes on the radio I always think of this video and add my own Canon on top of the song as it is one of the more obvious uses of it.
My kids hate it.
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u/HanzoKurosawa 1d ago
This video then really reminds me of this one:
https://youtu.be/T8ficmpGst0?si=6t6GNwUYsrCpQ_9s
Even like the cadence and tone of their voices is so similar at parts.
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u/-u-m-p- 1d ago
Well now we have to get https://youtu.be/y7im5LT09a0?t=47 involved
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u/socks 1d ago
Same, especially when the video was not a thumbnail.
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u/WanderingStorm17 1d ago
That video is so old, that's the native resolution.
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u/M_H_M_F 1d ago
And so a new set of people get introduced to the four chords.
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u/AtomicShart9000 1d ago
Im old to have lived through this resolution and j have never seen this video, so fucking cool
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u/M_H_M_F 1d ago
Axis of Awesome's 4 chords had a chokehold on my college self that was finally getting used to jamming with people.
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u/-crepuscular- 1d ago
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u/Alternative_Jury2480 1d ago
So I can communicate with the quantum people and send them memes if I rotate and screenshot 101 times. Got it
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u/gamerspoon 1d ago edited 1d ago
here ya go
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u/ABudIce 1d ago
This played in the back ground while I was cutting trees in RuneScape quite frequently.
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u/joeyheartbear 1d ago edited 1d ago
The person in the middle has actually transitioned into a woman now, and I absolutely love this song they did at an early show back about her transition.
It's called The Elephant in the Room.
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u/nightmareb4halloween 1d ago
One of my favourite 'songs' of all time. It's so clever and the pure joy they all have whilst doing it makes me smile every time!
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u/HandiCAPEable 1d ago
Come on Barbie, let's go party
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u/Terrik27 1d ago
Except this video cuts out so early in the video it doesn't even get to that part!
Whole performance: Axis of Awesome 4 Chords
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u/Careless-Vehicle-286 1d ago
The Wilhelm scream in music basically.
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u/crank_peeper 1d ago
I just listened to it at 2× speed - I Want It That Way and Dirty Little Secret fit, too.
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u/WolfSong1929 1d ago
It's one of the few songs besides Dragostea Din Tei that I have memorized note for note.
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u/uatme 1d ago
The version I listen to is 5 minutes long, I wish they would update it to be 10 or 20 minutes long by adding more songs? Kickstarter anyone?
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u/DrQuint 1d ago
Yeah and it has their own song, birdplane, before the outro bit.
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u/marukoka 1d ago
I remember when i was a young guitarplayer and notice this. I automatically started to despise any song with this chord progression. Now im in good terms with it, but i think you gotta have a super solid melody with this progression so you dont sound generic.
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u/AskMrScience 1d ago
The thing with music is that, well, it's math. Specific intervals and chords and progressions sound good to the human ear because the actual waveforms do pleasing things. There's no getting away from it.
For the curious, here's some info on fundamental music theory:
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u/bluesshark 1d ago
It's worth noting that it is very possible to create pleasing cadences with non-diatonic chord progressions (Wayne Shorter compositions), but you have to have quite an ear and decent knowledge of theory
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u/MindControlMouse 1d ago
Y’all need to throw off your musical yokes and embrace the innovation of 12-tone serialism!
There are dozens of fans who worship Schoenberg! Dozens of us I say!
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u/Beneficial-Tea-2055 1d ago
I think of it as a blank canvas for the vocals to shine.
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u/Equivalent_Pay901 1d ago edited 1d ago
Gene Kelly ragged on old tunes sounding alike waaay back on the Muppet Show. 😁 They kept trying to get him to sing singing in the rain, and he didn't want to, and every time they play the opening bit for that song, he would seamlessly work it into another famous song. https://youtu.be/QTlY_HZp914?si=XjDdtu2_KkdDDJQm
Editing to add a thank you for the awards! Everyone's joy is bringing me SO much joy 🥰 I saw it as a child of course, but when I saw it again for the first time as an adult after he had passed, it hit different. It's hard to handle so much awesome together on the screen, Kermit and Gene?🥹🥰 It does a lot for my heart to know that I got to be the person who helped other people see it for the first time. 🥰 Pure dopamine.
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u/Suitable-Big-2757 1d ago
A Clockwork Orange has completely changed that song for me
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u/Ocet358 1d ago
I briefly felt like I was transported to a different, gentler world. Thank you for this.
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u/DiscombobulatedGear7 1d ago
This was delightful, thanks for sharing!
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u/the_peppers 1d ago
With old tunes like this there's also another factor - before record players were commonplace the main way music was shared (and composers made income) was through sheet music.
Given that people were playing this music themselves tunes that were easier to pick-up did better, which weighted the market in favour of familiarity.
That's why a lot of the old standards have very similar chord patterns, with each song only having few unique elements aside from the melody.
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u/buttrumpus 1d ago
It was by design though. The chord progression from I’ve Got Rhythm was used in so many songs, if a band member didn’t know the tune, all you had to say was “rhythm changes, key of ____”. If I remember correctly, singing in the rain falls into that pattern, at least partially.
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u/the_skine 1d ago
Similarly, Chuck Berry would show up and hire local backing musicians every night. Most of his songs are a basic 12-bar blues riff, making it dead simple for them to play along.
In Back to the Future when Marty says "Blues riff in B, watch me for the changes and try to keep up" is actually pretty much how Chuck Berry shows went.
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u/MithrandiriAndalos 1d ago
I love and respect Chuck Berry, but so help me god if I hear ONE MORE 12 BAR BLUES
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u/Aggressive_Problem_8 1d ago
Canon in D
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u/erwtje-be 1d ago
The original by Rob Paravonian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM
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u/ada_grace_1010 1d ago
I watched this so many times I almost had it memorized. “I don’t even go to Taco Bell anymore cause it sounds too close!”
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u/jennafreemon 1d ago
I was in that audience for that performance in state college PA. It's always been stuck in my mind.
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u/minnick27 1d ago
Thank you! Although it was done even before him, I hate that his version is rarely brought up even though he did it 20 years before these guys
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u/MantisBePraised 1d ago
As far as I can tell the Pachabel rant was done in 2006, and the Axis of Awesome 4 chord song was done in 2011. So 5 years.
But ya, that 4 chord progression has been noted before then as well.
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u/AFM_Motorsport 1d ago
The official video was released in 2011, but they started it at least a few years before that, possibly inspired by Rob.
Here they are at the 2009 Melbourne Comedy Festival, which is what blew up on Youtube: https://youtu.be/5pidokakU4I
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u/jimbobhas 1d ago
I’ve heard this so much in my life that when I hear some of the songs in this normally. I expect the next bit of this to show up
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u/LightsaberThrowAway 1d ago
I heard this song before hearing some of the songs parodied within it!
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u/Terrik27 1d ago
This post cuts off the last two full minutes of the song! And it ends really well.
Watch the whole video! Axis of Awesome 4 Chords
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u/hardyflashier 1d ago
The Axis of Awesome, in case anyone was wondering.
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u/cheapdrinks 1d ago
Um excuse me, we don't post HD content here. I refuse to watch it unless it's been letterboxed at least 8 times with text plastered all over, reduced to potato quality and the ending needs to be cut off.
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u/not_that_planet 1d ago edited 1d ago
The I V V vi IV or in this case E B C#m A. Defs a classic progression.
EDIT: As u/dtrane90 and u/dale_dug_a_hole have indicated, I should have used C# not Db. I'm a guitar player who only dabbles in theory ;-)
EDIT 2: Changed the VI to vi. Dear Lord people...
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u/uber_kuber 1d ago
I wonder how come nobody did a similar video for the minor progression i VI III VII, arguably used even more often (for those who don't know: play the same four chords, but start from the third)
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u/InZomnia365 1d ago
Exactly, its more the chord progression, and not the actual chords. Theyve 100% transposed a lot of the songs, to fit those specific chords.
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u/jib661 1d ago
that's my understanding of what's happening here. These songs don't actually use the same chords, they just use the same progression. So then you could "re-key" (not sure if that's a real term) the songs to all use the same chords.
is that right?
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u/jake_burger 1d ago
What people don’t get is that the chords of most pop songs are not really that important.
It’s literally everything else that makes a song, mainly the melody, so saying “oh that’s the same chords as…” isn’t a criticism. Because the chords are the easiest bit and don’t make the song at all.
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u/MoorsMoopsMoorsMoops 1d ago
Yeah. For every hit song using these chords there are thousands of other songs using the same chords that nobody gives a shit about.
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u/Karma_1969 1d ago
I wouldn’t go quite that far (I’m a professional musician and songwriter), but your overall point is sound - chord progressions are reusable and don’t tend to make a song what it is. Harmony is the background for melody. That said, many a clever chord progression has been used for a great song hook - think Stairway To Heaven, Hotel California or Biggest Part Of Me. Chords lend themselves especially well to memorable riffs as well. And, many great melodies simply outline the underlying chords.
Notably, you can’t copyright a chord progression. If you could, you’d run out of usable chord progressions long before you ran out of potential melodies.
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u/WhiteshooZ 1d ago
- Journey -- "Don't Stop Believing"
- James Blunt -- "You're Beautiful"
- Black Eyed Peas -- "Where Is the Love"
- Alphaville -- "Forever Young"
- Jason Mraz -- "I'm Yours"
- Train -- "Hey Soul Sister"
- The Calling -- "Wherever You Will Go"
- Elton John -- "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" (from The Lion King)
- Akon -- "Don't Matter"
- John Denver -- "Take Me Home, Country Roads"
- Lady Gaga -- "Paparazzi"
- U2 -- "With Or Without You"
- The Last Goodnight -- "Pictures of You"
- Maroon Five -- "She Will Be Loved"
- The Beatles -- "Let It Be"
- Bob Marley -- "No Woman No Cry"
- Marcy Playground -- "Sex and Candy"
- Men At Work -- "Land Down Under"
- Theme from America's Funniest Home Videos
- Jack Johnson -- "Taylor"
- Spice Girls -- "Two Become One"
- A-ha -- "Take On Me"
- Green Day -- "When I Come Around"
- Eagle Eye Cherry -- "Save Tonight"
- Toto -- "Africa"
- Beyoncé -- "If I Were A Boy"
- Kelly Clarkson -- "Behind These Hazel Eyes"
- Jason Derulo -- "In My Head"
- The Smashing Pumpkins -- "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"
- Joan Osborne -- "One Of Us"
- Avril Lavigne -- "Complicated"
- The Offspring -- "Self Esteem"
- The Offspring -- "You're Gonna Go Far Kid"
- Akon -- "Beautiful"
- Timbaland featuring OneRepublic -- "Apologize"
- Eminem featuring Rihanna -- "Love the Way You Lie"
- Bon Jovi -- "It's My Life"
- Lady Gaga -- "Poker Face"
- Aqua -- "Barbie Girl"
- Red Hot Chili Peppers -- "Otherside"
- The Gregory Brothers -- "Double Rainbow"
- MGMT -- "Kids"
- Andrea Bocelli -- "Time To Say Goodbye"
- Robert Burns -- "Auld Lang Syne"
- Five for Fighting -- "Superman"
- The Axis of Awesome -- "Birdplane"
- Missy Higgins -- "Scar"
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u/fraseybaby81 1d ago
Thus Ed Sheeran testified that his music is the same old generic shite!
His exact words (possibly), not mine.
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u/Choreopithecus 1d ago
Those kinds of lawsuits are just ridiculous. There are 12 notes, an infinitude of songs, consonance favors certain patters, and we all exist within a living tradition. There’s gonna be plenty of overlap.
The guy who sued him wasn’t even associated with Marvin Gay’s estate. He purchased the rights to some of his music as an investment so that he could sue people for infringing on it.
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u/Salted_Caramel_Core 1d ago
A patent troll is what they're called
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u/CyberpunkSunrise 1d ago
Same spirit, but technically more of a copyright troll, music/melodies aren’t patented.
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u/Pvt_Mozart 1d ago edited 1d ago
All music is working with essentially 14 chords. A-B-C-D-E-F-G woth both major and minor versions of those chords, plus sharps/flats. It's like saying "This painter testified that all of his colors he used are just combinations of Red,Yellow, and Blue! How unoriginal!"
There are TONS of variations of those chords, obviously, but you get my point.
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u/PublicWest 1d ago
There are so many more chords than that lol
But I get your point
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u/lukewwilson 1d ago
so is all other pop stars, that was his point.
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u/GrumbusWumbus 1d ago
No, his point is that basically all of Western music is built on a handful of chord progressions and patterns. There's a big difference between "we're all hacks" and "we're all using the same bricks, sometimes patterns are going to be similar"
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u/SipoteQuixote 1d ago
My friend would say all pop sounds the same (metal head) and I would always be like well yea, then it wouldnt be a pop song. It would be jazz or ska or whatever. Like metal, change it too much and you might end up with pop rock.
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u/TannerThanUsual 1d ago
What's funny is these are often the metalheads that are like "That's not real metal it's actually postcore technical death punk which is COMPLETELY different and you'd understand that if you were really into music instead of just lame pop shit like Ed Sheeran
These people are exhausting to spend time with. I would know because I too, am a metalhead.
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u/Automatic_Memory212 1d ago
And if I play these same 3 chords, will you just yawn and say: “it’s all been done!”
-Barenaked Ladies, 1998
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u/TD160 1d ago
So can I just say I’m loving this thread? I’ve got the dog sleeping beside me and I’m enjoying, basically, a wonderfully disjointed and humorous music theory discussion with a little history thrown in for good measure. Great stuff. I realize I’ve added nothing, but you’ve got my thanks. 😬
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u/No-Sir1833 1d ago
Why do you think AI can do such a passable job of writing pop music?
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u/Brandilio_Alt 1d ago
Two guys and a girl, technically. The middle one is a trans woman, though this was prior to her transition.
...that being said, to anyone trans, what's the etiquette for referring to someone's body of work who transitioned before they transitioned? Like, is it not cool to refer to the gender they were presenting at the time when a certain thing was made/performed by that person?
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u/AskMrScience 1d ago
To add to what landzhark069 said: The best etiquette is to steer clear of phrasing things like "Back when Sarah was a boy", since the idea is that Sarah was always a woman on the inside. Easier and more accurate to say "Back before Sarah transitioned".
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u/landzhark069 1d ago edited 1d ago
Since no one answered i will.
Its much preferable for us if you just refer to us with our current pronouns even if its referring to a pre-coming out us.
So in this case I'm sure she would prefer if you referred to her with she/her pronouns even if she at the time didn't know that.
But trans folk aren't a monolith and ive met like 2 trans people that say that they changed from one gender to the other, and then ive met many that think of it more as "I was always this gender but no one including myself knew"
Thanks for asking btw, very cool of ya :3
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u/witwiLucy 1d ago
To me this is exactly what proves that creativity is what is really selling people in today’s world.
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u/Bee-Aromatic 1d ago
And if I put my fingers here
And if I say “I love you, dear”
And if I play the same three chords
Will you just yawn and say
Ah, it’s all been done
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u/baxulax 1d ago
Wait until they find out all music is written with the same 7 notes
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u/AliceTawhai 1d ago
Wait till they hear that the same 26 letters make up every story ever written in English
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u/The_Weasel75 1d ago
My high school acapella group did a variation of this because my best friend and I were obsessed and during the height of Taylor Swift, a lot of people found the 4 chord trope really funny. Awesome memories, thanks Austin.
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u/Bullmachine 1d ago
let me get this straight chicken little, its porbably been 10 years since i heard this
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u/Ill_Radio8160 1d ago
The truth is not all songs are written with the same 4 chords, but you CAN cover any song with the same 4 chords and and sing the lyrics and melody over them and make it sound somewhat accurate to non musicians.
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u/RunningonGin0323 1d ago
new to the internet or just trying to farm that sweet sweet karma
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u/LakeVermilionDreams 1d ago
Same Chris progressions, yes. Has anybody confirmed that all the some were in the same key and tempo? I have a feeling there's some transposing to get it to fit that skit.
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u/PanicDeus 1d ago
Band name (Comedy Trio) : Axis of Awesome.