Comments on: How the Billboard Hot 100 Lost Interest in the Key Change

By: Longarch

Longarch — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 04:48:18 +0000

Actually, the key-change mafia were propping up key-change practices in pop songs until Casey Handmer proved that there was no key-changed song written in orbit that could profitably replace a single-key song written on earth. Then the key-change mafia had to diversify into bored-ape tokens and helium-lifted airships.

By: Anomaly UK

Anomaly UK — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 15:38:02 +0000

Regarding Grasspunk’s comment above, the degree of impact of one songwriter on pop music is easy to underestimate and worth looking into.

Max Martin wrote or co-wrote:

Britney Spears’s “…Baby One More Time” (1998)
the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” (1999)
Bon Jovi “It’s My Life” (2000)
Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” (2008)
Maroon 5′s “One More Night” (2012),
Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space” (2014)
The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” (2019)

and dozens more; I’m just picking songs I know or have at least heard of, and I was hardly listening to new music at all over that whole period.

By: Grasspunk

Grasspunk — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 14:39:24 +0000

You move the song key around not so it sounds better but so it fits the characteristics of your singer, for example to make the belted notes of the chorus line up with the power range of the singer.

I’m kinda bugged by the lack of mention of disco, EDM and especially Max Martin and cohort, which drive the patterns of a lot of modern pop music. The data he provides for disappearing key changes shows a fall starting in the late 90s which lines up with Max Martin’s Swedish invasion, certainly much better than hip-hop does.

Just for fun there are some fine key changes in the awesome original Attack on Titan theme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdxaNeRn1GA