[muir_redwoods]

C, Am, F & G played in 4/4 sounds like about 80% of the music recorded between 1955 and 1965

[reg45]

Pop music went down the flusher when “loud” replaced “talent”.

[Tijeras_Slim]

4 chords?

How does this explain AC/DC?

[Fiji Hill]

This phenomenon isn’t new. In 1972, a group called America released a song entitled “A Horse With No Name.” The song consists of only about five notes, and the lyrics make no sense, yet it topped the charts for several weeks and became one of the biggest-selling records of the year.

[newheart]

"There is growing, within popular music, another kind of practice altogether, one in which the movement is no longer contained in the musical line but exported to a place outside it, to a center of pulsation which demands not that you listen but that you submit.

And that would explain Rap and Hip-Hop culture.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Repeat the same chords over and over ad nauseum and you have just described Bruce Springsteen, the most overrated ‘musician’ of all time.

[Chode]

four... since when??? three chord rock and roll will never die

[OrioleFan]

bump

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

I beg to differ with that theory.

It’s pretty obvious that David Gilmore has slightly more than just 4 chords and notes on his guitar.

[jnsun]

Well some are getting there.

Recommend reading:

The Conquest of Mexico, the journal and observations of Bernal Diaz as the Spanish marched through the incessant drumbeat of aboriginal mesoAmerica; or similarly any of the journals of the Europeans in archaic America.

And The Origins of Consciousness and the Downfall of the Bicameral Mind - Jaynes.

Hold that against a few movements of, say, Brahms.

Then put a few things together.

[Walmartian]

Ok.. it’s a standard 12 bar in “G” but add a 2 on the bridge ...kick it off from the 5 ... hit the 4 on the way down and then into the 1 ... watch me for the 2

[Grut]

There's always dreck. Conversely, the "Who Do You Love" side of Quicksilver's "Happy Trails" album (1969) is a marvellous example of the art of the fugue. Granted, one diamond amongst the trash isn't much but there were others... and how much distinguished classical music's been written in the last forty years?

For a long time there, 'serious' music could be classified by whether it began with a ping! or a hiss....

[Psycho_Bunny]

This is exactly why, when Rolling Stone said Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” was the number one song of all time, I just sat and stared at the wall for 20 minutes or so.

[KarlInOhio]

Not just pop music. A folk band I listen to had fake but funny biographies of their members until a recent web site redesign. One member described learning three guitar chords allowing him to be a folk guitarist. When he learned a fourth chord he became a folk visionary.

[Walmartian]

Richard Wagner - "The Ride of the Valkyries"; Based on a 4 chord structure - 1,2,4 and 5.

Johannes Brahms - "Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor"; Based on a 4 chord structure - 1,2,4 and 5.

[DManA]

There’s a party member in the basement of the Ministry of Love cranking it out.

[weef]

Louie Louie is a great song and it doesn’t even use a 4th chord.

[Mojave]

Skwisgaar!

[tickmeister]

As a lifelong amateur musician, I have spent a lot of time and effort trying to analyze what makes good music. I could go on all day, but to distill it to the basics, good music is not about complexity, it is about emotion.

Analyze the audience at any public concert. 2% are there for the nuances of the performance. 98% are there to transcend their current pains and problems and find a state of grace for an hour or so. That is a good thing.

Complex, innovative music will always have an audience, but a small one. You won’t hear it unless you seek it out. It won’t be on the radio or TV.

[Para-Ord.45]

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