Mod of the Day

BTS (방탄소년단) | Dynamite

1960s British blues artists such as Peter Green, Eric Clapton, John Mayall, etc. took a quintessentially American style of music and mirrored it back across the pond with a new twist. In the 21st century, the US boy band pop formula which peaked in the late 90s and early 2000s is alive and well: it’s now served to us from the deep inside the corporate fortresses of South Korean K-Pop.

K-Pop royalty BTS (also known as Bangtan Boys) has won a nearly universal planetary fanbase. Perhaps fueled by the novelty of its English lyrics, the video for the August 2020 single “Dynamite” has amassed a staggering 1.26 billion views on YouTube, certainly a record for any tune we’ve featured to date! Vox reports: “In 2018, they became the first South Korean band in history to debut an album at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart, as well as the first to have a single land at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.” They have collaborated with the likes of the Chainsmokers, Nicki Minaj, Ed Sheeran, and Halsey.

K-Pop is big business, and BTS is at the apex of the genre’s multiple groups (both male and female). SBS News reports that in 2019, BTS was worth more than $4.65 billion US dollars to South Korea’s economy each year, or 0.3% percent of the country’s GDP.

The modulation is at 3:04.

Frida Elsa | Sway

“Sway” is a 2018 single by Swedish singer/songwriter Frida Elsa. While Elsa has yet to release a full album, she signed with PRMD Music & Publishing in 2017, and has a clear sense of herself as an artist. “I love being part of the creative process and above all to express myself in text and melody,” she says in her profile on Spotify. “I try, in a world of misery, to focus on all the positive things I get out of life. My lyrics focus on love, passion and hope for a brighter future.”

“Sway” modulates up a half step at 2:09.

Yes | Awaken

The RIAA reports that “Yes are one of the most successful, influential, and longest-lasting progressive rock bands. They have sold 13.5 million RIAA-certified albums in the US.” In 1985, the UK band won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance and received five Grammy nominations between 1985 and 1992. The band produced 21 studio albums in total.

Ashley Kahn wrote about the band for its Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2017:

“Not so long ago, a home stereo was a portal into a realm of hyper-sensory interstellar travel. One could drop the needle on the edge of the LP, turn up the volume, stare at the album cover’s colorful, hallucinatory landscapes, and let the music take you along galactic pathways to undiscovered planets.

Piloting such sonic voyages was a talented group of creative musicians who combined centuries-old musical traditions with the latest tools and an immense spectrum of sounds: symphonic strings, cathedral organs, driving rock drums, meticulous jazz improvisation, offbeat time signatures, dramatic rhythmic shifts. Over all soared vocal harmonies and mystical lyrics.”

Many Yes fans consider 1977’s “Awaken” to be one of the pinnacles of the band’s output. Starting at the intro (E minor), the tonality shifts with the addition of the lead vocal (E major) at 0:35, then returns to E minor at 1:30. Starting at 1:33 and returning intermittently, the real interest switches to the meter — 11/8! After falling to a brief D major at 4:54, we embark on a kaleidoscopic multi-key tour, initially based on the circle of fifths, which continues until it finally slows down like a wind-up toy losing juice.

At 6:34, we’ve returned to E minor in a restful 6/8. At 10:35, a shift back to E major lands and we’re back on another multi-key tour — but this time at a slightly slower pace and a buoyant major key fee overall, with the lead vocal added. The tumbling chord progression is more complex than a mere circle-of-fifths concept; with no idea where to plant our feet, we just go along for the ride. 12:14 continues the tour with a dizzying organ solo, joined by the full band at 12:31 — and throwing a soaring choir into the bargain. 13:20 brings a decisive cadence back to E major, then a return to the floating feel we bathed in at the start. Lastly — just because it was the 70s, and why not? — the tune closes with a guitar riff that wouldn’t be out of place in a country/western cover band!

Many thanks to our first-time contributor Mark Bain for submitting this epic tune!

for JB

Starship | Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now

Written by Diane Warren and Albert Hammond, “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” was recorded by the American rock band Starship for their 1987 album No Protection. The track was the top-selling song of 1987 in the United Kingdom, reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards in 1988 (it was the theme song for the 1987 romantic comedy Mannequin.) Key change at 2:56.

Earth, Wind + Fire | You

“Earth, Wind & Fire were one of the most musically accomplished, critically acclaimed, and commercially popular funk bands of the ’70s,” proclaims AllMusic. “…EWF’s all-encompassing musical vision used funk as its foundation, but also incorporated jazz, smooth soul, gospel, pop, rock & roll, psychedelia, blues, folk, African music, and, later on, disco … More than just versatility for its own sake, EWF’s eclecticism was part of a broader concept informed by a cosmic, mystical spirituality and an uplifting positivity the likes of which hadn’t been seen since the early days of Sly & the Family Stone … at their best, Earth, Wind & Fire seemingly took all that came before them and wrapped it up into one dizzying, spectacular package.”

After several chart-topping albums in the late 70s, in particular the late-70s smashes All ‘n All (triple platinum) and I Am (double platinum), the band released Faces in 1980. “You,” Faces’ fourth single, reached #10 on the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart and #30 on the Adult Contemporary Songs chart. Like “After the Love Has Gone,” EWF’s quintessential power ballad, “You” was co-written by David Foster.

After starting in G major, 1:13 brings the chorus in E minor; halfway through the chorus (1:27), the tonality folds in on itself and we’ve landed in G# minor. At 1:45, verse two starts, but we’re now elevated up a whole step (A major) relative to the first verse — likely unnoticed due to the overall harmonic sleight of hand! A 2:40, the chorus arrives again, this time to stay: it morphs into an extended outro. The outro centers around three two-chord pairs (F# minor/B minor; A# minor/D# minor; and D minor/G minor), all compellingly connected by half-steps. The three sets, repeating and fading to the end, essentially form a gigantic hemiola effect over the 4/4 time. Many thanks to our faithful mod sender-inner JB for this tune!

Blondie | Denis

“Denis” was a Top 10 hit for doo-wop group Randy & The Rainbows in 1963 as “Denise.” Blondie, fronted by lead vocalist Debbie Harry, covered it in 1977 on Plastic Letters, its sophomore release.

MixOnline reports: “'(It) sounded like a hit from the minute they started playing it,’ engineer/producer Rob Freeman says. ‘Debbie’s voice was bubbly … and cut right through the rhythm tracks. She had that little growl that would come in every now and then.'” Harry “also played with the lyrics of the song. The band had changed their version from Denise to Denis, French for Dennis, so that Harry could sing ‘You’re my king’ and ‘I’m so lucky ’cause I found a boy like you’ in French.”

This punchy two-minute pop tune went to #2 in the UK, #1 in Belgium and the Netherlands, and top 20 in several other countries. The single didn’t perform well in the US, although the album sold very well. The band was well on its way to becoming “the most commercially successful band to emerge from the New York punk/new wave community of the late ’70s” (AllMusic). The half-step modulation is at 1:05.

Bruce Hornsby | The Tide Will Rise

“The Tide Will Rise,” co-written by Bruce Hornsby and his brother John, is featured on the 1993 album Harbor Lights. The lyric focuses on the rhythms in particular of a fisherman’s life at sea, but the sentiments are universally applicable to the ups and downs of life. Key changes from F to G at 2:08.

Hezekiah Walker + the Love Fellowship Crusade Choir | Calling My Name

AllMusic details that “gospel singer, composer, and choir leader Hezekiah Walker, known as ‘the hip-hop pastor,’ has brought a lot of young people to gospel and choir music, and has shown that he has no problem using modern vernacular and recording techniques to expand his fan and worship base. A New York native, Walker grew up in the Fort Greene housing projects of Brooklyn. He formed his first gospel group, the Love Fellowship Crusade Choir, when he was in his twenties and serving as a Pentecostal minister.”

Walker has produced and led many top ten Billboard gospel recordings, including Grammy-winning live gospel recordings; he was inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in 2016. Rev. Walker now leads the Kingdom Church in New York and Pennsylvania.

Featuring soloist Timiney Figueroa-Caton, the Love Fellowship Crusade Choir’s live 2008 version of “Calling My Name” was originally released in 1994. Written by the prolific Jules Bartholomew, the track begins in Db major but shifts to Bb major at 4:31. Many thanks to our recurrent contributor JB for submitting this tune!

Kelly Clarkson | Don’t Rush

Written for Kelly Clarkson‘s first greatest hits album, released in 2012, “Don’t Rush” also features singer/songwriter Vince Gill and incorporates country and rock influences. “People have been wanting me to release something specifically for Country radio for years, but I didn’t want to just release something that has a steel guitar on it,” Clarkson said in an interview with Billboard magazine. “I wanted to release something I’m proud of, and we finally found that song. It’s my favorite kind of Country music; it’s like ’80s, ’90s Country music, that throwback, two-steppin’ style. And I’m freakin’ stoked I got Vince Gill to sing on it with me, so I win ’cause he’s like one of my favorite people.”

The track reached the #23 slot on the US Hot Country Songs chart and was performed at the Country Music Association awards in 2012 (featured here.) Key change at 2:55.

Salomon Jadassohn | Elegie, Op. 108

According to the Grove Dictionary of Music, “Salomon Jadassohn was born to a Jewish family living in Breslau, the capital of the Prussian province of Silesia. This was a generation after the emancipation of the Jews in Central European German-speaking lands and during a time of relative tolerance.” Jadassohn attended Leipzig Conservatory in 1848, just a few years after it had been founded by Felix Mendelssohn. Jadassohn studied privately with pianist and composer Franz Liszt.

MusicWeb International reports that Jadassohn “later taught at the (Leipzig) Conservatory; his list of pupils reads like a Who’s Who of notable composers including Grieg, Delius and Busoni … As a composer he was prolific, having four symphonies, two piano concertos and a substantial assemblage of chamber works to his name.”

“Elegie,” a movement from the “Serenade for Flute and Piano,” Op. 108 (1890), straddles the line between G minor and Bb major throughout, then transitions to G major between 1:28 and 1:48.