2000s – Page 12

Garbage | Breaking Up the Girl

“The voice and mind behind 90s alt-rock anthems ‘Happy When it Rains’, ‘Stupid Girl’ and ‘Supervixen’ hates talking about individual songs, or the meaning of lyrics, or what makes this or that tune a good single,” The Guardian reports.

Despite becoming a “tough-talking, smart-mouthed, big-boot-wearing icon to a generation,” Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson, an Edinburgh native, has often had trouble with the business side of the music business. ‘When we first started out, we were signed to an indie label. We had a lot of freedom. Then we got sold like a commodity to a record label that did not give a flying fuck about our music or our career or us as people. And it was a nightmare. They had all these corporate expectations about us. We didn’t care if we weren’t the biggest band in the world! But to this record label, if you’re not the biggest band in the world, then you’re worthless. I just do not adhere to that principle.’ All the artists she loves, from Patti Smith to Siouxsie Sioux, ‘didn’t sell anything.'”

2001’s “Breaking Up the Girl” features plenty of the pristine, highly-produced wall-of-sound textures for which the band is famous. The video — which looks to have been shot in a computer chip manufacturer’s clean room with the aid of a robotic arm — is also standard fare for the band’s singularly stark visual aesthetic. At 2:33, the dense groove falls entirely away, clearing the stage for a whole-step modulation before rebuilding itself for a final iteration of the hook at 3:08.

Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) | The Other Side of Me

If someone asked you to name artists whose repertoire features ingenious modulations, chances are Hannah Montana would not rank high on the list. But the writers of Miley Cyrus’ sensational Disney Channel show’s soundtrack (2006) created some intriguing compositions, especially in the sense of music theory and modulation. Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil formed a partnership around 2006 working for Disney and wrote often for Hannah Montana as well as some other hit Disney Channel productions, including High School Musical.

These two writers used modulations often in their tunes to create that intense burst of energy we all know and love. However, one tune in particular modulates in an extremely strategic and unique way — something not often done in commercial music, let alone youth television soundtracks. “The Other Side Of Me” is part of Hannah Montana’s first season soundtrack. The song has an extremely uplifting energy, constantly shifting and continuously engaging the listener. This engaging quality is driven by the harmonic contour of the song, which includes four keys in total! Rather than using the classic one-time key change at the end of the song, Gerard and Nevil employ a series of modulations to keep the tune moving forward and evolving harmonically, creating sectional contrast and an elevated sense of passion as Miley Cyrus moves through the song.

The tune starts out in the key of A major with a rockin’ V – iv – IV – I progression in the intro and first verse. The pre-chorus progression shuffles these chords but maintains a clear tonic of A major. Suddenly, a transition into the chorus brings the tune up a whole step to B major (0:38), where we remain for the chorus until moving back to A major for the second verse and pre-chorus (1:05). From here, the song modulates back to B major and then moves into the bridge, which includes a modulation to G major for the first half (1:54) and E major (2:02) for the second half. The final chorus brings listeners back to the third chorus in B once again, going out with a bang as the hook, “the other side of me,” plays in the chorus’s home key of B major.

The tune is absolutely genius and well thought out; the transitions among keys are seamless. Miley Cyrus handles the shifting tonality in her stride.

Paciencia y Fe (from “In The Heights”)

Before Hamilton, composer/lyricist/actor Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote In The Heights, a musical focused on a group of Hispanic immigrants living in Washington Heights, looking to create a sense of home and belonging while also maintaining a connection to their roots. Miranda began writing the show during his sophomore year at Wesleyan College in 1999, and it opened on Broadway in 2008, winning four of the thirteen Tony Awards it was nominated for. Like Hamilton, the score incorporates rap and hip-hop, and Miranda starred as the lead in the original cast. A film adaptation of In The Heights opened last week.

“Paciencia Y Fe” features two key changes — from D down to C minor at 2:00, and up to C major for the final 8 measures at 4:19.

B.J. Thomas | What’s Forever For

“B.J. Thomas (born Billy Joe Thomas) straddled the line between pop/rock and country, achieving success in both genres in the late ’60s and ’70s,” according to AllMusic’s bio. “At the beginning of his career, he leaned more heavily on rock & roll, but by the mid-’70s, he had turned to country music, becoming one of the most successful country-pop stars of the decade.”

In 1968, his career blossomed with “Hooked on a Feeling” and then Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” from the film Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. NewsOpener.com adds: ” … no cover versions of ‘Raindrops’ have ever appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 — probably because Thomas’ version was so definitive … the 1998 box set The Look of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection noted that Raindrops ‘was never really of its time. Mainly everything else was Flower Power, the protest songs, people were taking acid … but that song was a monster.’”

After his signature hit, Thomas then had a string of other soft rock hits in the next two years, including Bacharach’s “Everybody’s Out of Town” (1970). In 2013, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences inducted ‘Raindrops’ into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Thomas died last week at the age of 78.

“What’s Forever For,” written by Rafe Van Hoy, was a late-career cover by Thomas (2000); the tune received its debut in 1980 by Ann Murray and other covers by Johnny Mathis, John Conlee, and several others. Pushed gently into country/pop category by a few expert touches of pedal steel, the understated track modulates up a whole step at 3:03.

Christopher Tin (feat. Soweto Gospel Choir) | Baba Yetu

If you enjoy turn-based strategy video games, then you are likely familiar with the Civilization franchise, and if you played Civilization IV, then you may have spent a significant amount of time staring on the main menu screen, enraptured by today’s tune and forgetting entirely that you’d settled down to conquer the digital world. American composer Christopher Tin‘s composition “Baba Yetu” arranges a Swahili translation of The Lord’s Prayer into a masterful piece for choir and orchestra.

The tune won the 2011 Grammy award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists — the first ever piece of video game music to win. Just as impressive, it’s featured on an album which itself won the 2011 Grammy for “Best Classical Crossover Album”: while the piece debuted with the game in 2005, Tin also released a recording of it on his first album, Calling All Dawns, in 2011.

Tin begins the song with a rousing call and response in G major. The voices gradually build and merge into a modulation to D major, which begins at 1:00. 20 seconds later, the chorale drops away, and the tonal center begins to shift until the voices triumphantly return and modulate squarely to E major while proclaiming “Ufalme wako ufike utakalo. Lifanyike duniani kama mbinguni, Amin.” (Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. On earth, as it is in heaven, Amen). With the verse finished, tonal certainty once again fades, until at the 2:25 mark the final chorus brings us back to G major to finish out the tune. I hope you enjoy this moving arrangement, along with the visual accompaniment of some truly high-definition 2005 video game graphics!

The Subdudes | Next to Me

“Next to Me” is featured on the 2006 album Behind the Levee by American roots/rock group The Subdudes (and produced by Grammy-winning blues artist Keb’Mo’). Based in New Orleans, the group synthesizes folk, cajun, blues, and country influences, and substitutes a tambourine player for a drummer.

The tune subtly modulates from A to B at 3:00. Thanks to Carol Cashion for this submission!

Kelly Clarkson | Because of You

Released in 2005 as the third single from her second studio album, Breakaway, Kelly Clarkson’s “Because of You” has claimed its place as one of the most iconic 2000s songs of all time. While at first listen one might assume Clarkson’s hard-hitting lyrics were written about an ex-lover, the song was actually inspired by her relationship with her father, who left her and her mother when she was only 6 years old.

Shockingly, Clarkson had to fight for this song to be released. She wrote the tune before her American Idol debut when she was only 16; when she brought it to the studio, it was quickly shot down by her producers. Clarkson stated in an interview with The Guardian: “The song really is the most depressing one I’ve ever written. I tried to get it on Thankful, and was laughed at and told that I wasn’t a good writer. So then I tried to get it on Breakaway and the label saw the results, people responding to it, and allowed it to become a single. Then took credit for its success, of course.”

The song is one of strength, intensity, and drama, living on in all the edgy glory of its time, residing on many nostalgic playlists for all of those emotional flashback listening sessions and car ride singalongs. The powerful and slightly cheesy key change at 2:51 is quite appropriate!

Barbra Streisand | Make Someone Happy

Originally written by Jule Styne (music), Betty Comden and Adolph Green (lyrics) for the 1960 musical Do Re Mi, “Make Someone Happy” subsequently became a jazz standard, and has been recorded by dozens of singers including Perry Como, Aretha Franklin, Judy Garland, and Jamie Cullum among others. Featured here is a live 2009 performance by Barbra Streisand at the Village Vanguard in New York City. Starting in C major, the tune modulates down to B around 3:29 while Streisand is ad-libbing some dialogue and stays there for the final chorus.

Michael Buble | Everything

The lead single from Buble’s 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible, “Everything” is a departure from Buble’s typical big-band style — driven by the piano and guitar rather than a horn section. The music is co-written by Alan Chang, a frequent Buble collaborator, and songwriter/author Amy Foster-Gilles (also the daughter of mega-producer David Foster.) Buble’s lyrics were written with his then-girlfriend, actress Emily Blunt, in mind, but have a broader reach as well. “I wrote the song about the great happiness of real love,” Buble said, “but at the same time I was making a statement about the world. We’re living in really crazy times, and I wanted to say that no matter what’s happening, this person in my life is what really makes it worthwhile.”

The music video has over 107 million views on YouTube, and features cameos by Whoopi Goldberg and Bono. A whole step modulation from D to E occurs at 2:29.

Tom Waits | Shake It

Pitchfork‘s review of Real Gone, Tom Waits’ 18th studio release (2004), goes a long way towards the difficult task of describing this singular artist, whose sound is often (and insufficiently) described as a mix of blues, rock, jazz, and experimental: “Tom Waits sings with his eyes closed, face squished tight, arms jerking, elbows popping, his entire body curled small and fetal around the microphone stand. Waits’ mouth is barely open, but his ears are perked high, perfectly straight, craning skyward, stretching out: Tom Waits is channeling frequencies that the rest of us cannot hear … Real Gone, like most of Tom Waits’ records, is teeming with all kinds of mysterious noises … it lurches along like a junk-heap jalopy, unsteady and unsafe, bits flying off in every direction, stopping, starting, and bouncing in pain.”

Waits describes himself as a person who is likely at home with his unsettled sound: “If people are a little nervous about approaching you at the market, it’s good. I’m not Chuckles The Clown. Or Bozo. I don’t cut the ribbon at the opening of markets. I don’t stand next to the mayor. Hit your baseball into my yard, and you’ll never see it again.”

Built on the utterly familiar elements of a minor blues, from the harmonic progression to the bass line to the intermittent guitar riffs, “Shake It” still manages to channel a rattling bucket of bolts that may or may not have some razor blades mixed in. Starting in F minor, 2:03 brings a transition to F# minor. The modulation doesn’t arrive at the end of the blues form, but unnervingly announces itself right in the middle of a verse. 2:55 jerks us back into F minor — this time with a tempo shift and a change in feel. The bull’s arrived at the china shop after recently enjoying a wallow in the mud, and the marked-down red table linens are on display.

Many thanks to our regular contributor Jonathan “JHarms” Harms, who submitted and summed up the track: “All hail the dirty, unannounced modulation.”