Tag: pop

The Spinners | Games People Play

The Spinners‘ 1975 R&B release “Games People Play” begins with deceptive simplicity. But then a long line of compound chords starts at 0:41, joined by a descending chromatic bassline at 0:54. We return to the original key as we reach verse 2 at 1:05 … Etc.! There’s no single prominent modulation, but rather a feeling of pivoting easily and frequently between keys.

Bruce Hornsby and the Range | Look Out Any Window

Bruce Hornsby created a unique Americana-inflected pop style through his early 1980s work with Bruce Hornsby and the Range. In “Look Out Any Window,” (1988) ” … Bruce chooses to highlight the concern of environmental degradation at the hands of big business,” (Bruuuce.com) “By pointing a broad, sweeping accusatory finger at ‘Far away, men too busy getting rich to care,’ he taps into a popular sentiment among young, concerned, (though invariably middle class) western teenagers.

The song was written at a time just before concerns over the Ozone Layer and ‘Greenhouse Effect’ were about to burst into major headline news stories … The lyrics also tap into a wider sense of regional discontent at centralist government, or urban/rural divide: The valiant, subsistence labourers – ‘There’s a man working in a field’ and ‘There’s a man working in a boat’ – against the likes of the ‘Big boys telling you everything they’re gonna do,’ and ‘Fat cat builderman, turning this into a wasteland.'”

An instrumental bridge (2:52 – 3:28) which modulates and then reverts to the original key as it reaches the final pre-chorus.

The Doobie Brothers | Minute By Minute

The Doobie Brothers‘ longstanding rock/folk/Americana sound expanded suddenly when the soul-infused songwriter Michael McDonald joined their lineup. 1978’s “Minute by Minute” features crazy amounts of syncopation, long instrumental-only breaks, and a modulation up two full steps as the bridge arrives at 2:28. The tune hit #14 on the pop charts, helping the album it appeared on to reach #1.

Christina Aguilera (feat. Demi Lovato) | Fall in Line

“Fall In Line” by Christina Aguilera (featuring Demi Lovato) is the second single from the album Liberation (2018). The New York Times calls the track “a defiant dirge addressed directly to ‘little girls’ … it insists, ‘You do not owe them your body and your soul.’” The key change is at 3:00.

Player | Baby Come Back

“Yacht Rock” royalty, Player’s polished southern California sound was all over the charts in the late 70s. Multiple lead vocalists, complex chords, and tight vocal harmonies were some of the band’s hallmarks.

For “Baby Come Back,” the band’s smash 1977 hit, the modulation lasts for the duration of the bridge (2:23 – 2:48) before reverting to its original key.