The Birth of the Unjazz
Artists like Drake and singers like SZA have invented new ways of treating harmonic and melodic dissonance. I call it “unjazz”!
Read more
Rock Theory
How The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” Takes Beethoven’s Ideas to #1
The Weeknd and Max Martin rigorously constructed a hit song out of a set of four-note segments of a pentatonic scale. Read all about it!
Read more
Where Did All the Chords Go?
Why change chords for the chorus? Let’s compare the Pet Shop Boys' “West End Girls” and “Cake by the Ocean” by DNCE.
Read more
All My Loving: Parallel Motion in the Beatles
In the 1980s, many songs changed keys for the chorus. Let’s follow Madness' hit “Our house” as the band takes this to ridiculous extremes.
Read more
The long and winding "Old Town Road"
The unlikely journey of “Old Town Road”, from sparse, barely tonal Nine Inch Nails instrumental to completely surprising ultra megahit.
Read more
Changing Keys for the Chorus? Madness!
In the 1980s, many songs changed keys for the chorus. Let’s follow Madness' hit “Our house” as the band takes this to ridiculous extremes.
Read more