Mike Raiford wrote:
> Why is it that songs that have the same four chord progression are 
> extremely popular?
> 
> http://laughingsquid.com/4-chord-song-by-axis-of-awesome/

1. You're aware that there are only 12 possible notes in existence, right?

2. Which notes sound good together is based largely on the laws of 
physics, which are unchainging. Ergo, there are only so many chord 
progessions that sound good. And each one produces a different mood. So 
if you want "ballad", there's only so many options to pick from.

3. Several of the songs featured here do *not* actually have the same 
chord progression. It's just that the melody happens to *fit* this one 
chord progression. E.g., Take On Me uses different chords, but if you 
sing the melody over this chord sequence it just happens to work. Barbie 
Girl has a _totally unrelated_ chord progession, but the 6-word rap line 
they quoted fits just about any song imaginable.

The reason for #3 is unsurprising to anybody well-versed in music. For 
example, the chords E minor, C major and A minor all differ by a single 
note. If the melody happens to not contain the note that's different, in 
principle it can work with either chord.

Occasionally you will in fact hear a new version or a remix of a song 
where the chords are different but the words and melody remain the same, 
and it gives it an entirely different feel. Sometimes merely changing 
the bassline can do the same thing.

So there are 12 notes in the scale, each one can be major or minor, so 
that ought to give you 24 possible chords. However, many, many of these 
differ only very slightly from each other. Plus only 7 chords are 
"available" at any one time, unless you start using complex modulations.

If you want popular chord progressions, we have:

- Combinations of Tonic, Dominant and Subdominant. These three chords 
cover huge swathes of popular music. Obviously, with a mere 3 chords, 
there are only so many combinations possible.

- Tonic, Submediant, Subdominant, Dominant (or, alternatively, Tonic, 
Supertonic, Subdominant, Dominant). This covers 98% of the entire 
musical output of the 1950s era. The rest of 12-bar blues (i.e., the 
previous point).

- The chord progression you quoted is Tonic, Dominant, Submediant, 
Subdominant. Again, quote popular for big ballads and stuff.

- In a minor key, Tonic, Submediant, Leading Tone is very popular, 
especially for dance music.

- Another popular minor key dance move is Tonic, Submediant, Leading, 
Mediant.

I hasten to add that most if not all *real* songs actually have more 
chords than this, make use of multiple items from this list, have key 
modulations and so forth.



...that answer your question?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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