[RJDG14]

From about the era of post punk and power pop (late 70s) through to about 10 years ago (the 2000s) it was very common for a lot of artists to utilise catchy, memorable power chord hook progressions in choruses or throughout entire songs. Typically these consisted of 2-5 chords in a loop. In the last decade or so, use of this has declined heavily, and even bands such as Green Day, Foo Fighters and Idlewild, which used to be synonomous with doing so, now only do so on odd songs. Beat or thrashiness (is that even a word?) have become the main focus instead with most artists. I'll search iTunes looking for music and only come across a handful of new songs a year by a select few artists that still sound the way I like.

I made some threads/polls on other forums and it seemed that very few of the users, in particular younger ones (me being an exception, of course), liked music that only utilised a few chords in the entire song, and many even said they found this music among the most forgettable stuff they'd heard. Instead, they preferred "complex" music that I can't get the grip on remembering. I took a musical preference test in which I had to give my opinion on about 30 samples, and got a "very high" score in the unpretentious category, which could explain my preference.

Here are some examples that do what I'm talking about:

The One I Want - Green Day
When I Come Around - Green Day
Learn To Fly - Foo Fighters
Stay The Same - Idlewild
September Gurls - Big Star
Slackjawed - The Connells
Pieces - Dinosaur Jr
Private Plane - Husker Du
We Go Down Slowly Rising - Primal Scream

So where's all the music like this gone?

[Boydie]

I think the current "pop" trend has picked up the mantle of repeating chord progressions throughout an entire song

"Price Tag" (Jessie J) and more recent "Shape Of You" (Ed Sheehan) are just 2 examples of whole songs made up of a very simple repeating chord progression

IMHO both songs are a great example of how MELODY, LYRICS, and PRODUCTION (in that order) are the keys to making sure a song is engaging for the listener

[PopTodd]

I wrote one (relatively) recently that has only 3 chords, played the same way, over and over throughout the entire song.
Now, while it (obviously) was not a hit, it is one of my more-popular tunes.
I kept the illusion of forward motion going with slight, subtle, arrangement tweaks.
If you want to hear it, it's here:
https://hoponpop.bandcamp.com/track/here

If not, that's cool too.
But I do still hear stuff like this every now and then. Or, maybe I just imagine that I do?

[Skub]

There are more than three chords? 

[delb0y]

There are four, Skub - but one is a 7th.

[Skub]

There are four, Skub - but one is a 7th.

Doesn't that mean there are seven chords then,if one is 7th? I'm confused.

What about the secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord? Is that one of the seven...I mean four...er..

[The S]

There are four, Skub - but one is a 7th.

Doesn't that mean there are seven chords then,if one is 7th? I'm confused.

What about the secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord? Is that one of the seven...I mean four...er..

No, no, no, you're making it more complicated than it is. It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift. But Skub, you don't really care for music, do ya?!?

 

[delb0y]

The secret chord wasn't actually played by David. Well, not just by David. David was a session man brought in to please "The lord" (goes without saying that was George Martin) when George (the other George, not George Martin) and John couldn't agree on whether to use chord 1,2,3 or that 7th mentioned earlier. The cacophony that resulted when no-one would give in and all tried to play on top of one another (including David - because George, that's the first George mentioned above, was paying him and insisted he (David) played louder than anyone else) is what became known as the secret chord and folks have been trying to figure it out ever since. It's basically parts of the other four chords played simultaneously. But, that's all straightforward and common knowledge. The bottom line is, if Hank Williams only needed two chords for Jambalaya and Chuck Berry only needed two for C'est La Vie and John Fogerty only needed one for Run Through The Jungle then anything more and someone is not trying hard enough to spare the world's resources, because, like oil, chords won't last for ever.

[Skub]

I'll give Knopfler a ring,he said 'check out guitar George,he knows all the chords'.

[hardtwistmusic]

I'm not a musician.  I can't listen and tell how many chords there are in a song.  In a way, that is a relief.  All I can tell (and frankly all I want to tell) is that a song is likable and memorable, or that it is not. 

I wrote songs for a long time using a chord generator, having no idea of compatible chords, chord progressions, resolves etc.    Some of the songs really weren't bad, but they tended to create irritability in listeners. . . even non-musician listeners.  Turns out that we are conditioned to certain patterns, and it annoys us (as listeners) to NOT hear them. 

Slowly, over time, several very generous people on the internet educated me about little bits of this.  One particularly nice man took enough interest to spend hours of his time letting me know about "Western Notation" and which chords "resolve" other chords. 

None of which really pertains to this thread. . . but this next thing does. 

I FINALLY (after about five years, got some advice that helped more than anything else.  I was writing with as many as six different chords in a song.  If it remained in the correct key, I saw no harm in using a chord. 

Someone advised me to simplify.  Use two base chords - one of which resolves the other, and a third chord to resolve the second chord. Base the song around that, and use any other chords only as necessary to draw attention/create drama and/or to create surprise through variety. 

That simplification made a world of difference.  Songs stopped (finally) annoying listeners.  It's one of the most valuable lessons I have learned to date.  (Who knows what I'll learn tomorrow.)