Key changes
I know nothing about music but, as with pretty much all subjects, I like to hear what people who do know something about it have to say, which is why this week I’ve been following a discussion about the demise of the key change in popular music.
To do so, I’ve had to do some remedial work and I found this explanation of the difference between “pitch,” “key” and “tone” from the Kids Activities section of the Santa Clarita Magazine helpful (I’m not proud, I’ll take my education where I can get it):
Singing pitch is the frequency of sound in which you are singing. There are only two ways to go with this, high or low. Also, an interesting piece of information is that notes represent the pitches most commonly used in music. For example, notes include C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. It is extremely difficult to find the perfect pitch. This is why it is important to train your ears. A great achievement is to memorize a note and base other pitches off from that note. Most base their pitch off of the note of middle C. With this technique, you will be able to recognize pitch.
To define “key” is to analyze a set of notes with a tonal center in the piece of music. Depending on key, a music piece can be either major or minor. In short, to be in the key of C means that “C” is the song’s harmonic center. Every other note complements the key. Singing in key is crucial to sounding great!
Another well-known term you may have heard before is tone. Your singing tone is the type of sound that you produce. Believe it or not, your voice can either be bright or dark, strong or weak, raspy or full.
This particular discussion began with an essay on Tedium by contributor Chris Dalla Riva, which begins:
A few years ago, I decided that I was going to listen to every number one song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. That’s 1143 songs released between 1958 and 2022.
The selection of pop songs in Dalla Riva’s sample runs quite a gamut, beginning with Domenico Modugno’s “Volaré,” a song I would love to tell I knew by its Italian title, “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu,” but which I actually know from its incarnation as a jingle for the Chrysler of the same name (“Volaré! Looks great! Plymouth Volare for ’78!”). I couldn’t find the ad with the English jingle, but I found this 1976 version where they used Italian-American tenor Sergio Franchi as the spokesperson for a “new kind of American small car” (which, as a commenter pointed out, is “as big as a barn.” Readers of my vintage will recognize this as derivative of Ricardo Montalban’s 1975 Chrysler Cordoba “fine Corinthian leather” ads):
A key change is, not surprisingly, “the act or process of changing from one key to another” and it can be accomplished in a number of ways but according to Dalla Riva, the most popular key change in pop music for decades involved “shifting a song’s key either a half step or a whole step (i.e. one or two notes on the keyboard) near the end of the song.”
Dalla Riva found that 23% of all number one songs between 1958 and 1990 were in multiple keys, including Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”:
At the 2 minute and 52 second mark, Jackson sings “change” backed by a gospel choir as the key moves from G major to G# major. This shift makes you feel like you’ve received the Holy Spirit even if you’ve never been to a church.
The act of shifting a song’s key up either a half step or a whole step (i.e. one or two notes on the keyboard) near the end of the song, was the most popular key change for decades. In fact, 52 percent of key changes found in number one hits between 1958 and 1990 employ this change. You can hear it on “My Girl,” “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” and “Livin’ on a Prayer,” among many others.
After 1990, though, key changes became far more rare, which Dalla Riva attributes to “the rise of hip-hop and the growing popularity of digital music production.” You can read his arguments yourself, I would just point out that this is not him dissing hip-hop, his point is simply that the genre prioritizes rhythm and lyrics over melody. In fact, Dalla Riva himself admits key changes can be “heavy-handed” and “trite” and says for him, the key change in “Man in the Mirror” represents “the exception not the rule.”
Source: Chris Dalla Riva, Tedium.
As noted, Dalla Riva’s article has been picked up and discussed around the interwebs where the comments (which I’ve plucked from various music forums) have given me more to think about, ranging from ones I can more or less understand:
Seems to me that “key change” is two different things. One is a simple modulation, where the song is the same as it ever was, but suddenly it’s in another key. Not usually the most artful way of keeping a song interesting. The other kind of key change is the kind where a chunk of a song is best expressed as having a different key signature from the rest of it. Like the choruses of “Your Precious Love” and “Good Day Sunshine,” or the bridge of “Dream a Little Dream,” or bits in any number of Burt Bacharach songs.
To ones that will necessitate additional reading:
There are plenty of examples of interesting harmonic structure, cool counterpoint between bass and melody, and smart turnarounds in pop, even to this day. Moving the tonal center in the midst of a three minute composition, doesn’t necessarily improve the song or increase the sophistication of the composition.
I was trying to decide what the literary equivalent of the key change would and my first thought was SWITCHING TO ALL CAPS, but that’s not something writers really do. Then it occurred to me it might be the tangent—say, for instance, beginning a piece discussing the key change before suddenly shifting gears to consider a 1976 car ad featuring an Italian-American tenor, then coming back to the key change.
In which case, all I can say is, long live the key change!
Contenders
I haven’t been paying much attention to the pride of Howie Centre, 27-year-old pugilist Ryan Rozicki, of late, but a note from a friend alerted me to the latest twist in Rozicki’s search for an opponent, a search that began shortly after his controversial split decision win over Argentinian cruiserweight Yamil Peralta in Sydney on May 7. Following the fight, the WBC appointed a panel to review the decision, unanimously determined Peralta should have been awarded the victory and nullified Rozicki’s win.
Rozicki was scheduled to fight a rematch with Peralta in Sydney on October 15 but it was cancelled because, according to Daniel Otter, managing director for Three Lions Promotions which represents Rozicki:
Ryan had a 120-day suspension whereas Peralta only had 90 days. Team Peralta proceeded to do their own bout in Argentina which Peralta fought and won on September 17th. Ryan was still on suspension by the local commission in Nova Scotia.
Ryan was also supposed to fight Ilunga Junior Makabu for the WBC World Cruiserweight title on October 21 in Makabu’s home country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but that was postponed due to “logistical issues.” (Otter says both fights will be rescheduled.)
Rozicki’s opponent on December 2 (tonight) at Centre 200 was initially to have been an undefeated, 30-year-old German fighter named Mohammed Bekdash, but Bekdash withdrew in November due to “visa complications.”
Enter Allan Green of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a “world-renowned” 43-year-old fighter who had retired from the ring for five years before returning in 2018. Phil Ray, writing in response to the news that Green would meet Rozicki wrote:
Competing three times since January 2018, Green has beaten two no-hopers and lost via early knockout to Ahmed Elbiali at 175 pounds.
The American boxer weighed nine pounds overweight the last time he tried to make light heavyweight in December. This is obviously why he’s now accepted a fight at cruiserweight.
Ray said pitting Green against Rozicki was “nonsense,” pointing out that all the achievements attributed to Green in the pre-match publicity dated to at least 12 years ago (and included a “Knockout of the Year” from 2005.) Ray said the match should be stopped.
And it was, although not by the organizers—Three Lions announced on November 29th that Green had pulled out of the match, citing a hand injury suffered while sparring, so Rozicki will instead face Mexico’s Mario “El Ruso” Aguilar, a 32-year-old fighter who accidentally punch the ref during his last match in September:
THE REFEREE HAS GOT A CHIN 👊😂 pic.twitter.com/yWYR4oYoiI
— Chris Glover (@GloversStories) September 10, 2022
Aguilar, described in a Centre 200 press release as a “former Mexican Champion” and “WBO title challenger” went on to lose that last match—he was knocked out shortly after by his opponent, “unbeaten cruiserweight prospect” Brendan Glanton.
Tonight’s bout, the release explains, will be “fought in the heavy weight division, favouring the travelling Mexican”
So if you’ve been holding out on buying tickets, waiting for an opponent (or a weight class) more to your liking, fear not—there are still some $210 ringside seats available, according to the Centre 200 website.
I wonder if changing opponents at the last minute is the Sweet Science’s version of the key change?
