The WEIRD Story of Ugly Notes in Pop Songs
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 มิ.ย. 2024
- The secret shape that unites music & storytelling -- & that hides inside your favorite pop songs (& music in general).
Whether Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Sara Bareilles, Jacob Collier, or any other artist, it's the setup, tension & resolution that pulls on our emotions.
You don't need advanced music theory to hear that wrong notes sound bad -- but armed with the shape of stories (thanks Kurt Vonnegut & Michelle McGhee!), you can make something more beautiful than if you had just notes in the key.
Featured songs:
- Halley's Comet by Billie Eilish
- brutal by Olivia Rodrigo
- Hallelujah (cover) & Hide & Seek (cover) by Jacob Collier
- She Used To Be Mine by Sara Bareilles
- If I Aint Got You by Alicia Keys
- Toy Story
Jacob Collier Hallelujah transcription (what a feat!) by Carter Datz
• Hallelujah (Live on St...
Clip from Kurt Vonnegut's Shape of Stories talk:
• Kurt Vonnegut on the S...
(WIth apologies to Nick Jonas!)
0:00 Why are artists playing wrong notes on purpose?!
1:05 The structure behind so many stories
2:00 The connection between story & wrong notes
2:30 Jazz, baby
2:40 There's an art to it...
2:50 Look at: She Used To Be Mine by Sara Bareilles
3:37 Look at: If I Aint Got You by Alicia Keys
4:06 Look at: brutal by Olivia Rodrigo
4:32 Why this shape never gets old
5:10 definitely not me sneaking in another musical story - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
As some of you might have noticed: there are lot of music more specific, theory-ish ways of understanding what Michelle & I are talking about more broadly here. They go by terms like: chromaticism, modal mixture, voice leading, "Neapolitan 6th", leading into a chord from its relative dominant chord (eg A7=>Dm). Feel free to dig into those! I also want to remind us, though: "music theory" is really just how any set of musicians communicate musical ideas without literally playing them. And, while this video didn't get into the nitty-gritty, the idea of "setup, tension, release" is something that definitely helps musicians communicate. So you're learning music theory! (Unless you define "music theory" as "the harmonic style of 18th century school of European musicians", then no, it's just a fun video 😊)
I love music! but know absolutely nothing about music theory. Love how the visuals make it super easy to understand where these "wrong notes" are. Bravo David! Another amazing video!
Thanks so much, Amen! I'm glad to be on this journey of learning to tell visual stories together. ❤
Fascinating! This shows perfectly that the difference between being good and being an expert is knowing when to break a rule
So true! Yeah, this video was inspired by expert composer Jacob Collier talking about how there's no wrong notes, just notes that haven't been given a resolution :)
BRILLIANT! COGENT! (GLORIOUSLY EDITED!)
you've done it again! So fun to see Michelle McGhee too!
It's almost like i had several people named Michelle who were way smarter than me guiding me the entire time 😉
Another great one, love the video and the editorial masterpiece!
Inspiring me to push that creative edit even harder!
Keep it up David and Team👌
That means so much, Osaket! Can't wait to see your next video :)
This channel is gold, no idea how it hasn't blown up yet. Good job👍
Bret, this comment made my day ❤ As a creative yourself, you know how much love we put into our work. It's so heartening to know others see something in it!
Really a great video, amazing explanation 🙌
Thanks so much, Akash! Haha you should have seen the shambles this video was in until Michelle & others really helped get it in good shape, so I can't take too much credit here :)
LORD OF THE TUBE: RETURN OF THE KING!!!
Why did I think the thumbnail was referencing love dive 😭
haha "it's so bad it's good"! didn't realize that song had those lyrics. I've actually changed the thumbnail for others since tho! Maybe we should have pulled live dive into this video :)
@@itsdavidmora I’d love love dive in any video :D (but I enjoyed this one even without IVE, great work!)
@@jisoo1571 Awww, thanks! I don't listen to a ton of K-Pop, so I appreciate you widening my horizons :)
This is such an awesome video, why doesn’t it have more views? 😢❤
That means a lot, thank you!
I think it'll find its way into the right audience eventually. For now I'm grateful to get to keep creating & sharing with this community :)
please please don't stop making videos!
also, loved the one on Johnny Harris, can you cover other artists?
Thanks so much, Somrat! That encouragement really made my day ❤ I've 2 videos coming up next: on Mr Beast & Ryan Trahan. Are their any artists you were thinking of in particular you'd like to see?
Great video! You deserve more views, man!
Thank you so much! Excited top see your channel rise & become the next Every Frame a Painting! ❤️
im here for this.
Gotta keep the randos like you happy 😉 But for reals, I'm so glad you liked it, I know you're deep in the world of storytelling!
Beautifully explained
thank you, Usama! glad to be creating alongside you, looking forward to your next video!
Video: See here's a wrong note coming
V7b9/II: Am I joke to you?
Hehehe but seriously a great video to introduce the concept of inserting tension, the philosophy and application is flawless and its a good way to get beginners engaged with advanced harmony 😊
Hahaha, thanks so much, So-El!
You have comments turned off, so I want to let you know here I'm vibing to your "Relax" cover right now. So groovy, love your voice & arrangement. Also such a simple one-scene video, but really effective.
Wow I hope you keep creating & sharing it with us!
I gots to get me some wrong notes
Haha. But on the reals, I think you actually have so many great spicy notes in your songs!
dude I'm never clicking on your videos again, I think you're using Jhonny Harris's formula thing, but once I click your videos I just cannot click off, it's wayy to captivating like it's insane, I just can't click off! incredible stuff
Thank you so much, Siddhant! I'm really glad it's engaging, looking forward to sharing more soon!
I've been working on a script for a while focused on MrBeast's rise, and it's starting to come together, so aiming to get that out in the next few weeks hopefully!
And, to your point, yes I am definitely trying to use Johnny Harris' formula of "show, then tell", so glad it's coming through!
Its not wrong at all. ^^ It is called chromatic. When you take the "wrong" chord three steps away from your tonic (homechord) in either direction it is already called a chromatic mediant and composers of film score do use that all the time. 😊 It makes stuff simply more interesting and it can create this typical "cinematic" soundtrack feeling as we are just that used to this type of style in that context. I think in rock they call it borrowed chords.
Thanks for adding that to the mix! I like the term "borrowed chords"!
Really interesting
Can you please make a video on Joji's glimpse of us
That song just hits too different and make me feel all kinds of stuff
Oooh just listened to it for the first time at your recommendation. yeah wow it's something powerful! don't know that it'll make itself into the video queue anytime soon, but I'm really inspired by the way the music & the video work together, so who knows I may pull it in as an example in the near future. thank you!
alternative title: pop artist discovers non-diatonic chords
hahaha pretty much 😃
Hey David I am From India Your Content Is Awesome. Keep it up 👍
Thanks so much, Niranjan!
It looks like you've been really some great work yourself, can't wait to see how your channel grows & evolves! We need more voices in the video explainer space. You're working really matters, keep it up!
please do creators breakdown like johnny harris
Hey, Ziad! You got it, some more videos about MrBeast & Ryan Trahan coming in the next few months :)
Uhm... these aren't wrong notes. None of these are. It's just chromaticism.
death is certainly stable
real but true!
Wow this modern artists are amazing
Chopin: am i a joke to you?
Haha, sorry Chopin! :D
This is an incredibly musically incorrect video, for anybody interested in really understanding it. But I suppose it might be useful for a general popular audience to understand things like modal mixture. For the musicians around, it's risable though.
Thanks for calling that out! Interestingly, this video actually started out as a pretty niche exploration of music theory that started when Michelle Mcghee & I wanted to better understand when & why notes are pulled in from outside keys in our favorite songs. What we found could largely be connected to concepts people think about as (as you say) chromaticism, modal mixture, voice leading, & actually just as simple as leading into a chord from it's respective dominant (eg this is really what's going on in the She Used To Be Mine section called out, the "wrong note" is really just A7=>Dm). We were also really intrigued by the Jacob Collier idea of "no wrong notes, just notes that haven't found their consequence yet" & his idea. of vertical vs horizontal composition. th-cam.com/video/meha_FCcHbo/w-d-xo.html
You'll notice my previous videos were more on that level: th-cam.com/video/kNt97RrPllc/w-d-xo.html
However, since we wrote the script, I decided to steer this channel away from music theory & towards more general explorations of creative structure. Hence this reincarnation of the original script focused on the more accessible ideas of tension & release.
If you ever are working on something more in the nitty-grity, let me know, I'd love to review a script or collaborate!