I-V-vi-IV

Wayfarer · 03-17-2011, 01:45 PM

I've been attempting to get into music theory a bit lately.... I still can't wrap my head around most of it, but one thing I have started to notice a lot more is this one particular chord progression. I knew it was fairly common prior to my embarrassingly basic understanding of theory, but good lord, it's absolutely everywhere. It's like the musical ****ing Blob. I firmly believe that one day it will consume music as a whole and all other chord progressions will be viewed as weird, obsolete, primitive-voodoo-jazz nonsense, and perhaps even outlawed.

Now I'm not saying that all songs utilizing this progression are necessarily bad or anything like that (how could anyone not like "No Woman No Cry"?), but I figured I'd start up a thread for all things pertaining to overused chord progressions. Are there any others you find almost annoyingly familiar? Any other songs not mentioned in the above videos that use the same I-V-vi-IV progression that you can think of?

If not all four, at least watch the Axis Of Awesome and Pachelbel Rant videos.... they're less to-prove-a-point and more for-the-luls.

clutnuckle · 03-17-2011, 02:22 PM

I-VI-IV-V is almost equally as popular, imo. See most recently "Friday", "Baby", etc. Even simpler is the common I-V-IV-V... A lot of simple perfect-interval progressions exist out there.

If said chord progressions truly do take over, then innovation is going to have to happen in weirder ways. Should be interesting. Alternatives should be found and seized for life.

Burning Down · 03-17-2011, 03:08 PM

From what I understand, that particular chord progression is one of the most pleasing to the ears, and so therefore the song might be a hit and will make lots of money. Plus it's just damn easy to play on any instrument!

After taking music analysis classes like, for example, Analysis of 17th Century Fugues or Post-Tonal Analysis, a progression like that seems so trivial

03-17-2011, 01:45 PM	#1 (permalink)
Wayfarer Registered Abuser Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 573	I-V-vi-IV I've been attempting to get into music theory a bit lately.... I still can't wrap my head around most of it, but one thing I have started to notice a lot more is this one particular chord progression. I knew it was fairly common prior to my embarrassingly basic understanding of theory, but good lord, it's absolutely everywhere. It's like the musical ****ing Blob. I firmly believe that one day it will consume music as a whole and all other chord progressions will be viewed as weird, obsolete, primitive-voodoo-jazz nonsense, and perhaps even outlawed. Now I'm not saying that all songs utilizing this progression are necessarily bad or anything like that (how could anyone not like "No Woman No Cry"?), but I figured I'd start up a thread for all things pertaining to overused chord progressions. Are there any others you find almost annoyingly familiar? Any other songs not mentioned in the above videos that use the same I-V-vi-IV progression that you can think of? If not all four, at least watch the Axis Of Awesome and Pachelbel Rant videos.... they're less to-prove-a-point and more for-the-luls.

03-17-2011, 02:22 PM	#2 (permalink)
clutnuckle Music Addict Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: -_-_-_-_~__~-~_-`_`-~_-`-~-~ Posts: 1,276	I-VI-IV-V is almost equally as popular, imo. See most recently "Friday", "Baby", etc. Even simpler is the common I-V-IV-V... A lot of simple perfect-interval progressions exist out there. If said chord progressions truly do take over, then innovation is going to have to happen in weirder ways. Should be interesting. Alternatives should be found and seized for life.

03-17-2011, 03:08 PM	#3 (permalink)
Burning Down The Music Guru. Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Beyond the Wall Posts: 4,858	From what I understand, that particular chord progression is one of the most pleasing to the ears, and so therefore the song might be a hit and will make lots of money. Plus it's just damn easy to play on any instrument! After taking music analysis classes like, for example, Analysis of 17th Century Fugues or Post-Tonal Analysis, a progression like that seems so trivial