Nowadays, if there are even chords in a song, they are strictly diatonic and most often the old four chord trick (I - vi - IV - V) but in a different order (usually vi - IV - I - V). Because pop now is driven and quite often even produced by DJ's, it all needs to be mixable together and anything that modulates in a tricky way is just unhelpful in that context, not to mention that they generally have no clue about or interest in composition beyond finding someone who can sing a catchy top line. So pop now = a groove in 4/4 and those four chords in some order, but probably that one.
And nobody cares because the production is nice and shiny. In composition terms, the idiots have won.
Why does 80s pop music sound so different from todays'? I show you why in this video tutorial
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- KVRist
- 69 posts since 27 Dec, 2017
Great and helpful video! Thanks for posting. I’d like to be able to say that I knew everything you said already. But I don’t like to lie! 
In the beginning of the video, when you say “you may recognize these chords from one of the greatest ballads of the 80s”... I thought it sounded like “Steal Away” by Robbie Dupree, lol!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bi_WayqBVYg
In the beginning of the video, when you say “you may recognize these chords from one of the greatest ballads of the 80s”... I thought it sounded like “Steal Away” by Robbie Dupree, lol!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bi_WayqBVYg
