Reading About Music Is Like...
Feb. 18th, 2013 05:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingman... well, that doesn't matter right now. But here's an interesting view on why major-key music makes us happy, while minor-key music makes us sad. Mostly
Be warned. The first video link is to a digitally major-ised version of REM's 'Losing My Religion' which, once heard, will never leave your brain...
There are, of course, exceptions to that rule, just as there are songs that flirt with both major & minor for different moods. 'Comfortably Numb' by Pink Floyd could never be accused of being a shiny, happy song, but the shift between verses in minor & a major chorus definitely moves the feel & atmosphere around. Speaking of Shiny, Happy songs, the story goes that Michael Stipe wrote that chorus to deliberately use words that make your mouth 'smile' when you say them. Try it...
More years ago than I care to think about, a singer left one of my nascent bands because she didn't like the way my Musical Foil & I wrote in minor keys "All the time" (Just for the record, we didn't) & that it made band practice depressing for her. The particular piece she quit over was later given lyrics by a different (and MUCH better!!!) singer, which told a little 'slice of life' story, neither happy nor sad. I would, however, like to clarify that the thunderstorm we layered into the music was purely for lyrical illustration, NOT because we were a bunch of proto-Emo Miserablists... As the handful of people who ever saw that band play live could attest... if we could find them these days
Be warned. The first video link is to a digitally major-ised version of REM's 'Losing My Religion' which, once heard, will never leave your brain...
There are, of course, exceptions to that rule, just as there are songs that flirt with both major & minor for different moods. 'Comfortably Numb' by Pink Floyd could never be accused of being a shiny, happy song, but the shift between verses in minor & a major chorus definitely moves the feel & atmosphere around. Speaking of Shiny, Happy songs, the story goes that Michael Stipe wrote that chorus to deliberately use words that make your mouth 'smile' when you say them. Try it...
More years ago than I care to think about, a singer left one of my nascent bands because she didn't like the way my Musical Foil & I wrote in minor keys "All the time" (Just for the record, we didn't) & that it made band practice depressing for her. The particular piece she quit over was later given lyrics by a different (and MUCH better!!!) singer, which told a little 'slice of life' story, neither happy nor sad. I would, however, like to clarify that the thunderstorm we layered into the music was purely for lyrical illustration, NOT because we were a bunch of proto-Emo Miserablists... As the handful of people who ever saw that band play live could attest... if we could find them these days
