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Am i the only one who hates key changes?


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Old 23-01-2003, 15:33
misterpartridge
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Every single pop ballad these days seems to have the obligatory key change in the last segment of the song - I can sense exactly when they're going to arrive, and fear them deeply. They're like those old lifts you used to have to sit on in ski resorts that would yank you by the crotch all of a sudden. Apart from lengthening the song to the required 4 minutes (helped by "chorus x 4, ad lib to fade" as Smash Hits used to put it in the lyrics when I was a boy), what the hell is the point in thesr things? They make the songs sound metallic, flat and, I don't know, somehow unsettling. The only two effective key changes I can think of are in Cole Porter's Every Time We Say Goodbye:

"How strange the change
from major to minor"

where it's actually reflecting the meaning of the song, and Michael Jackson's Baby Be Mine, where there's a change towards the end that I thought was the batteries in my Walkman going when I first heard it - it's so bizarre that it works.

Anyone know of another effective key change? Or can we put them in Room 101 along with snoods?
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Old 23-01-2003, 15:41
iain
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hi mrp!

surely you realise the reason for this?

when performing on TOTP (or equivalent), the girl/boy band in question can start the song sat on their stools, and this key change acts as a crucial cue to the *stepping off the stools for the last verse and repeat chorus to fade and get the crowd to go wild* manoeuvre.....surely???

Iain

ps - whatever happened to that lemar bloke? you'll be telling me next that the girls in tatu aren't even lesbians at all, and its all just a cheap music industry marketing ploy......

pps did you read *smash hits* when Neil Tennant was at the helm, the editorial used to rip the piss out of everyone, and Black Type reigned supreme in the letters page? Ah, them were the days.....
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Old 23-01-2003, 17:03
greg
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Finally someone else who gets really pissed off by key changes.. the sad fact is though even some credible bands such as Ash over use them.

The biggest culprits though are ballads.

Grrr.
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Old 23-01-2003, 17:07
misterpartridge
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[quote]Originally posted by iain
hi mrp!

surely you realise the reason for this?

when performing on TOTP (or equivalent), the girl/boy band in question can start the song sat on their stools, and this key change acts as a crucial cue to the *stepping off the stools for the last verse and repeat chorus to fade and get the crowd to go wild* manoeuvre.....surely???


Of course! Silly of me.

ps - whatever happened to that lemar bloke?

Not sure if you've been to the FA forum recently, but - and this honest to God is not a wind-up - the bloke is playing Butlin's this week.

I'm serious!

you'll be telling me next that the girls in tatu aren't even lesbians at all, and its all just a cheap music industry marketing ploy......

God, some people are cynical.

pps did you read *smash hits* when Neil Tennant was at the helm, the editorial used to rip the piss out of everyone, and Black Type reigned supreme in the letters page? Ah, them were the days.....

Not sure if it wasn't after Tennant's reign - I'm 29. But, yeah, lots of black type.

Anyone remember Look-In?
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Old 24-01-2003, 07:15
metafis
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The only interesting key change Ive heard recently is in the ketchup song.
The chorus, which repeats 3 times, changes key each time.
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Old 24-01-2003, 08:51
micksea241
 
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Well he'll hate Iron Maiden. Most of their songs have about 3 or 4 keys changes during the song.
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Old 24-01-2003, 18:24
RealElvis
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Yeah I remember Look In and the good old days of Smash HIts when it used to have real articles and more text than pictures!

Here's one that deserves its own thread (only just joined so cant make one!)..

do you remember Smash Hits used to do something creative to say what was coming in the next issue, such as mock film posters, shopping lists, blackboards etc....

well, one week (fortnight?) there was a mock up of the Radio Times with titles of the shows and a cast listing of the bands interviewed, but also the interviewers (are you still with me??).
One such cast listing read:

Neil Tennant ...... Boy in pet shop

Is this where they got their name from?? It was a long time before the Pet Shop Boys existed!! I noticed it when throwing out a load of old copies (I cant NOT look thru mags again b4 i throw them out)
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Old 26-01-2003, 14:43
Tenesmus
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Originally posted by micksea241
Well he'll hate Iron Maiden. Most of their songs have about 3 or 4 keys changes during the song.
Well, some do. But if you want to send him apoplectic I suggest Emerson Lake & Palmer.
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