What genres (especially current pop genres) make the heaviest use of the minor key?

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I suspect you're going to find the minor key everywhere you look nowadays. Dance music of all sorts has been relentlessly minor since its inception, practically. Rock and some pop seem to have maintained a taste for major exercises once in a while, but hip-hop, techno, and many other genres long ago opted for the more intense and yes, occasionally depressing sound of the minor.

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 1 June 2003 01:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

Millar, that sort of shoots down my theory that a preference for a minor sound, or modal music, is somehow a big factor in my taste (since it hasn't been enough to get me into most dance music). Of course, I already know that there's a lot of modal music I don't especially click with, so duh.

However, I'd still be intersted in hearing more responses.

― Rockist Scientist, Sunday, 1 June 2003 01:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

yeah see modal music = the blues. Tricky, that. (I know that I prefer minor/modal music to other kinds, but I always sort of knew that the ultimate deciding factor in whether or not I liked something was the sonic texture, if you will, the combination of timbre and tuning and effecting that makes it all a big pleasant noise (also funky riddims))

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 1 June 2003 01:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

and in case you weren't totally down, the blues = practically all pop music of the past century.

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 1 June 2003 01:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm not sure I can accept that (even without jumping into "exotic" foreign pop musics). I actually don't like the blues, in a relatively pure form, for the most part. I don't think you could find a blues foundation in even all Beatles songs, for example, and they are a pretty mainstream example of pop music.

(Also, though, Afro-Latin music isn't structured around the blues, even if there are probably some common roots to both if you take it back a step.)

― Rockist Scientist, Sunday, 1 June 2003 01:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

also, isn't most pop music structured around 8-measure phrases rather than 12?

Also, most pop is 4/4 rather than 3/4.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Sunday, 1 June 2003 02:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

I don't mean 12-bar blues, specifically, I was talking about the mode

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 1 June 2003 02:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

"modal music = the blues"

what do you mean by this? blues is based on a pentatonic scale with a flat 5 and a I IV V progression with all the chords being dominant sevens.

― brains (cerybut), Sunday, 1 June 2003 02:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

Pop music of the 20th century was decidedly not modal in the sense that I understand modal music. I think Kind Of Blue when I think modal.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=C2613

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Sunday, 1 June 2003 02:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

http://www.amzmusiczine.com/07_01/pix/liljoncd.jpg http://www.down-south.com/images/covers/louisiana/CashMoneyRecords-PlatinumHits.jpg http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/drc900/c906/c9063168c90.jpg http://www.bet.com/images/bigbarker/pastor_troy_universal_soldier_bb.jpg

― trife (simon_tr), Sunday, 1 June 2003 02:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

fucking shit! trife came back! Big ups.

trife please stay. This place need good writers.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Sunday, 1 June 2003 03:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

4real considering the masterpieces im droppin on this thread!! =-0 ok heres an ilm qn, yall are all into that global groove hai hai song by the jigga chorus crew but its a straight jack of toya - whats a girl to do! go cop that shit!!

― trife (simon_tr), Sunday, 1 June 2003 03:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

Hip-hop and straight pop often use minor keys.
See Britney Spears,
"Baby One More Time, "Oops I Did It Again?"
and Blackalicious,
"Sky Is Falling."
It's not that exotic. You may be referring to modes, like
that used by the awesome vocal line in Jay-Z's "The Bounce"
(though that song is ruined by a lame guest appearance).

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Sunday, 1 June 2003 04:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

Pop country still uses lots of minor keys. It's a cheap trick, like divas popping up a key to add emotion to a final chorus.

― Dan I., Sunday, 1 June 2003 05:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

a cheap trick indeed, but it works. Better than the 909 snare roll.

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 1 June 2003 06:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

pop country would be better if they used 808 jeep beetz.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Sunday, 1 June 2003 06:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

Nu Metal

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 1 June 2003 14:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

eight months pass...

revive

― revive, Wednesday, 18 February 2004 22:38 (twenty years ago) link

erm... reggae? possibly

― search and delete (searchanddelete), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 22:44 (twenty years ago) link

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