A corpus analysis of rock harmony — Popular Music

Claims

1. common-practice-norms
   Conventional tonal theory states common-practice harmonic principles not as inviolable laws but as general norms that apply most of the time: harmonies fall into tonic, pre-dominant and dominant categories, pre-dominants move to dominants and dominants to tonics, and certain root motions, especially ascending fourths, are favoured. Research has shown that these rules are largely followed in common-practice composition.

   "The conventional wisdom of tonal music theory offers us a set of basic principles about common-practice harmony – not, of course, inviolable and exceptionless laws, but general norms that apply most of the time. ... Harmonies are grouped into three categories of tonic (I), pre-dominant (IV and II) and dominant (V and VII) (the status of VI and III in this scheme is dependent on context); generally speaking, pre-dominants move to dominants, dominants move to tonics, and tonics can move to any category. Another widely accepted principle is that certain root motions are particularly favoured, especially ascending motion by fourths. ... recent research has shown that, indeed, these rules are largely followed in common-practice composition (Huron 2006; Temperley 2009)."

   Locator: page: 47-48 · Quote language: en
2. corpus-and-iv
   De Clercq and Temperley analysed 100 rock songs, the 20 top-ranked songs from each decade from the 1950s to the 1990s on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, using Roman numerals; the two authors' analyses agreed over 90 per cent of the time. IV was the most common chord after I and was especially common before the tonic.

   "As a corpus, we used Rolling Stone magazine's list of the '500 Greatest Songs of All Time'; we took the 20 top-ranked songs from each decade (the 1950s through the 1990s), creating a set of 100 songs. Both authors analysed all 100 songs by hand, using conventional Roman numeral symbols. Agreement between the two sets of analyses was over 90 per cent. ... The results showed that IV is the most common chord after I and is especially common preceding the tonic."

   Locator: page: 47 · Quote language: en
3. rock-findings
   In the rock corpus, the strong asymmetries of root motion found in common-practice music were notably absent: ascending and descending forms of each root interval occurred with similar frequency, with fourths by far the most common. After IV and V, VI and ♭VII formed a secondary group of chords. Harmonic structures in the 1950s were almost exclusively confined to I, IV and V, with a broader distribution in later decades.

   "After IV and V, VI and bVII form a clear secondary category ... With regard to patterns of harmonic progression, the strong asymmetries of root motion found in common-practice music are notably absent in rock. ... Again, a striking symmetry is seen between the ascending and descending forms of each interval, with motion by ascending and descending fourths being by far the most common. ... the most notable pattern that emerges is a shift between the 1950s, when harmonic structures are almost exclusively confined to I, IV and V, and later decades, when a broader distribution emerges that remains fairly stable between 1960 and 2000."

   Locator: page: 67-68 · Quote language: en