SWITCHED ON POP

blog post eleven
extra credit- is there an indie rock conspiracy?
they say that there is a certain chord progression that all indie songs that go to number one or become big hits or singles have. The lead singer of Joywave who is on the show refers to it as a "cheat code" for success in alternative music. the motif in question uses five notes all in the pentatonic scale. the pentatonic scale is found everywhere- in all types of global music and all genres that we listen to the United States. the four things that are needed in a song to make it get in peoples head are faster songs, generic, easy to remember melody that still has something that can set it apart, it starts by going up then going down in pitch, and lots of exposure. they discuss how sometimes the pentatonic scale is left for a scale that is very similar to the pentatonic scale with a blues note added in. they come to the conclusion that there is no insane shadow organization that is running all of the indie music. personally i was never convinced that there was something going on because one of the biggest pieces of evidence that the theorist presented was that the songs go up and then down in pitch. that seems extremely broad and generic and not unique to alternative music. if they don't go up and then down, they would go down and then up which could be a whole new conspiracy.

Vox "Is There An Indie Rock Conspiracy? (Featuring Joywave)" Switched On Pop, Spotify, 15 May 2019, https://open.spotify.com/show/1sgWaKtQxwfjUpZnnK8r7J