Fascinating top 40 right now...

What do the following songs have in common?:

Jason Mraz - I'm Yours (the verse, chorus)
Nickelback - Gotta be Somebody (The entire song, minus the pre-chorus bits)
Taylor Swift - Love Story (The chorus)
T.I. - Whatever You Like (The whole thing)

They all share the same chord progression. ...which isn't to say that they are the same song, and I'm not about to start talking about the demise of music and originality etc..etc... Instead, I am going to talk about how fascinating! This is.

Wait, let's back up. A chord progression is like the bones of the song. It's the underlying tonal structure that repeats over and over again (while the melody is sung over it). What the heck do I mean? Well..listen to the melody played by the bass guitar in this classic U2 song:

SeeqPod - Playable Search

See (...er..hear) how the bass plays the same 4 notes, in the same order...throughout the whole song? The vocal melody, and the guitar parts change change, but the bass doesn't... yet it all still sounds okay. This is because the bass is playing the "bones" of the song.

Those same "bones" that are used in that U2 song is used in all those songs I mentioned at the beginning. True, they are in a different key, but the "bones" are still the same...and hence the actual tonal structure is very very similar between all of those songs. In fact, this chord progression is EVERYWHERE. I can't think of one band/singer that does not have a song with this chord progression in it at some point. Usually it's fairly obvious. Listen to the guitar in that Jason Mraz song now, with the U2 bassline in mind.. I think you'll be able to tell:


All the other songs I mentioned are structured similarly. However, while the Jason Mraz, Nickelback, and Taylor Swift songs are easy to spot, the T.I. song is a little tricky! Instead of starting C-G-A-F, it starts at F-C-G-A.. so it's the same progression, just slowed down, de-emphasized and turned around a little. I absolutly find it amazing when somebody finds a new way to "hide" this incredibly common chord progression (because it's otherwise too easy to sound like some other song).

I go around "collecting" songs that hide this chord progression in a way that makes it sound different. Liiiiike, the pre-chorus and chorus of this famous song. It is structured similarly to the T.I. song, in that it starts this classic chord progression at what is "typically" the last chord (but since it loops around it's all the same really). Pay attention to when he sings "What have I become" and the chorus:

...in fact, this is in the same key as "Love Story", the Taylor Swift song! How cool is that?

Another song that hides it well..is from one of my favourite bands, Sigur-Ros:

What they did here was slow it right down..and play the third chord in the progression one beat earlier. All combined, even if the bass is playing the chord progression quite straight forwardly, it isn't immediately obvious! Neaaat.

There are SO many song with this chord progression, it's great as a medley. Why? Because the "bones" are the same, you can just keep playing the same thing on your instrument over and over again...and just sing a different song over it. Here are some fun one's I found:

I'm Yours (Jason Mraz) + No Woman No Cry (Bob Marley)


No Woman No Cry (Bob Marley), Glycerine (Bush), Damnit (Blink 182), When I Come Around (Green Day)


*I squashed the videos on purpose, because otherwise this post is going to take up too much space*