The Four Chord Song

Via CompulsoryAccount7746, Justin Griffith, and the Youtube recommended links on the last video I posted today, every song in the whole universe is identical zomg!!!

Okay, not every song, and not identical, but there’s a crapload that are comprised of the same four chords. This isn’t exactly a new observation, but seeing Axis Of Awesome put them all together back to back like this is pretty damn sweet. This parallels with the fact that you can apparently also sing a large number of songs to a large number of tunes, thanks to a poetic and musical scansion called common meter.

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The Four Chord Song
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8 thoughts on “The Four Chord Song

  1. 5

    Heh. One of the things that makes having spent 10 years in a church choir not a total waste of time is that I learned a hell of a lot about music that I otherwise would probably not have. Including the bit about meter, and how you can sing any song to any other tune with the same one. Hymnals typically have multiple indexes in the back, including one that lists meters, so if #123 fits the liturgical theme but the music director really hates the tune, xe can easily find an alternate that still works. (Drives the choir nuts though, having to read the words from #123 and the harmony from #456).

  2. 6

    If you’ve ever watched any of the Vlogbrothers (or their related stuff crash course) on youtube you might recognize this one with Hank talking about a chord progression popular from the 50’s

  3. 8

    Back when I was in church youth group we used to get a kick out of singing “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun”.

    Yeah, we were that pathetic.

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