Thus, low melodies on the guitar sound almost as though they consist of major chords instead of single notes, and in almost all cases, these chords will be in different keys.Īs a result, major chord modulations are ubiquitous in the classic rock era, with some songs even consisting entirely of relatively unadorned major chords. The major third, as the fourth overtone of a given root note, strongly contributes to the timbre of such a harmonically dense instrument, to the extent that it is implied by all notes, especially ones in the lower register where the notes’ harmonics are in our ears’ most sensitive range.

It is no surprise that this tendency co-evolved with the popularity of the distorted electric guitar. Even as jazz pollinated pop music with even more unconventional modulations, they were usually achieved with a certain degree of subtlety, often using chord extensions and dense voicings to ‘smooth out’ transitions.ĭespite its reputation as a less refined genre of music, rock music (especially what we refer to today as ‘classic rock’) cemented the freedom with which bold major chord modulations are utilized and accepted within pop music. As the musical zeitgeist became more informed by blues and early jazz, other modulations such as temporary dominant chords were used to enhance the tension of chord movements. Some consisted of single discrete changes from a root key to ‘adjacent’ keys, which shared most notes with the original key, a function common in classical music. In pop music’s early forms, chord modulations were used sparingly and very purposefully. But in order to understand the functions of this technique, we must examine how modulations have evolved throughout the history of recorded ‘pop’ music in general. In particular, the frequent modulations within the song ‘Apocalypse Dreams’ are heavily informed by classic rock technique. Tame Impala’s stylistic foundation, as a psychedelic rock band, is heavily influenced by historical trends within rock music.

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