When trouble strikes in music town, there’s one guy who gets the call. That’s me, Joe Treble, forensic musicologist. This week, I've got one of the most shocking cases I've ever worked. Someone killed the key change in pop music, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to find the perpetrator.
The key change used to be at large on the Billboard charts. From the 1950s to the 1990s, 20-30% of all number one hits featured one. In Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody," the key change hits right before the final chorus. The song’s harmonic center shifts up, raising the pitch of the song, challenging the vocalist to hit higher and higher notes, juicing the big finish with excitement and pep. But starting in the 1990s the key change virtually disappeared from the Hot 100. Now, hit songs start and end in the same key, and no one seems to have even noticed. Except for me.
This investigation will bring me face to face with a rogue's gallery of suspects and sources: Chris Dalla Riva, music and data specialist; Brandon McFarland, alias 1-O.A.K., producer; Emily King, singer and songwriter. Each interrogation brings me closer revealing the murdered, but I be able to handle the terrible truth? Tune in as I tackle the hardest case of my career: the case of the missing key change!
Songs Discussed
Emily King - Georgia Sleepwalker, Medal, The Way that You Love Me
YG, Kamaiyah, RJ, Mitch, Ty Dolla $ign - Do Yo Dance (feat. Kamaiyah, RJ, Mitch, Ty Dolla $ign)
Beyoncé - Love On Top
Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer
Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)
Frank Sinatra - Strangers In The Night
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Silk Sonic's Retro Soul (with Tayla Parx)
AJR Conjure Broadway on 'OK Orchestra'
Return of the Funk Guitar: Cory Wong Breaks Down Dua Lipa, Jessie Ware and Nile Rodgers
What the 63rd Grammys say about the state of pop
Kimbra reflects on a song that we used to know
Kaytranada's journey from basement beat-making to the Grammys
JP Saxe Didn’t Mean for His Grammy Hit ‘If the World Was Ending’ to Be So Literal
Adrian Younge's new project sounds like James Baldwin meets Marvin Gaye
The Scandalous Sounds of Bridgerton (w Kris Bowers)
How The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” used retro sounds and modern bass to break every record
Epik High is our gateway into Korean hip hop (with Tablo)
Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” is a full throttle power ballad
D.O.C. (Death of the Chorus) with Emily Warren
ICYMI: The End Of Pop Music As We Know It: Fall Out Boy & Charli XCX
ICYMI: Do You Believe in Life After Autotune?
Wham! Op. 84 “Last Christmas” with Chilly Gonzales
Taylor Swift has "evermore" of a good thing
Women's Rap Renaissance
Red Hot + Blue with Meshell Ndegeocello
The Cyndi Lauper Conspiracy (with Sam Sanders)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Good One: A Podcast About Jokes
Vulture Festival Podcast
The Vulture TV Podcast