Modulation / key changes have been used in music for ages but the style I’m talking about is the distinctive last verse (or chorus) sudden key change up to power through to the end. Seems to have come about sometime in the 60s/70s and was everywhere in the 80s onwards.
Examples:
Heaven is a place on earth - Belinda Carlisle
I will always love you - Whitney Houston
But who popularised it? What was the first big song to do it and set the style for the genre?
Modulation fluctuates in popularity. About a quarter of number one hits from the 60s through the 90s utilized it, whereas in the 2010s only one number one hit did.
Why the key change has disappeared from top-charting tune - NPR - All Things Considered
Edit: I realize this doesn’t answer your question, but I’m not sure there really is an answer. It’s such an old technique, musically speaking.
You see it in classical music all the time, like minor to major changes leading to crescendos or other larger shifts leading to the end of a movement. Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin. It’s nothing new.
Agree. But mine is a question about style as much as anything. It’s use in 80s ballads is distinctive. Same key throughout song then a singular upshift for the last verse / chorus. I’m not referring to music that modulates throughout the whole piece, or makes a change near the end having done it in several other places.
There is a cool video by David Bennett about this. I can’t seem to remember if he mentions who was the first one, but he puts on a lot of samples I wasn’t aware of
That style actually pre-dates the 80’s by at least a few decades. In more traditional music, particularly Christian hymns, that’s referred to as a “descant”. It was popularized in church music in the early 20th century by Ralph Vaughn Williams.Edit: See comment below.
That style actually pre-dates the 80’s by at least a few decades. In more traditional music, particularly Christian hymns, that’s referred to as a “descant”. It was popularized in church music in the early 20th century by Ralph Vaughn Williams.
Descant is a vocal harmony above the melody, whereas in hymnody most harmony is below the melody. They show up in final stanzas, most frequently.
What they’re talking about here is modulation, where the key shifts by a step or two (or maybe a half step). It’s sometimes seen as a bit cheesy nowadays, but I love a good modulation.
That makes sense and I just learned something new. Thanks for the correction!
Thanks for the correction!
Thanks for the gratitude!
I know nothing about music history, but consider that you’re basically describing yodeling
I know almost nothing about yodelling, but of the little I’ve heard it has never struck me as a dramatic key change
