Consider Majer Lazer/DJ Snake/MØ's Somebody to Lean On (2:59 runtime, vs. Jpop more commonly get closer to 5 mins) The chord progression is something like X-Y-X-Z(sometimes W) And the ENTIRE SONG is that, so it feels like just a two-chord song, always returning to chord X. The chorus melody is a version of the chord progression, (A-Bflat G/A-Bflat D) repeated over each chord, the "All we need is somebody to lean on" sung over the fourth chord. (Plus some percussion flourishes) Even the verse and pre-chorus compositions are all just variations on those intervals.
The DJ Snake solo is such an outlier to the minimal unity of the rest of the piece, that it had to be saved for the bridge.
Drake's Hotline Bling is only two chords. The. Entire. Song. (Okay, there's two variant chords right at the end of the prechorus, which is what helps give the chorus a little kick. Subtle control of tension)
And for a music market so influenced by rap and hip hop, minimal chord changes make sense. Not just from a sampling perspective, but because when you're coming up with rap/lyrics, it's like doing a jazz improv, where the base measures should hold steady and repetitive. The shorter the base excerpt, the better, because you can riff more rhythmic variations on it, whereas for some longer phrases, you have to wait until the end measure to add those flourishes. Or freewheel off into modern jazz endless solos land that few in the regular populace can make sense of.
Any American Top 40 exceptions to this recently have been explicitly throwback songs. (Which, admittedly, there are a good amount of. Lots of mining the past these days)
The chord progression is something like X-Y-X-Z(sometimes W) And the ENTIRE SONG is that, so it feels like just a two-chord song, always returning to chord X.
The chorus melody is a version of the chord progression, (A-Bflat G/A-Bflat D) repeated over each chord, the "All we need is somebody to lean on" sung over the fourth chord. (Plus some percussion flourishes)
Even the verse and pre-chorus compositions are all just variations on those intervals.
The DJ Snake solo is such an outlier to the minimal unity of the rest of the piece, that it had to be saved for the bridge.
Drake's Hotline Bling is only two chords. The. Entire. Song. (Okay, there's two variant chords right at the end of the prechorus, which is what helps give the chorus a little kick. Subtle control of tension)
And for a music market so influenced by rap and hip hop, minimal chord changes make sense. Not just from a sampling perspective, but because when you're coming up with rap/lyrics, it's like doing a jazz improv, where the base measures should hold steady and repetitive. The shorter the base excerpt, the better, because you can riff more rhythmic variations on it, whereas for some longer phrases, you have to wait until the end measure to add those flourishes. Or freewheel off into modern jazz endless solos land that few in the regular populace can make sense of.
Any American Top 40 exceptions to this recently have been explicitly throwback songs. (Which, admittedly, there are a good amount of. Lots of mining the past these days)
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