A few points of note, in the music of the song 'Fix You.'

Coldplay

Fix you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4V3Mo61fJM

122 million hits on this youtube video places the song in the mainstream of popular song. There’s a few musical devices employed which help to give the song its power, and if you follow this argument, it may help you appreciate why the song has the effect it does.

Avril Lavigne "Girlfriend" - the musical content

Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg59q4puhmg

This video/music has an incredible 352 million hits on you tube; there are a lot of people who think this song has something.

The subject seems to be about man-stealing, and upsetting one woman in order to make another happy. As such, it was never going to be a beguiling song. In an era when videos are a powerful tool to capture an audience’s attention, it seems wise to keep in mind that looking at the aural material separated from the visual, is to ignore part of the song’s appeal. However the purpose of these short articles is to try to see what is going on musically, so the discussion will avoid the humiliation of the jilted woman and the self-satisfied attitude of the main protagonist, who is successful in her quest.

White Christmas - a look at possibly the most famous tune of all

White Christmas

Irving Berlin's biggest selling record of all time has now amassed more than 100 million sales. It’s pertinent to speculate why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJSUT8Inl14

There are not so many songs where the lyrics are bonded to the melody in such an undetachable manner. Few can hum this tune without the words coming to mind. The melody becomes a delivery mechanism for a lyric full of longing, pathos, faded romantic memories and (if we recall its release was shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbour ) tragedy.

Musical insights into Carole King's "You've got a friend."

Carole King “You've got a friend.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qde5NMy7WTU

There are a few anthem songs of this genre around and I suppose the obvious brother to this is “Bridge over troubled water,” which is equally meritorious.

It’s delivered by Carole with passion and sung from the heart on this video. She is obviously amongst her friends who know the song almost as well as she does. She is on record as saying ”the song was as close to pure inspiration as I've ever experienced. The song wrote itself. It was written by something outside myself, through me." …which is surprising, because her intuition makes very intelligent and musical choices. 

We need to expand our harmonic understanding a little to get inside this song. For ease of comprehension I have moved Carole King’s centre from A/F sharp minor to C/Aminor.  It’s simpler for a non musical person to follow if we do, and since the intent is to de-mystify Carole’s thinking, it makes sense to do so.

A look at the harmony used by Elton John in 'Candle in the wind'.

Candle in the wind  - the harmony of Elton John

Elton John’s song sold 33 million copies when Diana died, but the music he used for the Norma Jean version ( a tribute to Marilyn Monroe ) is essentially the same. For reference purposes, I invite you to listen to this version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9JcBi8qIic

There are several strands to the musical content which involve melody, the harmony, the pianism and the instrumentation. This blog will focus on the chords or harmony used by Elton. For ease of comprehension I have moved his tonal centre from its original E to C. It’s simpler for a non musical person to follow if we do, and since the intent is to de-mystify Elton’s harmonic thinking, it makes sense to do so.

Harmony

Elton John's treatment of melody in 'Candle in the wind.'

Elton John’s song sold 33 million copies when Diana died, but the music he used for the Norma Jean version ( a tribute to Marilyn Monroe ) is essentially the same. For reference purposes, I invite you to listen to this version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9JcBi8qIic

Much has been discussed about the difference in Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, but that isn’t the subject of our interest here. 

There are several strands to the musical content we need to look at: the melody, the harmony, the pianism and the instrumentation. This blog will focus on the melodic style of Elton. For ease of comprehension I have moved his tonal centre from its original E to C. It’s simpler for a non musical person to follow if we do, and since the intent is to de-mystify Elton’s melodic thinking, it makes sense to do so.

Harmony and a few basic rudiments to start with

In this series of blogs I hope to explore a little of the musical devices and techniques employed by song writers in very well known songs. In order for the non-musician reader to understand what is going on, he needs to be familiar with some basic concepts - some rudiments of music. I will attempt to keep this as simple as possible and narrow the focus so that all that is discussed is pertinent to song writing. There’s a fine line between being simple and not being patronising. I hope that a person with no understanding of music will be able to follow this thread. Those with some or a lot of comprehension probably don’t need to read this at all.