Ok I have what I'm sure is a super basic question here. And I dont pretend to be amazing at music theory, but something in this song has been bugging me for some time. at 1:40 where the bridge is, Mark's vocal part just doesn't sound normal. The melody sounds like it was a harmony part to a melody that was there, then they deleted the main vocal part and left the harmony. I could just be making that up in my head, but it sounds different than what would normally be put in a song like that. Anyways, I'm sure there will be some blink haters haha thats ok. Just wondering if anyone else could help me out on this. Thanks!
The song is in E minor, but the bridge, as you would call it, is tonicized to B phrygian (natural V in Em). The melody is arpeggiating a D major add9 chord, as a sort of pedal chord underneath the bass notes { B, C, G, A-G } combined with the guitar (power) chords { becoming Bm11/(b13), C6/9/(#11), Gmaj9, A6sus4/E-Gmaj13 } creating rich harmonic colorization. Also D, VII of Em, acts as an elongated substitute of the dominant (B or B7), enriched with contrapunctal bass movement. Reduction:
just to see how it holds up, here's how I heard it (borrowing the key identification from Mano's post) guitars go iii-IV-I-(V-IV) in G major and the melody is a typical pop punk melody in D major. So it's like having two keys at once and that's what creates the weird feel. Just for fun you might try singing the entire melody transposed down a fifth.
Awesome! Thanks guys! I don't know why that bothered me so much, but there was obviously something unusual about it. I appreciate the input! Even if the answers may have exploded my mind. haha Thanks.
I recorded the reduction with some fiddling here and there: http://soundcloud.com/manolito-gutierrez-rojas/stockholm-syndrome-analysis/s-BLLI0
Love your depth of analysis Manolito, but I'm not hearing where you're interpreting any tonicization of another tonal center in that section - and I don't think it's particularly useful to reduce the entire vocal line to being a Dadd9 over the changes. I understand your approach and where you're coming from, but when listening to it my first instinct would be to just describe the function of the melody over the changes, not necessarily view each note as it occurs over a chord as an addition to the upper harmony of the chord.
I'm just going to preface this with the fact that I don't have a lot of time, so some of the exact chords/devices I label may not be entirely correct, but hopefully I can get the point across. Manolito has a way better ear than me, and can transcribe shit like a beast. Your basic harmonic motif is something along the lines of: i-VI-III6-IV in E minor. Typical "rock minor" sort of stuff. When you hit that bridge, you're still clearly in Em (IMO) - it's not even a tonicization it's just a contrasting section. (v)-VI-III-iv Now, I think it becomes superfluous to dig so deep into the intended or communicated harmonies here, because it's a Blink 182 song. The use of power chords in modern rock is a function of both harmonic implications & ornamentation at the same time, and so you can often get weird interpretation if your ultimate goal is stacking everything vertically and trying to describe it. As for what's happening with the vocal melody over the top of that bridge - it is interesting for sure. IF you look closely there's nothing overly outrageous happening, but the use of NCTs does add a certain harmonic color over the top. How you choose to describe that is up to you. Manolito wants to call it a pedal, I'd just describe it as an unconventional melody line. As weird as it is, if you look at how the line resolves with each chord change it's usually resolved with a 4-3 or 6-5 suspension across the bar line (save for that #11 on top of the C - which is actually quite nice).
Well first, I'd say it's Em not G major. I think that's fairly clear, but do what you want. I can't remember the academic term for two simultaneous tonal centers being played at once (Polytonality/Bitonality?), and I'd be inclined to say that's sort of a convoluted explanation of what's happening here. Typically, in a situation like that you'd see a much more clear indication of each distinct tonal center. There's barely enough to lock us into E minor here, due to the rock-harmony.
Clearly, you all should notice the tongue-in-cheek in my first post (for instance, the tenor key old fashionedly written down as two g clefs next to each other, actually, the whole bridge written down classically for that matter, expensive words: 'creating rich harmonic colorization', 'enriched with contrapunctal bass movement', etc.). Don't get me wrong, the bridge part is indeed 'odd', 'different', and some of my observations are certainly something to think about—especially if you listen to my recording. Listening more and more, I'd say there is a tonicization towards G major (III of E minor), which I suggest FLAP was implying. Mind you, that I'm writing a lot of four part harmony in Baroque style, lately, as part of my Music Theory enrollment, that I'd easily hear tonal shifting, while it isn't really there. So, I do see your point, chrono, that you're clearly in Em. P.S. @chrono: NCTs = non-chord tones?
to me the melody of the whole song just seems more major than minor (the kind of major/minor mixing up that I feel is often used in pop punk), and I think that might be a result of it kind of centering around the III of E minor. So I'm hearing each progression before the "bridge" as beginning in vi of G major, but of course some of it's up to interpretation. Also, I meant the "bitonality" or whatever as a simpler explanation, actually, especially given pop punk melodies' tendency to use a lot of notes in the do-re-mi range of whatever key. Think of it as a little kid playing a simple piano piece but playing the right hand parts transposed to the dominant key just for kicks. I feel like that's kind of the effect achieved here but maybe it's just me.
Ooh, and the entire part from 1:16-1:40 seems kinda related to it too. I hear two things: the vocal melody is a combination of 1-2-3-5 notes in G major (sort of like how the 1:40 part is a combination of 1-2-3-5 of D major), and also there are little guitar bits in the background that go "A-F#..." that the vocal melody at 1:40 probably took from.
Yes, I was almost trying to make a fugue out of it (because the 'theme' of the bridge is hinted earlier on), but my piano skills aren't so great (yet), so it would take a while to be able to perform it.
