Switched on Pop by Nate Sloan

Author:Nate Sloan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 10.1 Musical keys as ascending units in an apartment building.

Musical keys are much like this apartment building. Each one sounds more or less the same. The major scale in C sounds like a major scale in D, except that in D all the notes are audibly higher, though in the same relative position. When an artist modulates up a key, the experiential lift comes from the same order of notes being played higher up. So, does it matter which key you start in? For some musicians, keys display distinct qualities. For the ancient Greeks some keys evoked war and others peace. Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier assigned subjective emotional qualities to each key. For Charpentier, C Major sounded “gay and warlike,” while E♭ major sounded “cruel and severe.” Some people with synesthesia associate keys with colors, hearing keys in black, pink, purple, or red. Beyond their subjective qualities, the right key can enhance the sound of a solo instrument. Violin concertos are predominantly written in keys that allow the violinist to take advantage of the resonant open strings on the instrument. Many hip hop and EDM tracks use the keys of F and F♯ because they approach the lowest audible bass note that can be reliably produced on a club’s subwoofer. But most often, pop performers choose a key that is comfortable and fits their voice best, not too low or too high.

In the outro of “Love on Top,” Beyoncé modulates into higher and higher keys, showing off the range of her voice (Figure 10.2). At the end of the second post-chorus, just after Beyoncé sings “you put my love on top, top, top, top, top,” the song rises from C up to C#, giving Beyoncé a higher key to belt out her melody (3:07). In the music video, the lights dim to night and spotlight the dancers, who’ve changed from streetwear into ’70s silver disco suits (note that the edit for the video is a minute shorter than the recording, so the timestamps don’t align). The chorus repeats, this time abbreviated without a post-chorus. Singing another key higher, Beyoncé repeats “you put my love on top.” As if taking her direction, the song moves up yet one more key—to D. On cue, Beyoncé and her backup dancers change costumes again, this time dressed in Motown-era bow ties—her finicky time machine seems to run backward each time the song moves upward. Twice more the song floats upward, and the dancers end up in Fred Astaire top hats from the 1920s, Beyoncé in Ginger Rogers tights with a sequined, penguin tail jacket. Each modulation nods deeper into the past while traveling further up Beyoncé’s vocal range. We call this progressive, upward key change a diva modulation, as it demands extreme vocal acrobatics.

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