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Related Music Theory Alchemy

“Bullet With Butterfly Wings” by The Smashing Pumpkins features a chord progression that uses a lot of power chords (fifth chords) which demonstrates its grungy, rock oriented style. It also incorporates major, minor, and suspended second chords, making it an interesting combination of simplicity and complexity.

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The piece, ‘1979’ by The Smashing Pumpkins follows an overarching structure with a mix of major and minor chords, what stand out are the rich extended chords, ‘Emaj7’ and ‘Amaj7’. The piece displays a balance between tonic chords and dominant chords, expressing a classic pop-rock style whilst frequent usage of maj7 chords adding a distinctive jazziness to the tune.

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“Today” by The Smashing Pumpkins is composed in the key of E minor. The song has quite a simple structure and harmony with a strong emphasis on the I-IV-V (D-G-A in E minor key) chord progression which is one of the most common patterns in popular music. This I-IV-V progression vests the song with its harmonic backbone and creates a strong, wide-open sonic canvas.

“Wild Horses” is a song by the rock band Rolling Stones from their 1971 album “Sticky Fingers”. It is a great example of the band’s adeptness not only at writing catchy rock songs but also at creating complex and interesting chord progressions. The song is in the key of G major. The verse progression is interesting with the use of the B minor chord (Bm), which is the iii chord in the key of G major – a chord that isn’t commonly used in popular music.

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“Sour Times” by Portishead is a song with a complex and intriguing chord progression. It blends minor key tonality with modulations and chromaticism to give it a mysterious and brooding atmosphere. The song is primarily in the key of C# minor and features some borrowed chords and inversions that color the overall progression.

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Landslide

Song

All Analyses by Song

“Landslide” by The Smashing Pumpkins is a subtly complicated piece of music. At first glance, the chord progression may seem simple, but it actually incorporates a number of rich musical techniques that give the song its iconic depth and emotional resonance. The song follows a simple yet powerful chord progression and relies heavily on the interplay between the root C major chord, the G6, and the Am minor. There is a recurring theme of returning to the G6, which creates tension and suggests feelings of melancholy or introspection.

“Landslide” by The Smashing Pumpkins is a cover of the original song by Fleetwood Mac, and it blends rock and folk styles. The song features a variety of chords which predominantly mixes major and minor chords to evoke strong emotions. The simple yet effective chord progression emphasizes the sentiment of the lyrics, illustrating the theme of introspection and feeling a loss of control.

“Landslide” by The Smashing Pumpkins is a cover of a popular folk-rock song by Fleetwood Mac. In this song, The Smashing Pumpkins show their alternative rock style, while also paying homage to the folk-rock genre and especially to the founder of Folk-Rock “Fleetwood Mac”. The chords used throughout the song are predominantly composed in the key of G major, with the occasional use of a common borrowed chord (Am) from the G minor key.

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“Landslide” by The Smashing Pumpkins, originally by Fleetwood Mac, is written in the key of G major. The song features simple, but effective, chord progressions that are common in the folk and rock genres. The progression utilizes primary chords in the key (G, D, and C), along with some modal mixture via the borrowing of the minor iv chord (C) and minor vi chord (Am) from the parallel minor key (G minor). The secondary dominant D/F# creates tension and movement towards the Em chord. There is also the use of a G6 chord which adds color to the piece.

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