Loved that video..


But we are all passed the point that the orriginal video made..
They explained why those 4 chords are in every hit..
And the reason was not a musical thing..

How many of us on S-Z recognized more than TWO of the songs ?!? ...

Not me.

I read somewhere (can't find it now) that this 20th Century phenomenon in Western popular music was linked to the emergence of certain classical pieces, such as Pachelbel's "Canon" and Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" from historical obscurity to becoming some of the most listened to pieces out of a much larger body of classical music.

Supposedly when these classical pieces went mainstream, 20th Century composers picked up on their themes in a way that led to what we have today. Perhaps the radio and phonograph are partly to blame because they allowed these progressions to proliferate in a way not possible before broadcast and recorded music. And we all tend to emulate what we hear because it sounds "right."

Also in the 20th Century we've standardized on the equal-temperament scale tuning. Different progressions might sound better in some of the 17th- and 18th-Century intonations.

Disclaimer: I'm not trained or well-versed in classical music. This is just me paraphrasing something I read a while ago. FWIW.

Continuing Fran’s observation, back in the 50’s, accordions were used in to mash chords to simulate the full big band sound. I can remember the leader would call a song, “Blue Moon chords in Bb” (or whatever the key was). And, even more frequently in the mid 50’s; Blues in (key name).

Not just rock and country
Some great swing and jazz tunes utilize the 3 or 4 chord pattern adding nice passing chords.
Love this one with Lou Rawls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFnfkLtFgSA&index=3&list=RDgck1eSScRjc

Good stuff by 2 great musicians, shame they are no longer with us. First jazz concert I ever went to featured Stanley Turentine and Freddy Hubbard.