Ongoing History Daily: The end of key changes in music?
Music and technology are always dancing around each other with sometimes unintended consequences.
For example, it was once common for there to be key changes in songs. This was sometimes called a “truck driver’s gear change” as moving up a key towards the end of a song gave it a final boost of energy. But in the last 25 years, key changes within a song have become less prominent. Why?
The rise of lyrically-dense hip-hop emphasized words over melody. Digital audio production tools like Pro Tools, Garageband, and Logic have composers writing in a more linear fashion with more rigid song structures. And finally, the mid-song key change is seen as something of a gimmick that has gone out of fashion.
Is this songwriting technique dead? No, but it’s certainly something that has receded into the background.
