Tags
B.R.M.C., Beat the Devil's Tattoo, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Coldplay, Evol, musical motifs, Politik, riff rock, riffs
Sometimes a song can have the same tempo, chord progressions, instrumentation, even melody – and yet, have a completely different sound, message, and feel.
Such is the case with Coldplay’s “Politik”, and the B.R.M.C. song “Evol” off their most recent release, Beat the Devil’s Tattoo.
Listen to the first 14 seconds of “Evol” here.
And now listen to the first 27 seconds of “Politik” here.
Isn’t it interesting that both songs start out with the same chord, the same notes, and nearly identical tempos? The difference happens when one song resolves out to a major chord (Evol), and the other one resolves in to a minor chord (Politik).
Even the structure of these songs is similar. Both stick to their two-chord motifs, expanding only for a chorus (in Evol) or a bridge (in Politik). In the case of Evol, the chorus remains in the same key, but an additional chord progression is added (a progression that would look like this: ii -> iv -> I, or supertonic, to subdominant, to Tonic). This keeps the song in the riff-rock category, because it doesn’t deviate from the main rhythmic or harmonic motifs, or “riffs”.
In Politik, the pre-bridge modulates to a new key, and remains there for the remainder of the song. The original rhythmic motif is then repeated in this new key. This helps advance the story of the song, bringing an opportunity to voice a new idea.
Even though nearly every element of these two songs is the same, the songs obviously convey completely different emotional messages. Have you ever heard any of these cool musical coincidences? I listen for them every time I listen to music.
Steriohype 
I really like your observations, and your explanations of the technical aspects of pieces that I would totally have missed with out your pointing it out.
Thanks!
That is where I wish the website Pandora would expand their whole “genome” process to use the actual tempo and sound of the songs to create the genome rather than their whole thumbs up and thumbs down, genre and decade process. I think people miss out on music this way. They could also run into other songs that they really would like. Take for example the Police and Gote’ if someone were to only go with music that was “liked” because it was similar to the Police they would miss out on some of Gote’s music because they are not the same genre, done in the same decade. However, the tempo and instrumentation is very similar.