Almost 3 years ago I wrote a blogpost about the development of a new variation on an old songwriting convention – the 4 chord song (read here).

Tens of thousands of songs have been written to the I VI II V or I VI IV V patterns and variations. It’s been a staple of popular music for almost a century and is still used frequently in contemporary songwriting.

But a different kind of 4 chord song has developed over the past decade or so and it’s come to dominate the charts. I won’t totally rehash what I wrote before, but usually it’s 4 diatonic chords, one chord to a bar (4 chords/bars overall), played in the same order throughout the song.

A 4 bar pattern, repeated.

3 years ago half of the Top 20 songs used this approach or a close offshoot. I thought I’d take a look at this week’s Billboard Top 10 and see how the 4 Chords/4 Bars approach was faring.

(The videos are below. Just jump to the end of the song if you want to go to the next one. And there seems to be a song before the Top 10 I can’t get rid of – you can skip past that too.)

10) ‘Grls Wknd’ by Tay Money – A rap/chant over a one note bass pattern.

9) ‘I Don’t Care’ by Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber – A good old I VI IV V, repeated.

8) ‘Don’t Start Now’ by Dua Lipa – This disco update switches it up more than the rest of these songs, but still uses 4 chords (Eminor, Bminor, G, D); with different combinations in different sections.

7) ‘Low’ by Alle – ||: D | A | E | F#minor :|| all the way!

6) ‘Lose You To Love Me’ by Selena Gomez – This song has different chords for the Verse and the Chorus (though all in the same key), which makes it unusual for a hit song these days.

Verse: ||: E | F#minor | D | D B :||. Chorus: ||: A | E | B | E/G# :||. The delayed B chord in the 4th bar of the Verse and using the 3rd in the bass in the 4th bar of the Chorus stand out as being downright subversive in the context of this Top 10.

5) ‘Someone You Loved’ by Lewis Capaldi sticks to a 4 bar pattern all the way through:||: Db | Ab | Bbminor | Gb :||. Except… at the Bridge it switches to another 4 bar pattern:||: Ebminor | Bbminor | Ab | Ab Bbminor :|| (the last bar’s chords are left out the second time).

4) ‘Dance Monkey’ by Tones and I – ||: F#minor | D | E | C#minor :|| all the way.

3) ‘Memories’ by Maroon 5 uses diatonic chords in a 4 bar pattern, like the others, but its pattern has 2 chords to a bar: ||: B F# | G#minor D#minor | E B | E F# :|| and contains a few pauses.

2) ‘Circles’ by Post Malone – All the way: ||: C | G/B | F | F (Fminor) :||. (Occasionally the 4th bar slips in an Fminor for the last 2 beats.)

1) ‘Life Is Good’ by Future and Drake is a two part song. The first half uses the approach discussed here (||: Gminor | F | Cminor | D :||). The second half is a rap over an Eminor tonality.

So, as you can see (and hear) the 4 Chords/4 Bars approach is still going strong, though with a little more variation – but not much .

One of the things I find curious and interesting here, and for which I have no explanation – it may just be coincidence – is that all but two of the songs are in ‘guitar keys’. That is, E, A, D, B, etc. Only Lewis Capaldi’s song is in a ‘flat/sharp’ key (Db), and the #1 song is in Gminor.

Melodies and raps continue to develop in ways that are often interesting and innovative. This week’s crop isn’t outstanding in that way, though ‘Memories’ and ‘Lose You To Love Me’ have nice melodies and the melodies of ‘I Don’t Care’ and ‘Don’t Start Now’ are rhythmically strong and effective.

The 4 Chord song continues to rule the pop charts… just as it did 3 years ago. And 60 years ago.

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