The Chords That Should Not Work: Pop's Harmonic Rule Breakers

03/08/2025 18 min

Listen "The Chords That Should Not Work: Pop's Harmonic Rule Breakers"

Episode Synopsis

Following on from last week’s episode, I had in my mind the idea of discussing unusual chord progressions in pop music: modern pioneers that pushed the boundaries of what was permissible to listen to. In this week’s podcast, let’s pick three perfectly eccentric examples of harmonic oddity in popular music classics, analyse their content, and speculate on how they get away with it! Following a brief reminder of David Bowie’s ‘Changes’, we’ll look at the following:Wuthering Heights Kate BushLay Lady Lay Bob DylanMad About The Boy Noel Coward/Dinah WashingtonPlease write in to the podcast if you have other examples you think merit a mention - there are many - we just picked three here to keep the show short!For more information: whaviland.com/podcastHappy piano playing/learning!