"Hit" songs with unusual chord progressions

General Music Discussion
#1

NOTE: I’ll define a hit song as one having gotten a lot of radio play, many people have heard it, etc… you know what I mean. No obscure stuff. :wink:

I was listening to Enjoy the Silence from Depeche Mode the other day, and it occurred to me that there are two pretty strange things going on in it, especially for such a successful song: first, the verse features two minor chords a minor third apart (chromatic mediant), and second, the chorus ends with a minor chord moving to a major chord a half step lower (I don’t know if there is a fancy name for this, though Jeff Loomis loves it). Such interesting harmonic choices!

What are some other big songs that dared to venture outside the realm of I IV vi V?

#2

no idea if this was a hit tbh

#3

if I can sum over the popularity of all of black metal, chromatic mediants are very popular :grin:

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#4

obligatory

I like the concept of chord progressions that are super favored by certain cultures and more exotic in others. The “Royal Road progression” is a famous one.

#5

Karma Police by Radiohead is a pretty good example of interesting chord progressions. Verse switches between A Aeolian and A Doroian. Chorus switches to G Major, but the fourth chord is non-diatonic F#7 which could resolve to G or B, but doesn’t do either until the outro, which switches keys to some shifting combination of Bm and D major, but the progression ends on a sustained E major chord, which is non-diatonic.

There have been academic journal papers written about Radiohead’s harmonic choices. Here’s one.

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#6

Yeah, Radiohead is probably going to be the king for my particular question. Lots of interesting things going on in many songs.

In “Just”, the verses use the aforementioned minor triad moving to a major one a half step lower. Maybe it was a Depeche Mode influence…

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