The Most COMPLEX Pop Song of All Time

Rick Beato · 8.3M views · 2021-06-23 · 20:28

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Overview

Rick Beato analyzes a pop song he argues is among the most harmonically complex ever, breaking down its chords and key changes. It is a music theory deep dive aimed at general music fans.

On Hacker News

Cited in discussions of chord complexity and key changes in pop music.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2022–2023

Topics

Music theory, synthesis & production Music performance & songs

What people said

Rochus · 2023-01 · Reference
That's amazing, congrats to the authors. Wonder how it would perform on harmonically more complex pop songs (e.g. [VIDEO] ).
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stickfigure · 2022-11 · Reference
Reminds me of this breakdown of "Never Gonna Let You Go" by Sergio Mendez: [VIDEO] That song makes everything else look like amateur hour. Somehow it hit #4 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1983. I think I'll stick to bluegrass. In G.
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bambax · 2022-04 · Reference
The obligatory video is of course "Four Chords" by Axis of Awesome: [LINK] Rick Beato has kind of the opposite video about "the most complex song ever": [VIDEO] The song in question is Never Gonna Let You Go by Sergio Mendes; plenty of videos exist of it; here's one live: [LINK]
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Sources

Video by Rick Beato, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

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