What chords are people using?
Soundfly analysed top 40 Billboard hits to find out what chords were found most commonly.
For those songs in major keys, the chords were I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi. Taking the key of C major as an example, those chords would be C, Dm, Em, F, G and Am.
For minor keys, the most common chords were i, III, iv, v, VI and VII (which, in the key of Am, would be Am, C, Dm, Em, F and G). Guess what? Those chords are exactly the same as for C major – which is perhaps not surprising as both scales use the same notes.
Also interesting is that these are the most obvious chords – they conform to the notes of the major and minor scales without deviation. The songwriters have knowingly or unknowingly kept away from chords that might break the pattern and surprise the listener.
Clearly, that hasn’t affected the popularity of the songs – after all, there is much more to a song than the chord structure. But I reckon these tracks could have been even better if the writers had innovated a little more in the chords.