The Influence of Guitar Distortion on Harmonic Construction in Alternative RockBachelorscriptie Corn Driesprong (1947990) Kunsten, Cultuur en Media Rijksuniversiteit Groningen February 2011 Supervisor: dr. K.A. Mc Gee

IndexIntroduction 1. History and cultural identity of guitar distortion 1.1 Literature 1.2 History and cultural identity 2. Guitar distortion and harmonic construction 2.1 Technical background 2.1.1. Sustain 2.2 Amplification of harmonics 2.2.1. The harmonic series 2.2.2. Combination tones 2.2.3. The power chord 2.3 The harmonic series and chord construction 2.3.1. Tonal differences between heavy metal and alternative rock 3. Harmonic construction in alternative rock 3.1 On the formal analysis of popular music ` 3.2 Nirvana, The Beatles and the flat-seventh 3.2.1. Nirvana and grunge 3.2.2. Analysis of 'In Bloom' 3.3 Parallel harmonic motion 4. Conclusions Sources 3 5 5 7 8 8 8 9 10 11 11 12 13 13 13 15 16 17

IntroductionThe sound of the distorted guitar has played a role of considerable significance in popular music, especially in louder styles such as metal, punk and alternative rock, and came to be one of the pivotal sounds in blues and rock related styles of popular music. In this thesis I will focus on the timbral properties of the distorted guitar. Its main characteristics include longer sustain caused by compression and feedback of the signal and a more harmonically complex tone caused by an increase of energy in its harmonic overtones. This has had major implications on chord usage and harmonic construction (i.e., the harmonic structure of songs as a whole) of the styles in which guitar distortion was often used. Most notably it has led to the prevalence of the power chord: an open fifth chord that distinguishes itself from the traditional triad by the omission of the third. While being a rather rare occurrence in the Western classical tradition as well as most styles of popular music, the open fifth has come to be the standard harmonic unit in popular styles that rely heavily on guitar distortion. The main question for this thesis is: how do the timbral characteristics of the distorted electric guitar influence harmonic construction in alternative rock? In popular music studies there is often little attention for the analysis of formal musical characteristics, the prevalent view being that a musicological approach of popular music isnt worthwhile because the music derives its meaning mostly from its cultural context instead. While it is indeed apparent that most popular music may be considered unsuitable to be analyzed using the classical musicological apparatus (e.g., Schenkerian analysis), this isnt to say that the formal musical aspects dont play a role in the way the music is perceived. I want to show how the use of guitar distortion plays an important role in shaping the music in which it is used, not only its timbral characteristics, but also those of a harmonic and melodic nature. The musicians may, in most cases, have not been actively aware of this, trusting mostly on their ears and musical intuition to write the songs. However, I want to argue that distortion has had a profound impact on the harmonic construction of alternative rock songs and therefore exerts influence on the musical genre as a whole. Several authors (e.g., Moore, McDonald and Tillekens) argue that a formal approach to (alternative) rock music is important in contributing to the justification of its artistic value based on intrinsic musical merits, as it is often dismissed as musically uninteresting or simplistic, which it admittedly may appear when taken at face value from a classical musicological point of view. However, as the mentioned studies show, rock music has its own unique harmonic and melodic characteristics, which are sometimes quite innovative. This thesis is divided into three chapters. In the first, I will shortly review what is written about guitar distortion in existing literature, provide a brief history of the use of guitar distortion and attempt to define its cultural context. The second chapter will serve to briefly explain the technical background as well as to shed some light on the timbral characteristics of the instrument with regard to the amplification of the guitar's overtones. Also, I will look at the overtone relations of different intervals to explain the connection between the use of distortion and harmonic construction and devote some attention to the harmonic differences between alternative rock and the genre which is commonly most closely associated with guitar distortion: heavy metal. Then, in the third chapter, I will explain the harmonic construction of an alternative rock song, namely 'In Bloom' by Nirvana, with regard to tonality, chord usage and parallel harmonic motion.

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This will serve to illuminate the characteristic harmonic traits of alternative rock and how these relate to the use of guitar distortion, according to the findings in the second chapter. The fourth and last chapter provides a short summary of the findings from the previous chapters and answers the main question. Alternative rock I chose to narrow my research down to the genre of alternative rock. Alternative rock (which is also broadly equivalent with underground or indie (meaning independent) rock) is a genre of which the boundaries are hard to define because of its oppositional definition. The term rose to prominence during the 1980s and was applied to a range of styles being as wide as to include the music of John Cage as well as that of the The Velvet Underground. During the decade it came to be widely known in the United States, mostly popularized by college radio (Stillwell). Out alternative rock eventually emerged a myriad of subgenres, such as grunge, noise(rock), dream pop, industrial, shoegaze or britpop. The term alternative in alternative rock seems to refer to an attitude rather than a specific musical style. Starr and Waterman, in their comprehensive history of American popular music, state: Some artists classified under the alternative pop/rock rubric sound similar, while others seem to have come from different musical planets entirely (Starr and Waterman: 429). What identifies them as alternative is that, in one regard or another, [they] challenge the status quo. () alternative music is fiercely iconoclastic, anticommercial, and antimainstream; it is thought by its supporters to be local as opposed to corporate, homemade as opposed to massproduced, and genuine as opposed to artificial. (Ibid: 430). As a side note to his musicological analysis of various alternative rock songs, McDonald posits: These substyles [of alternative music] share both an ideological and sometimes stylistic concern with signifying as different, on musical, social and generational grounds, from a perceived pop mainstream (McDonald: 356). However, the term alternative quickly came to be appropriated by the music industry, as big entertainment corporations launched so-called independent offshoots of their major labels to accommodate the needs of audiences looking for authentic musical expression (Starr and Waterman: 430). This serves to affirm the findings of Hibbett's sociological study, in which he argues that, apart from being a musical and aesthetic category, alternative music also acts as a device for social distinction, linking its practice to Pierre Bourdieu's poststructuralist concept of distinction by 'cultural capital'. Alternative music, he states: ...satisfies among audiences a desire for social differentiation and supplies music providers with a tool for exploiting that desire (Hibbett: 56). The ideological questions of authenticity that surround alternative rock are however not the central issue for this thesis, as it is concerned with the formal musical characteristics of the genre. One of the defining elements of guitar-oriented alternative rock is the frequent use of guitar distortion and a tradition of experimentation with regard to guitar sound, pioneered by early exponents of the genre such as The Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth. There are also strands of alternative music, such as industrial rock, that are notably less guitar-oriented but obviously these are of little concern to this study.

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1. History and cultural significance of guitar distortion1.1 Literature Guitar distortion is frequently mentioned in studies that deal with heavy metal music, since it is in this genre that heavy guitar distortion was first used and with which it is most closely associated. One of the seminal studies on this subject has been conducted by Robert Walser, who has written an comprehensive historical overview of heavy metal music and culture. Although he recognizes the harmonic implications of guitar distortion and devotes some attention to a formal musical analysis of the music, these are mostly brief mentions in a study with an overall socio-cultural perspective. Harris M. Berger takes a more ethnographic approach, investigating for example the tonal perception that death metal musicians have of their music (Berger 1999), thus also directing attention to the formal musical characteristics of the music. Steve Waksmans book was useful on providing an historic overview and insights on the significance of the guitar as a cultural phenomenon, thereby also directing to some major cultural theories, such as those of German sociologist Max Weber, who has written extensively on music, and the post-Marxist 'Noise: The Political Economy of Music', by French economist Jacques Attali, which I will turn to later on. Peter Doyles Echo & Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording 1900-1960 doesnt so much deal with guitar distortion in rock music in particular, but it does offer a broad historical overview on how studio effects among which we can count distortion, especially when used in a recording context have influenced the perception of recorded music since the 1920s. Musicologist Esa Lilja has written an illuminating dissertation on the subject of heavy metal harmony in which he elaborately treats the connection between guitar distortion and the harmonic construction of heavy metal songs, which was very valuable and informative for the writing of this thesis. However, this study, as well as those by Walser and Berger, focus strictly on metal and are therefore only partly applicable to alternative rock since there are significant differences between the two styles regarding tonality as is argued by Chris McDonald, in his article on the modal subversion in alternative rock, in which he takes a musicological approach in uncovering the specific harmonic characteristics of the genre. Other formal analyses that were useful for this study are by Allan Moore, on the frequent occurrence of the flat-seventh chord in rock music, by composer Gilan Cohen who wrote an indepth musicological analysis of the Nirvana song 'In Bloom' and by Dutch sociologist Ger Tillekens, who's dissertation on the societal influence of the Beatles includes thorough musicological analyses of their songs, which are argued to unveil structural homologies between their formal characteristics and societal developments in the time in which they were written, a view reminiscent of those of the Frankfurt School's social theorists such as Adorno and Horkheimer. 1.2 History and cultural identity Distortion featured in electric guitar sounds as early as the 1930s. Steel guitar players, using small, low-wattage valve amplifiers in noisy dance halls and juke joints, had to turn up their volume in order to be heard, to an extent which caused their sound to be distorted (Doyle: 137). By the 1950s this effect was sought to be obtained deliberately. Distorted guitar tones where a regular feature on recordings made in the famous Sun Studios in Memphis (Ibid: 168). Guitarists like Buddy Guy (Waksman: 138), John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Goree Carter and Guitar Slim where playing at high volume levels, resulting in a thick, distorted sound (Doyle:

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255). At this point, guitarists also started to add distortion to their sound by slashing the speaker cones of their amplifiers with a knife (Walser 1993: 42). This process, the active innovation by musicians to elicit new sounds from their instruments, as in this case for instance, by deliberately distorting their guitar tones, is typified by Paul Thberge as the making over of the sound of an instrument. He states: In this sense, musical instruments are not completed at the stage of design and manufacture, but, rather, they are made over by musicians in the process of making music. (Thberge: 159). In this way, design and innovation in musical instruments is developed in an interaction between musicians and the manufacturers of the instruments. A distorted tone is commonly associated with conceptions of power and force, making it a powerful musical token. These associations are also inherent in the human body, which is also capable of producing distortion, as with screaming, when the capacity of the vocal chords is exceeded (Walser 1993: 42). These associations constitute for a large part the perceived loudness and heaviness of the styles of music in which guitar distortion is often used (hence the term heavy metal). Being amplified, the electric guitar is generally considered a loud instrument. A distorted tone appears to the listener as being louder than it is due to the associations involved with overloading of electrical signals and audio equipment operating at the brink of blowing out. These associations are especially apparent in heavy metal music and are reflected in songs titles, like, for example, Blow your speakers by Manowar. Distortion emerged from the use of guitar amplification in blues-related styles, eventually being taken to extremes in heavy metal music during the 1980s. This decade, however, also saw the rise of alternative rock: local, anticommercial, guitar-based music blending the abrasive, do-ityourself sensibility of 1970s punk with the thick, heavy sonic textures of heavy metal. (Starr and Waterman: 431). Alternative rock musicians took the heavily distorted guitar tones from heavy metal, and forged them into a new (post-)punk aesthetic. The thick distortion and extreme volumes were still there - some alternative rock acts such as Dinosaur Jr. and My Bloody Valentine became in fact notorious for their extreme volumes at concerts (Azerrad: 347) but they did not serve to affirm conceptions of masculinity and power, as with heavy metal, but were used in a different manner. Also, the guitar virtuosity that represented a salient feature of heavy metal was mostly eschewed in alternative rock (Walser). The general aesthetic of alternative rock would also exert influence on the harmonic structure of the music, as argued at the end of this chapter. Steve Waksman attempts to uncover the elements that account for the seminal cultural importance of the electric guitar. He points to several factors that profoundly fostered the widespread dissemination of the instrument as a cultural phenomenon. According to Waksman, the electric guitar fuses two worlds: on one hand it is a rudimentary, highly expressive instrument evoking primal associations, while on the other hand its involved technology, artificial volume and the manipulability of its sound signal technical advancement as does the electronic synthesizer (Waksman: 3). Furthermore he argues that the electric guitar, as an instrument stemming from Afro-American blues styles, embodies a reference to blackness. Waksman states: The putting on of blackness, or of elements of black style, is from this perspective an attempt to compensate for a perceived lack of in the composition of whiteness; and this lack is [] most often experienced in terms of gender and sexuality. (Ibid: 4). This is also argued to account for the ostensible male bias of the instrument. However, these references are based on the cultural and historical background of the instrument, rather than on its sound. 6

An important aspect of the distorted guitar regarding its sound, is the manipulability of it. Jimi Hendrix was one of the first guitarists to employ stompbox guitar effects: small electronic devices that were placed in the signal line between guitar and amplifier, the most notable of which are the fuzzbox, which induced transistor-generated distortion, the octaver, which generated a signal an octave above the note being played, and the wah wah pedal, which allowed for manipulating the frequencies of the guitar signal, resulting in a wah wah-like quiver in the sound (Waksman: 183). These sound manipulating technologies appeared around the same time as the first studio technologies, such as devices capable of producing artificial echo and reverb, and the advent of multitrack recording, allowing for sounds to free themselves from the context in which they appear in reality. A guitar sound heavily treated with effects can sometimes hardly be recognized as such, and thus it becomes disconnected from the instrument and seems to take on a life of its own in the experience of the listener. It's then autonomous and disembodied from the devices that produce it. This strain of thought is also apparent in the influential work of Jacques Attali, 'Noise the political economy of music', in which he regards musical instruments as bearers of a specific kind of musical syntax and thus a peculiar type of 'knowledge-through-music', an idea that reflects the Marxist concept of base and superstructure:In music, the instrument often predates the expression it authorizes, which explains why a new invention has the nature of noise; a realized theory (Lyotard), it contributes, through the possibilities it offers, to the birth of a new music, a renewed syntax. It makes possible a new system of combination, creating an open field for a whole new exploration of the possible expressions of music usage. [] Likewise, the work of Jimi Hendrix is meaningless without the electric guitar, the use of which he perfected. (35)

Bearing Attali's ideas in mind, we can state that the implications of the distorted electric guitar as a bearer of music-knowledge are far-reaching. I hope to illuminate some of the implications of this peculiar form of knowledge by pointing to certain formal characteristics of the sounds that have a large influence on the music in which they feature. This goes to show that, indeed, an instrument like the electric guitar constitutes not merely a new timbre, a new musical flavor in a palette from which composers and musicians can draw, but that its sound and musical possibilities affect and influence the music in which it features in a very profound way.

2. Guitar distortion and chord construction2.1 Technical background To elaborate on the technical background of guitar distortion is a fairly technical matter that lies beyond the scope of this thesis. I will instead explain the basic concept in order to be able to investigate its musical implications. Guitar distortion is basically a consequence of the overloading of a (guitar) amplification system, caused by the driving of the amplitude of an input signal beyond the maximum output capacity of the amplifier. The overloading of the system causes the waveform peaks of the signal to be cut off at the upper range, resulting in a harsher sound with added harmonic resonances. Distortion is however a commonly unwanted effect in sound engineering, associated with loss of control and fidelity. However, as previously stated, in the case of guitar amplification, it came to be a musically desirable effect and guitar players started to overdrive their signal deliberately.

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A pure sine wave signal before (left) and after (right) distortion

2.1.1 Sustain A distorted tone has some important side effects that play an important role in the way it is perceived by the listener. Most notably, the signal is heavily compressed 1, allowing for notes to be sustained longer. This compression is usually coupled with signal feedback, when the air vibrations caused by the amplifier lead the guitar strings to resonate, resulting in a feedback loop between instrument and amplifier and the potentially indefinite sustaining of notes. This once again enhances the associations of power and force involved, as prolonged sustain signals power, not only through its distorted timbre but also through this temporal display of unflagging capacity for emission. (Walser 1993: 42). 2.2 Amplification of harmonics One of the most important side-effects of a distorted tone, however, is the amplification of its harmonic overtones. These overtones constitute for a great part the bright quality and distinctive sound of the distorted guitar tone. In the article quoted below, Dutch expirimental guitar builder Yuri Landman writes about the how the physical laws of consonance play an important role in guitar sound:The Velvet Underground used alternate tunings often tuned in unison or in octaves, which also leads to a 'quiet' driven sound. On Sonic Youth's album Sister, I hear guitars which almost remind me of the sound of a trumpeting elephant. This is no coincidence, but the result of physical forces. Yuri Landman - 3rd Bridge Helix: From Experimental Punk to Ancient Chinese Music & the Universal Physical Laws of Consonance

Landman describes how the guitars on the mentioned album sound loud and distorted, yet quiet and tranquil at the same time. Although this is a subjective judgment and the music of Sonic Youth might actually sound rather abrasive and discordant to people who aren't yet noise rock aficionados, it's still easy to hear the particular quality that is referred to here. In this paragraph I will attempt to explain why this is. 2.2.1 The harmonic series Virtually every instrument produces a series of overtones in addition to the fundamental notes that are played2. Although they are not commonly perceived so that the fundamental and its overtones appear to the ear as one note, overtones make up an important part of the characteristic of the sound of a given instrument. Overtones commonly occur at multiples of the fundamental note frequency (as with a guitar or piano) and are then referred to as harmonics. However, they can also be inharmonic (as with a cymbal) or both harmonic and inharmonic (as with a vibraphone or bell). In the table below, the first seven harmonic overtones of the A note (two octaves below the 'concert A') at 110 Hz are set out:1 2

The reduction of the dynamic range of the signal, causing the decay-time of the tone to be longer. There are some instruments capable of producing a fundamental with no or hardly any overtones, for example an electronic synthesizer, a tuning fork or a flute (Borkwick).

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Harmonic 1 (fundamental) 2 3 4 5 6 7

Frequency (Hz) 110 220 330 440 550 660 770

Note3 A a e' a' c#'' e'' g#''

Interval (relative to fundamental) unison octave octave + 5th 2 octaves 2 octaves + minor 3rd 2 octaves + 5th 2 octaves + minor 7th

It is evident that the lower harmonics are related to the musical intervals. However from the seventh and higher odd-numbered harmonics on the partials start to increasingly deviate from the notes of the diatonic scale, thus generating dissonance (Borkwick). However, the amplitude of harmonics commonly decrease in ascending order so that these higher harmonics are less audible (even with distortion). As stated previously, one of the main characteristics of guitar distortion is the amplification of these harmonics. I want to argue that this in particular plays an important role in the harmonic construction of the music in which guitar distortion is used. It follows from the overtone series of the constituent notes of certain intervals that some are more harmonically congruent than others. Therefore some harmonies, especially the open fifth or 'power chord', appear significantly more often than others. Due to the inharmonicity caused by the limited flexibility of the stretched metallic strings such as those used on a guitar or piano, the harmonics are in reality never as perfectly harmonic as theory would indicate (Lilja: 106). However, based on spectrographic analysis, Lilja finds that: harmonic distortion partials seem to override inharmonic string partials. Although this has to be subjected to further study, it may be said that the distortion effect makes the electric guitar sound more harmonic. (Lilja: 107). We can therefore state that distortion not only amplifies the overtones of the guitar tone, but causes them to be even more harmonic. This is due to the occurrence of combination tones within a distorted signal. 2.2.2 Combination tones Besides natural harmonic overtones, distortion also emphasizes so-called combination tones, a phenomenon referred to as 'intermodulation distortion', generating harmonic distortion partials in addition to the natural harmonics of the strings (Lilja: 102). These combination tones occur at the sum of and the difference between the frequencies of the tones being heard and of their respective harmonics. Combination tones are mostly attributed to non-linearities in the system through which the sound is being transmitted or reproduced (Greated b) - for example to the non-linearity of the frequency response of the inner-ear - and therefore thought to be a psycho-acoustical phenomenon. However, Lilja proves that some combination tones, for example the difference tone between the two notes of a power chord, are indeed an acoustic reality (Lilja: 109).3

The notes and intervals in the table are based on pure intonation since the harmonic overtones generate pure intervals. They differ by a small amount from those used in common practice 12-tone equal temperament, e.g., the notes as played on a piano or guitar.

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2.2.3 The power chord The power chord is widely the most used guitar chord in styles of music that rely on guitar distortion. It consists of a given note and its fifth. In traditional harmony this interval is known as the open fifth, but when played on an electric guitar with distortion it is commonly referred to as the power chord. There is uncertainty pertaining the exact origin of the chord. Various people have been credited as its inventor, among whom Pete Townsend of The Who (Walser, 1993: 77), Link Wray (Koda) or Willie Johnson and Pat Hare4 (Doyle: 255). It is however probable that it was conceived in several places more or less simultaneously along with the emergence of the distorted guitar sound. The Kinks' 'You really to me' was the first hit song that was built around power chords (Walser 1993: 9) The term 'power chord' is believed to have gained currency through music journalism (Lilja: 102). The fifth is, after the octave, the most consonant interval in the diatonic scale. It is the interval based on the smallest frequency ratio after the octave (3:25, whereas the octave is 2:1). Also, as indicated in paragraph 2.2.1, it is the second interval after the octave to occur in natural harmonic series. The consonance of the fifth was recognized as early as the 5 th century BC by the Pythagoreans (Palisca). The combination tones of the two constituent notes of the fifth form a lower tone an octave below the actual fundamental. This phenomenon is known as the subjective fundamental (Greated) and was already exploited by organists to produce seemingly very low notes in harmonies, below any individual note the organ was capable of producing (Montagu). However, the subjective fundamental is found by Lilja to be, in the case of the distorted power chord, an acoustic reality, measurable in spectrographic analysis (Lilja: 109). It allows the guitarist to produce tones that lie below the actual range of the guitar, and accounts for the low and heavy sounding quality of the power chord. Furthermore, spectrographic analysis clearly shows the presence of a major third and a minor seventh above the notes actually being played, resulting from the difference tones between the third harmonic of the fifth and second harmonic of the fundamental and the third harmonic of the fifth and the fundamental itself, respectively (Ibid: 111). It is thus evident that the sound and harmonic structure of the power chord is far more complex and harmonically rich than the sum of its two constituent notes. It is also important to note that, owing to the fact that it is a very consonant interval, the harmonic series of the two tones of a fifth are very much harmonically congruent, whereas, for instance, those of a minor third contain clustered minor seconds in the combination tones of their harmonic partials, leading to a high level of dissonance, which is even further disharmonized by the implications of the equal temperament (Ibid: 116). Because of the emphasizing of the harmonics and combination tones by distortion, these dissonances are clearly audible, resulting is a fuzzy, unclear sound. The Sonic Youth guitar sound reminiscent of a trumpeting elephant Landman writes about in his article is in fact the result of different distorted guitar tones at very consonant intervals (unison, octaves and/or fifths) whose harmonic series are very much aligned. This happens because of the alternative guitar tunings the band uses and results in a very bright, consonant sound, which is, due to the distortion involved, likely to be even more harmonic than that which any equal-tempered, non-distorted instruments are capable of producing.

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Paraphrased from Palmer, The Church of the sonic guitar. South Atlantic Quarterly 90/4 (1991): 64973. in Doyle, 255. This is the frequency ratio of the fifth as it would be in pure intonation. See also note 3.

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2.3 The harmonic series and chord construction As the harmonies resulting from distorted guitar chords not just constitute the notes being played, but also their harmonics and respective combination tones, the resulting sound is harmonically far more complex than what would be indicated by, for example, a transcription of the music. From a traditional musicological point of view, pitch and timbre are regarded as two profoundly separate musical parameters, but in the case of the distorted guitar they prove to be in fact intertwined. To define timbre as a musical parameter is in any case somewhat problematic because its definition entails an exclusive classification: it is everything about sound that is not pitch, length or loudness (Berger and Fales: 181). The overtone spectrum is an important aspect of the timbre of a given tone, but altering this spectrum, as happens with distortion, influences not only the timbre, but also the harmonic structure of the signal. Formal analysis of the music in which guitar distortion is used should take this into account and not just look at the notes that are being played as they would be transcribed in notation or tablature, but also at the actual harmonies that are being heard after distortion is added to the signal. This I will also attempt in my analysis in the third chapter. Concludingly, we can state that distortion increases either the consonant or dissonant qualities of chords or harmonies, i.e., it causes chords built of the most consonant harmonies (octaves, fifths or, to a lesser extent, major thirds) to sound even more consonant while in others (e.g., those built out of minor thirds, seconds and/or sixths) it only increases already inherent dissonance, thus rendering them unusable. Although the assessment of harmonies as consonant or dissonant has proven to be subjective and any categorization of chords based on these classifications is always somewhat arbitrary, it is clear that some harmonies sound very muddy and unclear with heavy distortion, sometimes even to the extent that the root of the chord is obscured (Lilja: 116), and that this is due to relationships between the harmonics of the both constituent notes in intervals that have a rather complex structure, i.e., those that are based on higher frequency ratios (e.g., seconds or augmented fourths/diminished fifths). Also, the harmonic complexity of chords consisting of more than two notes makes them unsuitable to be played with distortion. This is why guitarists that use heavy distortion commonly only play chords on two or three strings at once. The third is frequently omitted from chords because the two simultaneous-sounding thirds that constitute a triad are too mutually dissonant to result in a pleasurable-sounding distorted harmony. 2.3.1 Harmonic differences between heavy metal and alternative rock One of the main propositions posited by Lilja is that guitar distortion plays a decisive role in chord construction in heavy metal (Lilja: 102). I want to argue likewise for alternative rock. There are, however, notable differences regarding tonality between the two genres that make it interesting to devote some attention to their mutual differences and the role of guitar distortion therein. As McDonald notes, the omission of the third in the power chord and the general predominance of two-note chords in distorted guitar parts causes them to be tonally ambiguous, since the third in the triad establishes the sense of tonality (e.g., major, minor or Aeolian) (McDonald: 357). However: In most heavy metal and hard rock, this ambiguity was not played up to a large degree, with the modality usually being firmly established through context [e.g., the vocal line] (McDonald: 357). Walser points out that a distinctive modality nonetheless plays an important role in heavy metal music, partly as a device to differentiate the music from the tonal syntactical norms that underlie other popular music (Walser, 1993: 46-8). In alternative rock however, the ambiguity of the power chord is often actively employed in order subvert the sense of mode, presumably in part to harmonically distinguish it from heavy metal 11

and other genres. McDonald argues that one of the devices that facilitate this are so-called 'thirdrelations' between power chords, which involves changing chords by moving up or down in increments of a third, and usually contradicting an established modality (McDonald: 357), thus realizing what he terms modal subversion. This tonal flexibility is traced back to the blues roots of rock music (Ibid: 358). As stated in paragraph 2.2.3, the combination tones of a power chord form an audible major third above the root and the fifth of the chord. This would imply that power chords are necessarily major triads. It seems however that the major quality of the chord can be easily overridden by tonal context, established by other elements such as the vocal line. When the power chord is thus played in a distinct minor context it can function that way as well. More often however, it functions as a major quality or ambiguous chord, as in the song analyzed in the following chapter, in which distinct minor chords are altogether absent.

3. Harmonic construction in alternative rock3.1 On formal analysis of rock music The use of chord progressions that appear odd from a traditional/classical point of view seems one of the main characteristics of rock music. Because of its frequent deviations from the common-practice major/minor system, analyzing the music using this system leads, according to Moore, to a model of rock as a deformed offspring of classical tonality (Moore: 186). Instead, Moore and other authors (e.g., Lilja) opt to analyze rock music as being based on the diatonic Renaissance modes (e.g., Ionian, Aeolian or Mixolydian). This reduces the amount of musical elements that would be 'deviant' from a common-practice standpoint. For example, the frequent use of chords on the flat-seventh major degree in rock music can easily be normalized by regarding those instances as being in Mixolydian mode, to which this degree is native. However, when explaining these, often isolated, departures from major/minor tonality by accounting them to the use of the modes, one runs perhaps the risk of concealing precisely those harmonic characteristics that are of interest for analysis. It is mostly the particular aberrant elements in alternative rock music that are of interest in differentiating the music from other styles and tracing its harmonic development. In music analysis, harmony can be viewed from either a horizontal or vertical perspective. The former deals with the linear development of harmonic material in musical time whereas the latter concerns the simultaneous sounding of different tones. In musical analysis, the vertical dimension precedes the horizontal (Lilja: 49). In the case of alternative rock, the vertical harmonic possibilities are restricted by the use of guitar distortion since it causes less consonant chords to be unusable, as I have argued in paragraph 2.4. Also, the horizontal harmonic development of alternative rock generally does not follow the rules of classical harmony and displays a greater sense of tonal flexibility than what would be allowed by classical conventions. This view is supported by Lilja: [an] important feature of rock: vertical acoustic structure of a chord is often more important than whether the chord constituents abide by a certain mode (60), as well as Moore and Tillekens for rock and popular music in general: the harmonic practices of rock encourage the identification of harmonies as discrete entities not subject to voice leading processes (Moore: 190) and: De vrije combinatie van majeur- en mineurakkoorden, onder behoud van het tooncentrum, is typerend voor de popmuziek (Tillekens, 1998).

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3.2 Nirvana, The Beatles and the flat seventh McDonald categorizes several alternative rock songs according to the extent to which they employ modal subversions (McDonald: 357). As an example of extreme modal subversion he takes the Nirvana song In Bloom from their successful 1991 album Nevermind. Of this song I will make a more thorough harmonic analysis here as it serves as an excellent example of the tonal flexibility that is facilitated by the use of guitar distortion. Also, this song in particular is interesting as it shows how certain harmonic characteristics of it do not stand on their own, but are related to a lineage of harmonic practices within popular music styles. 3.2.1 Nirvana and grunge Nirvana was an alternative rock band that was active between 1987 and 1994 and that came to be the main exponent of the so-called 'grunge' sound: a subgenre of alternative rock, based mainly in Seattle, that combined the heavily distorted guitar sound of heavy metal with the post-punk musical aesthetics of bands like Sonic Youth and The Velvet Underground. Other bands often categorized as grunge include Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam. The genre is said to have given vent to the pessimism and apathy of the so-called 'generation X' 6, with lyrics being overtly sarcastic and cynical. Nirvana is often credited for having brought the sound and aesthetics of alternative music to a wider mainstream audience, as a result of their large commercial success. On this, Walser states: [Nirvana's] popularity brought heavy metal and alternative audiences together, playing a major part in realigning the genre categories of popular music and establishing influential precedents for the 1990s (Walser). 3.2.1 Analysis of 'In Bloom' The song 'In Bloom' starts out with an instrumental intro consisting of a four-chord sequence that is played twice. Although McDonald suggests that this progression establishes Bb Mixolydian mode (probably because of the last chord on the flat-seventh degree), it can also be heard as Bb major tonality with the last chord lowered one semitone to Ab (bVII). This makes sense when one takes into account the major thirds that are generated by the distorted power chords, as the dominant F chord would have to be a minor in Mixolydian mode, while in the song it sounds clearly major. However, the same goes for the G major chord on VI, which should be minor in both major tonality and Mixolydian mode.

Guitar part of Nirvanas In Bloom intro, with distortion-generated major thirds

The incidental use of the flat-seventh (bVII) degree chord is a recurring trait in popular music. It was frequently employed by The Beatles (Tillekens, Moore) whose music had a large influence on the songwriting of Nirvana singer, guitarist and songwriter Kurt Cobain. In fact, he allegedly wrote the song About a girl from Nirvana's first album Bleach after listening to Meet the Beatles for three hours (Cross: 121). About a girl is the earliest song in Nirvana's oeuvre that6

The generation born during the 1960's and 1970's that was the first generation of Americans who would not, for the most part, be better off than their parents (Walser). See for more information After the boom : the politics of Generation X, edited by Stephen C. Craig and Stephen Earl Bennett (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1997).

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displays the tonal flexibility that would become a characteristic of their later songwriting-style and furthermore it also employs the bVII chord as a substitute for the dominant (when it appears as the C minor chord in the chorus), a harmonic trick that The Beatles also used at length (Tillekens 2006). The bVII, bIII and bVI chords, when used as a substitution for the subdominant, the dominant and the root degree respectively, are in the Classical style referred to as Neapolitan chords (Tillekens 2006). However, the widespread use of the flat-seventh in rock music is likely to have found its origin in the pentatonic blues scale (Moore: 190). After the intro, the song moves into the first verse which displays a different tonality. This is immediately clear with the bass sounding on the Gb (instead of the G) after the tonic. The first half of the verse is just bass, drums and vocals which are then joined by a 'clean' guitar (without distortion) for the second half. It is interesting to note that Cobain plays all the chords in the verse as full major triads (he is able to do so because the guitar's sound is not distorted in this part), which helps to define the harmonic Bb Phygrian mode (with sharp subtonic). This is however contradicted later in the song when the guitar solo, played over the verse chord progression, imports scale-foreign notes, e.g., the Db played over the Bb bass note, implying the Bb is a minor chord, whereas in the verse it is played as major triad. The solo however incorporates many more chromatic notes, that serve to enhance its expressive power. The vocal line in the second half of the verse moves chromatically from F to G on the third of the major Eb chord. The chorus then appears to alternate between Ab major and minor, as the G major chord from the intro returns. Cohen, in his analysis of the song, considers the alternation the G and Gb chords in the respectively the verse and the chorus/intro the 'harmonic hook' of the song (5-6). This alteration is also reflected in the mentioned chromatic vocal line, which includes the fifths (D and Db) of the two chords (Ibid.). It is noteworthy how the vocal line often seems to tie the chord progressions together. In fact, according to Cohen the vocal melodies in the verse and the chorus represent an almost perfect 5-line Urlinie7 (Cohen: 18).

The 'clean' guitar part in the second half of the verse

The obscuring of mode is enforced by the frequent occurrence of third motions between chords. For instance, in the verse a progression of chords on successively Bb, Gb, Eb and Cb represents a sequence of four subsequent major or minor third intervals, which serves as an excellent example of what McDonald terms modal subversion through third relations (McDonald: 357). All in all, the song clearly doesn't just modulate from one established mode to another. Instead, it seems to abide by harmonic rules of its own. As McDonald's suggests, it appears to be in a state of constant modal flux (360). Cohen, however, argues that the song does retain to one single harmonic system, namely the so-called 'Chromatic Minor System', which consists of major chords based on every step of the natural-minor scale, with one exception: the tonic triad may be either major or minor8, while considering the song's chords and tones that don't fall into this system merely incidental alterations.7

Schenkerian concept, meaning fundamental line, i.e., the upper voice of the Ursatz consist[ing] of a diatonic stepwise descent to the tonic from the 3rd, 5th or octave (Drabkin).

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Either way, it is clear that 'In Bloom' displays a great sense of tonal subversion and flexibility. Although this is a characteristic feature of many popular music styles, the extent to which it appears in this song is striking. There is no room within this thesis to make an in-depth analysis of multiple songs, but the other examples that McDonald and Cohen give in their articles show however that this tonal flexibility is a feature that is not just confined to this particular song, but that it represents a recurring trait in Nirvana's oeuvre and alternative rock music in general9. 3.3 Parallel harmonic motion Another salient characteristic of rock music, besides the mentioned flat-seventh, is parallel harmonic motion. The middle notes of chords in rock music commonly dont play a role in the harmonic movement but function merely as the filling in of chords (Moore: 190) or are absent altogether, as is the case with the power chord (hence the term empty fifth sometimes used in classical nomenclature). An example of parallel harmonic motion are so-called chord streams, about which Alan Pollock in Notes on: P.S. I Love You (a musical analysis of the Beatles song) writes: [chord streams are] characterized by sliding, stepwise root movement from chord to chord. [] This is a technique is most closely associated with either early twentieth century Impressionism or Jazz and it happens to break one of the standard old-fashioned rules against using parallel octaves and fifths between chords. Aesthetically, it suggests a languid sensuality (Pollack). These chord streams we can find in the above-mentioned as well as other Beatles songs (e.g. Im Only Sleeping (Tillekens 1996)), but also as early as in Elvis Presley's 'Hard Headed Woman' (Van der Merwe: 265-266). Whereas these parallel progressions were relative curiosities at the time of the mentioned examples, they have become quite common in louder styles of rock which make use of heavy guitar distortion. As stated in paragraph 2.4, it is hardly possible to play well-sounding open chords (i.e., chords that are played on all six strings) with heavy distortion, so power chords are played at their root positions up and down the neck instead. This means that there are practically no inversions and that the harmonic movement Chord fingerings for the F and B power chords consists exclusively of parallel fifths and octaves. This is also facilitated by the linear placement of semitones along the frets on the neck of the guitar (as opposed to, e.g., the piano, with its black and white keys), which makes it easy for a guitarist move the same chord up and down the neck of the guitar without changing the fingering. This parallel motion is exactly what is happening in the Nirvana song analyzed above. Most of its progressions can be seen as constant chord streams. Furthermore, practically all the distorted chords in the entire song are parallel to each other, even to the extent of contradicting tonality.

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Stephenson, Ken. What to Listen for in Rock: A Stylistic Analysis. New York: Yale UP, 2002, cited in Cohen. Other examples that McDonald gives are by Mudhoney, My Bloody Valentine, Soundgarden and Liz Phair (McDonald)

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4. ConclusionsThe use of distortion drastically limits the number of chords and harmonies that sound musically pleasing on the guitar, while the previous chapter shows that alternative rock musicians permit themselves a unprecedented tonal flexibility regarding chord progressions. We can therefore assume that the lack of vertical tonal flexibility is somehow compensated for in the horizontal dimension. In order to express themselves musically while being limited to small supply of chords, alternative rock musicians incorporated these seemingly odd harmonic structures into their music. However, peculiar as these structures may seem at first, that isnt to say that they cant become commonplace eventually. Historically, we might be able to discern a trend within popular music styles towards an increasingly flexible tonal language, similar to the evolution of tonality in the history of Western art music, which encountered its final consequences in Schoenbergs twelve-tone system. I am not suggesting that popular music will eventually become atonal, although, for instance, some Nirvana songs like 'In Bloom' can be argued to display traits of atonality. A lot of the harmonies and modulations in The Beatles songs were frowned upon at the time of their initial release and considered out of key by classical-trained critics. After the release of their 1966 album Revolver, even Beatles bass player and singer Paul McCartney himself admitted in an interview:I was in Germany on tour just before Revolver came out. I started listening to the album and I got really down because I thought the whole thing was out of tune. Everyone had to reassure me that it was all okay.10

Hardly anyone listening to Revolver today will complain about it being out of tune. The collective ears of popular music audiences have grown accustomed to harmonies that once seemed harsh or off-key. In this sense, the harmonic characteristics of alternative rock can be argued to form part of a lineage of harmonic practices with an evolution towards an increasingly flexible tonal language. In answer to the main question of this thesis, we can state that the tonal flexibility in alternative rock music is influenced by the use of guitar distortion - although it is probable that the incorporation of chromatic elements is partly an inheritance from blues practice as well. The use of guitar distortion naturally led to the power chord becoming the main harmonic unit in alternative rock, as argued in chapter 2. Because of the omission of the fifth from this chord, it is tonally ambiguous, which facilitates smoother parallel harmonic movement towards scale-foreign chord degrees (e.g., the flat-seventh) than what would be possible with playing full triads or other more complex chords. Although the combination tones of the power chord generate an audible major third within its frequency spectrum, this major quality can easily be overidden by tonal context. However, there is still a tendency towards a predominance of major chords within alternative rock. As McDonald states, the harmonic deviations and unexpected modulations away from the home key often comprise the hook of an alternative rock song (McDonald: 358). Therefore they can be said to form, along with and influenced by the sound of the distorted guitar, a defining characteristic of the genre.10

Garbarini, Vic (1980), 'The McCartney interview.' Musician Magazine: Player and Listener Magazine 8 (1980) (also on record: EMI Records Ltd, Parlophone, 1980), cited in Tillekens 2006.

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