The History of the "Anime Canon" Chord Progression
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- Опубликовано: 22 фев 2022
- Let's talk about the "Anime Canon" chord progression and how it has evolved over the centuries. MUSIC THEORY.
American vs Japanese chords: • Differences between Am...
Special thanks to:
-Everyone who helped me with my research in the past few months, including but not limited to: my roommates, Jen, my parents, KiAme and my grandmother.
-soramylove for the Kingdom Hearts AMV lol
Tunes used:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Tunes which got claimed:
Blend S: • Blend-S - Opening | Bo...
Pokemon Journeys: • Pocket Monsters OP26 /...
Bandcamp: cadencehira.bandcamp.com/rele...
Soundcloud: / cadence-hira
![{Transition Chords} & Contemporary Japanese Music - [Kashiwa, Kondo, et. al.]](/img/1.gif)
shoutout to grandmother
this whole vid was just a buildup to that megamind reveal
I think it is because of City Pop, like Tomo Fujita said, back then jazz musicians needs to pay their bills, so they play pop at bars and stuff, but they made pop with their Jazzy knowlege, so time passes, and here we are, jpop with weird chord structures.
Very nice video btw, very interesting analysis
Aka their pop is a lot more interesting musically, even the most basic moeblob anime opening type stuff.
shoutout to grandma's ringtone
I am a Japanese who studies chord progressions. This chord progression is called "Anime Song Progression(アニソン進行)", "Hare Hare Progression(ハレ晴レ進行)", or "Konfame Progression(コンファメ進行)" in Japan. I think the original is "There Will Never Be Another You". I am glad that this chord progression is being talked about abroad. Translated by DeepL.
Odo shinko one note ahead of Rick roll?
@@user-tr7hv2fp8q I don't know the origin of the Royal Progression, but I believe that it came into mass use in J-pop with the song "Graduation Photo(卒業写真)" by Yumi Arai(荒井由実), released in 1975. This song was used as the theme song for a movie, and many schools still sing it at graduation ceremonies. It is also used in classical music such as "Sinfonie Nr. 1 B-Dur op. 38 "Frühling"".
これ韓国にもよく使われてる進行だし、個人的に一番好きな進行なので是非名前知りたかったです！本当に助かります
@@kimojhin 役に立てたようでよかったです！
Ow ! « There will never be another you » was one of my first favorite song to play when I started Jazz, I’m also half- japanese with « japanese » sensibilities in my piano classical playing, improvisation and composition, so now I can understand why this song resonated in my mind that strong, thanks to you 🙏
Shoutout to Beethoven-appreciating grandmothers
GRANDMA SHOUT OUT LETSGOOOO
That 2 5 to IV is ubiquitous in Japanese music - at least what I've listened to. And it hits every single time
I've been thinking about this concept for years, how some of the tools used in japanese pop have a very distinct sound with the progressions they choose, and you can tell when some music is inspired by j-pop by whether they use these devices. Thanks for putting some theory to this, I'm not crazy after all.
4:15 or so : I can't believe you've done this
great catch lmao
Glad I wasn’t the only one triggered.
God dammit
I can't accurately explain the bamboozlement I felt by clicking on a video about anime music theory and immediately being met with a google streetview of my hometown
29:25 the fusion of my two absolute favourite things
I really like your video essays, Cadence-san! They’re like overflowing with passion for the subject matter, and the numbers you’re hitting also speak for themselves in demonstrating that folks are enjoying the topics you’re picking and the way you’re covering them.
One thing that this video could have used, and that I hope your future video essays have, is a bit more conciseness and the kind of “tell us where we’re going, take us there, tell us where we’ve been” structure that’s generally taught regarding the essay format. Like this topic, while super interesting, could have probably been well covered with about 10 minutes or so.
Also, I think Roman numerals below the staff would help clarify the points you’re making.
I know I’m commenting on this a couple years after publishing, so maybe you’ve already seen to this.
Anyway, take that with a pinch of salt because, like I said, what you’re doing is clearly working from an algo standpoint, but if you want to present these findings in a more formal academic context later on, I think tightly edited videos will make for more helpful academic resources.
This is awesome stuff though! Can’t wait to watch the next one!
Hi Gavin! Yeah I definitely know what you mean. I think being concise vs. comprehensive while also considering level of visual clarity is something I'm still trying to find a good balance of. i.e. roman numerals that are always visible were in the original version of some of the tunes but were too cluttery with the lyrics/chords. At least the editing is something I've hopefully improved since this haha
I will take your advice to heart, your videos were a huge inspiration for me starting out! Thanks so much for watching my stuff and for your kind words.
For Korean RnB, there are many songs that follow the same chord progression as Zion.T's "May." To name a few, "입장정리" by Primary, "Story of someone I know" by San E, "Some" by Soyou+Junggigo. I originally thought that Korean RnB drew from American RnB, and that these songs specifically drew from "Officially Missing You" by Tamia (just my speculation); in fact there was a straight up cover of this song by a Korean group called Geeks that was quite popular. I think these kind of chord progressions are common in American RnB in the 90s/2000s(?) and still exist today to some extent, but they are extremely popular in Korean RnB recently (and K-pop more generally), and of course in Japanese media as you point out.
This was a really enjoyable video. Seeing you shout out specific songs I listened to when I was younger (the examples by MCR, Khalil Fong, Super Junior, Zion.T) was kind of nostalgic because at the time I really gravitated to these more "colorful" chord progressions without understanding why. Now that I have more music theory knowledge I can better explain my younger self's tastes.
Hello there, I know its been almost a year but can you please recommend me any korean song that are RnB or hvae the royal road progression? thank you
I came here to mention RnB and Gospel! I don't have any specific examples but as I find them I may come back and edit this comment. I had friends that would listen to gospel music or RnB a lot and this was one of my immediate thoughts. And just while I'm here, Jungle P from One Piece uses the progression in the first half of the verse- a banger
This is literally my favorite chord progression!! You don't know how complete I feel as a composer finally finding out what it's called 😭
I did not expect Old Great Britian, Genshin Impact and Megamind to appear in one single video
Holy shit, I love this video! I've always thought about this progression as having a strong link to jazz and the simplified I vi IV V progression found in pop but never thought of the older sources. It's mind-blowing how you can trace musical ideas really far back.
It gets more fun: Wikipedia says that "Confirmation" is actually a contrafact of a tune called "Twilight Time" which was first recorded by Les Brown in 1944 and released in Jan of 1945, the same year that Parker supposedly wrote his tune. If you take a listen to "Twilight Time" you'll hear that the A section is almost identical to "Confirmation"'s A section bar the missing related ii of the V/vi and it instead has a backdoor cadence of VI I V/ii after the IV chord. Who knows if Parker was inspired by this earlier record, but it's somewhat likely considering that the practice of writing contrafacts was so rampant during his time (the B section of "Confirmation" is not like "Twilight Time" though).
It gets even more fun: there is another tune that originated a couple years earlier in 1942, "There Will Never Be Another You," that has the same progression of "Confirmation" up to the IV chord where it does a backdoor to the I and then does vi V/V ii V (which is actually what "Twilight Time" does!). All along I've been associating the Anime Canon progression with "There Will Never Be Another You" since that's one of my favorite tunes, and now thanks to you I see more links in the chain. You might find another step of the evolution of this progression if you do more digging. This stuff really goes deep!
Awesome Video!! I got so hyped when you mentioned Official Hige Dandism! They are my favourite band for the reasons you mentioned. "Crybaby" wowed me even before I knew it modulated 12 times! It was a quick descent into absolutely living and breathing Higedan. They have been so innovative for the J-pop scene since they got popular with "Pretender". And now, Since the release of this video, their song "Subtitle" which is another subversive "Royal road extension" song has just past Gen Hoshino's "Koi" for longest at no.1 on billboard.
Gotta say your videos are such a blast to watch, hope you get some time to craft and upload soon- i look forward to seeing what you will put out
Thanks for the video! Super interesting as always!
5:02 LET'S GO GRANDMA
That was excellent. Thank you so much for this!
Amazing video! Music theory has always been so interesting to me so this was an absolute blast to watch!
Great video! Shout out to grandma! Here for the maps guessing and the drawing of smol cadence!
SHOUT OUT TO GRAMMA
I love these videos! Such great explanations 😁🥰
Genuinely outstanding video. Wow.
I think that the reason this type of chord progression sees more popularity in Japan is cultural. Japan’s cultural attitude is geared toward a relentless striving for systematic efficiency, even more so than in the United States, and I think it shows in their art. A society like theirs where individualistic emotional expression is outwardly inhibited only intensifies an inner longing for it under the surface, especially for those select few already predisposed to artistic tendencies. Anime and Japanese music are so much more emotionally vivid because they are an outlet for those feelings as the only exception to an otherwise stifling way of life.
In the United States we take this kind of expression for granted and so it just doesn’t seem urgent for us to search within ourselves for the most emotionally resonant chord progressions, at least not as much as in Japan. I personally think we should adopt their artistic approach too though over our current musical complacency.
I feel like it would be useful to give that `ii-V/vi vi bvi ii-V/IV IV` part itself a name, since this is effectively a concatenation of that with Royal Road (and its usual ii-V exit). Louie Zong even makes use of this in the "jazzy version" of his A Thing About Chords. 🙂
I didn't get the way you wrote that at first cause I'm not used to reading chords like that, don't know if it's just me, I was looking and my thought process was like
Ok, ii and then V of VI, so a IV V I to the VI... And then, bVI? That's kinda weird, but ok, wonder what that sounds like... To the ii again? Tritone in the bass, interesting, and then V/IV to the IV and then to the I, that's kinda weird asf, but sounds interesting. I don't know if I was the only one lol
@@gon9684
"ii-V/vi" is just:
vii-III-vi
"vi bvi ii-V/IV" is a chromatic walk down in the bass (as ii/IV is just v) which is followed by a ii-V starting from that same v (v-I-IV).
"vii III vi vi bvi v I IV"
4:18 . . . nice.
The "Pachelbel progression" is actually called the descending 5-6 sequence, and it is a well-established sequence in music theory. The progression in its entirety long predates Pachelbel himself; it can be found in music treatises as early as the 15th century. Pachelbel may have popularised the sequence to the 20th century layman, but anyone with a decent education in traditional music theory would have known the descending 5-6 sequence and its derivatives, regardless of whether or not they knew Pachelbel's Canon itself.
Yes. Händel used it in The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, and Mozart used it in The Queen of the Night aria. And of course there are plenty of other examples, but those are some of the most well known ones. (And of course there's also the Soviet anthem...) It being a sequence is what makes it so popular and "natural" sounding. It's kind of like the circle of fifths progression - it's probably something people could come up with without even being familiar with other tunes that use the progression.
Even as a 21st century layman there's also pomp & circumstance, which i *think* is the same. Idunno tho im just a layman.
Just coming back to say thank you for introducing me to Higedan. They’re like my favourite band now
thanks grandma
Question: What exactly do you mean with for example F+7 at 14:00? I'm guessing it's F7#5 but I'm not sure
@@dliessmgg yes that's correct (i also forgot to play the #5 in the example lol)
@@CadenceHira oh yea my ear was also a bit confused but i chalked that up to me being a theory nerd with not much practical experience lol
openly enjoying canon in d is such a power move
if anyone doesn't like canon in d they are no longer allowed to listen to music, nay, listen to any sound at all. buh bye!
@@CadenceHira senpai noticed me! UwU
LITERALLY LAST NIGHT I BINGED LIKE 5 VIDS THEN A NEW ONE TODAY LESS GOOOOOO
Yoooo shoutout to Canon Rock! Def inspired me to pick up guitar! (Also great work on the blackadder video)
Camel Up!
Been looking for new games and Camel up seems great! I love a colorful game with quality pieces. Congrats on the new channel off to a great start!
please keep making content hira!
One of the best videos on this topic. Hi grandma!
YEEEAAAAAA GRANDMAAAAAA!!!!
RIP Berklee bois. Great vid!
Fantastic video! Glad I just stumbled upon your channel
ok your pfp is like the best thing ever
@@memesong21 thanks! I wish i remembered who the artist was
Reminds me of "어땠을까" by PSY and Lena Park:
Eb - [Dm7(b5) G7] - Cm7 - [Bbm7 Eb7] - Ab - Eb/G - Fm7 - [Bbsus4 Bb7]
(I - [viiø7 V7/vi] - vi7 - [v7 V7/IV] - IV - I6 - ii7 - [Vsus4 V7])
Also - you should have included some examples from "Love Live! School Idol Project".
Great video!
I’d like to submit something completely different, one of the most recognizable Latin American romantic ballads of the 1980’s: No te apartes de mí by Roberto Carlos. The progression runs a little slower over the course of the entire verse, but it’s almost identical to the Anime Canon, just without a few passing chords.
fire!
i noticed a while ago that the bassline in the save screen / "working, please wait..." theme from yume nikki followed pachelbel's canon, it's neat to know the history behind the progression and how it connects to chord progressions i associate more with japan
canon rock was also the reason I learned guitar 15 years ago!
Confirmation transposed to G just becomes "för kärlekens skull" by Ted Gärdestad
I might be wrong but isn't this chord progressions also in 'Mr. Blue sky'?
Btw great video! Great in-depth explanation.
Almost, it starts with the correct first 4 chords and then does something different afterwards
Good video!
I always thought of Pachelbel's canon in D as the romanesca with funny little plagal to half cadence
It's really amazing how Pachelbel's progression has survived the test of time! One of my favorite songs is Rhythm Doctor - One Shift More. I picked up guitar around the time I found the game, and it helped me appreciate the simplicity yet inevitability of the chord pattern.
Never thought there'd ever be a video about "the most iconic anime progression" that would actually showcase the right prog lol
Seems I was wrong
Great geo guesser gameplay, thanks Grandma!
Dont change your ringtone Grandma‼️
Shoutout to grandma and her ringtone
Haven't finished, but I can tell it's gonna be a banger
UNKL says hi :)
@@TheRandomSandwich trme
Wish I had found your channel sooner, hope you haven't retired
i haven't quit, just been very busy but will post soon in the coming month(s). smash that subscribe button and hit the bell!
@@CadenceHiraI found some more songs that fit this progression if u wanted to listen to them:
ikuokukonen - Omoinotake
What would have been? - PSY
Say yes - Loco
Namae wo Yobu yo - Luck life
shoutouts to grandma
I loved the random Google Maps.
as far as idol anime, i can tell you that it feels like at least half the songs from love live use this at some point, whether it be the main theme or the opening riff, and i could probably name at least a dozen off the top of my head. i was never really curious in finding an official name, i just knew that it appeared in a lot of anime music, so i always just described it as confirmation or bird blues with some fudging near the end to round it out and keep in the vicinity of japanese pop. once i got into love live with its vast catalog of music it started to feel like they really didn't try in a lof of songs, opting to just slap a generic melody on top of that progression with equally generic instrumentation. i still like it though, as someone who plays jazz piano
per the beginning, I wouldn't really say the latter sounds particular japanese, not in comparison to the first anyways. It just sounds like jazz basically
Probably a more accurate statement isn't that our harmonic language differs but rather simply that what Pop is to Japan and what Pop is to the US differs quite a lot, but that doesn't mean what is found in jpop doesn't occur in some form in US music, just perhaps not pop
Pretty nice video
I was about to go search for if anyone had put black parade vocals over those chords and you immediately delivered, thank you.
Shout out to nanna..❤
Your grandkid rocks~ 🔥
So cool, JerryC is from Taiwan, everyone got Canon Rock in their MP3 player back in the days. And now you got a subscriber from Taiwan here
TBH, every modern music is influenced by western music, especially the countries that have strong relationship with America post war like Japan and Taiwan. US troops stayed there for years ,along with their music.
There are still people that are more focused on folk-music though.
I think the jazz standard I'll Close My Eyes follow the anime canon to some degree.
4:18 hey wait a minute
i heard something...
You should listen to the Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure heart theme song. It uses this chord progression exactly. It's also a good show
Hey! Stumbled on your vids some days ago and loved your content! I just now saw, in the description, that you give composition lessons. Where can I find your email for more info?
check the about section on my channel!
When it comes to the point raised at 27:50, I think it's important to consider other musical elements than just the chords. What if you made an instrumental track that used the Axis progression instead, but kept all of the other elements similar (rhythms, instrumentation, overall arrangement) - would it still sound Japanese? (I assume it would.) And what if you took an Anime tune and arranged it in a different way, and only kept the original melody and chords - would it still sound recognizably Japanese?
My point is, there are other things that make a song sound like "Anime music", and I think Anime music is a recognizable style of music even without progressions like Canon, circle of 5ths or Royal Road (even though those progressions do contribute to the "Anime sound").
>occasionally turned dorian during christmas time
alol
Could we sum up the progression as being
I} - {II - V - I} in relative minor - {II - V - I} in Main key - {Royal Road} in Main key - {II - V -
But you connect the parts with secondary dom ?
And you can go crazy with the substitutions as long as you keep the core VoiceLeading of all the parts intact ?
Pretty much! Just make sure the II-V-I in main key is actually II_V/IV and the progression still maintains the I VI IV V framework
@@CadenceHira Yeah i noticed that that part appears mostly as a
{Pre-dom of Main - II/IV - V/IV}
but the Pre-dom is omitted more often than not! especially in the more cinematic stuff
Thank you for all that work ^^
I've had this chord progression in my mind for years, and I always associated it with Hare Hare Yukai (and I should add I never truly paid attention to what happens after the I - viidim - III7 - vi - v - I7 - IV beginning).
Anyway, some examples of the chord progression in the Latin America pop sphere:
Moral Distraida - Recreo
Ricardo Montaner - Yo puedo hacer
mr blue sky by elo? idk maybe it just sounds like the anime canon to me....
I don't understand music theory at all so a lot of this video went way over my head, but it was still so fun to watch!!
it's close to the anime canon! it diverges from the form after the fourth chord
YES I NOTICED THAT TOO ISTG I HEARD LIKE THE ROYAL ROAD IN IT SOMEWHERE
Nice outro
I'm pretty sure "Do you want to build a snowman" from Frozen does this.
it's pretty close, but deviates a bit too much from the canon progression (it's I V IV II_V/IV IV I/3 II_V/VI VI II7 II-7 IV-/3)
I would watch a video on the anecdotes
i’ve been both an idolmaster fan (& general idol fan) and an mcr fan for a long time and seeing star from cinderella girls and black parade get compared here was super surprising LOL i guess i just like this chord progression a lot
アニソンのコード進行はジャズ由来だったんですね〜
Definitely check out Butterfly by Wada Kouji aka the Digimon Adventure OP.
All Hail Grandmah!
POMPLAMOOSE MENTIONED ❤❤❤❤
Le me in the shower trying to hear baka mitai in my head together with the canon D melody lol
the intro song for Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart
I feel like Mousou Express is a dark reflection or a shadow of this chord progression...
I would love to see an analysis of Mousou Express. Best monogatari opening for me, such a cool piece
I always thought Black parade was perfect for an anime OP, but I could never understand why until now, I have been vindicated!
Is the fact that Giant Blue Head takes ideas from Mr. Blue Sky at all related to why it's using the Anime Canon? The first four chords of the verse line up with the anime canon, the main difference is that I don't think Mr. Blue Sky uses the 4 5 3 6 progression.
Masayoshi Oishi's Imperfect (SSSS. Dynazenon OP) I think follows the "anime progression"
before i learned confirmation is the origin, like here, i always called it the why cant we be friends progression, from the war song of the same name. also a western song using it
Shoutout to Grandma
I beleive there is an american well known occurence dated 1980: "Just the Two of Us" by Groover Washington
Please listen to the「hana wa odore ya irohaniho」composed by Hidekazu Tanaka.
The Country Streaks at 0:04 is Denmark for sure.
When I saw "Japanese chord progression" in the title, I thought of IV V iii vi (which David Bennett says is like their version of the initial chord progression he plays here).
Effectively, I have been rick rolled by this comment
So have you listened to My Tam CD?
0:49 that's just Yesterday
Shout out to Gammy keepin it 100
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Also SWED
0:50
I've listened to too many Japanese music that I predicted all the chords
You know, the impact of the second world war shouldn't be underestimated. During the war and even before it, any american music and culture was basically completely banned or at least strongly frowned upon, even before the war because it was "enemy culture" and "not Japanese", so Jazz musicians and aficionados hid the vinyls from military police in their attics and basements etc. and had secret jam sessions and if caught, could face quite serious repercussions... let alone play to the audiences to support your family.
When war ended, suddenly it wasn't illegal anymore to play, own and express jazz or western culture... even though many frowned upon it because of the occupation and the shame of Japan losing the war etc. but it got better and for that reason the music and the style worked its way EVERYWHERE with the musicians who were free from the oppression AND because of the occupation and all the Americans around the Japan importing, playing and wanting to hear jazz.
Thus those Jazzy chord progressions got completely stuck into Japanese music culture.
It's a weird thing...
Yes, everything you said is also very very true. But I just want to point out that perhaps, without WWII, this chord progression might not have ever got so completely stuck into Japanese psyche...
WW2 is also very responsible for the Seifuku, the traditional Japanese school uniform for women... weird huh?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO now everytime I hear a song there is a chance I get Pachelbel's Canoned