Some additional thoughts/corrections: 1) Seriously, please consider supporting fire relief efforts: www.calfund.org/funds/wildfire-recovery-fund/ 2) I promise I don't go looking for songs with the plagal cascade loop. They just keep happening. 3) I do try, as a rule, to not say bad things about other people's art, and I feel like this one is sort of walking that line a little bit, but given the unusual position the song holds (and the artists' contentious relationship with it) I felt like that was alright. I also do think it's important for music theorists to make clear that analysis is not a value judgment, and this seemed like a good place to do that. Apologies if it came across unnecessarily negative, though, that's never my goal. 4) On the multi-fill in the 3rd verse, it's also important that, while the lines drift out of sync, they come back together for the final F#, giving the disorienting bouncing effect a definitive close. Didn't really have a way to talk about it that fit into the script, but it's an important part of the effect.
> Seriously, please consider supporting fire relief efforts, I just donated a few hundred dollars. For those who can't afford to donate, we've got your back, and will also do our best to help you if (when) your own locale faces destruction.
Re:drums in Wonderwall, Oasis was heavy influenced by Stone Roses, legendary British indy band, that known for blending break bits with rock. Alan “Reni” Wren had changed face of British rock.
It's a great song by a great band. The proof is that 12tone made a video about it. And the other proof is these comments with fragments of the lyrics that we could do ad infinitum.
The problem with Wonderwall isn't that it's a bad song. It's that people have just heard it too much. In 30 years I don't think I've ever heard anyone criticize it on the basis of quality. It was just SUCH a hit in the 90s that it became inescapable, and it didn't help that it was such an easy choice for karaoke, or anyone with a guitar at a beachside bar anywhere in the world. And you know what? People at those bars sing along when it comes up. It's cringe BECAUSE it's popular. It's the musical equivalence of the old aphorism that "No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
Same issue with Nickelback. No one would mind if they heard it once in a while, but when it's all the time... Saying that as a person who likes both because I was able to avoid the places where they were being overplayed.
Wonderwall is the everyday version of maria carries all I want for Christmas. It's a good song and you can't help but sing along but the first 10 seconds you hear it make you die inside externally from cringe
As a teenager I was very hostile to music that didn't fit my tastes and that included pop. While that kind of attitude sucks and makes one limited in terms of music literacy (I have since changed my approach completely) it had one upside: a lot of songs that people consider overplayed are still fresh to me and I can enjoy them. Wonderwall is one of them
It was so fresh when it came out - it was so long since we'd heard anything like it. It was something to do with pop made by people who looked like people you know, and it felt so sad that it was telling us that it wasn't real, that it was an appeal to nostalgia that advertised its own inauthenticity, knowing we were going to believe in spite of the song.
It's incredible to me that, 30 years later, this is their biggest song. I never would have predicted that as a kid rocking out to that CD in middle school.
Sad that they weren't bigger in the States. To me they have a ton of better songs, but somehow this is the only one that actually charted in the US Top 10
It felt like half that album had constant airplay in the States at the time. Maybe there was something on the backend, corporate wise, for why their other albums didn't seem to get any airplay at all here?
I have the exact same thoughts about the Black Parade. Who'd have thought that band that was *just* starting to get known I got super into in middle school back in '06 would turn into my generation's national anthem?
One hot summer night in July 1996 I leant out of a window at the back of my house to sniff the warm air outside. The neighbours a couple of doors away were having a barbecue party and had been playing fairly loud and obnoxious dance music for the whole duration. By the end of the evening they were all fairly high and to finish off the event the DJ put on Wonderwall, which they all sang along with loudly and enthusiastically. It struck me at the time that what had previously been considered as an indie tune had now crossed over to the mainstream and absolutely everyone was onboard with it. The next evening I went to the local pub and at closing time Champagne Supernova was playing on the jukebox and everyone in the building was singing along with it at the top of their voices. Oasis were absolutely walking on water at that point and couldn't put a foot wrong. Thoroughly embedded in the national consciousness. Still don't understand why, but it was astonishing to observe and an enduring memory which will remain with me.
Bruh why are you so lame? It's 2025 and there isn't a lot for people to be happy about just let people meme for fucks sake. So fucking toxic... So anyway, here's wonderwall.@@Hyperlink1337
@@Hyperlink1337 I'm a guitarist of 12 years and i still get a chuckle out of it, humour is subjective, stop shitting on other peoples fun and be a little more positive
I think it's popularity is a testament to how great of a song it is. Learning to play a song, for a musician, can be super intimate. Playing it in front of others is just as intimate. No one's picking up their guitar in public to show off that they learned Animals
@goldenandesite, I agree with you that the song is great but I disagree that there’s any such thing as a “correct” opinion. I believe that it greatly benefits us as a world when we are open to discussion and always believe that we could be wrong.
Hot take, but I don't think it's overplayed by obnoxious guitarists. It makes perfect sense. It's easy to play, teaches good strumming and arpeggios, and it's familiar. Totally valid to learn as a beginner, and it's a good rite of passage
i have a theory that at least half of oasis' songs are love letters from noel to liam, but despite having performed them thousands of times, neither brother consciously understands that this is the case.
@martin-mz2dv Noel kicked him out after Definitely Maybe because he thought he would've been incapable of doing justice to the songs he wanted to put out in the following album (Morning Glory). If you listen to live forever or supersonic, it's hard to argue against him on that.
The drum part really makes it. Imagine how draggy the whole song would feel if the drums were just plodding along like you'd expect from a midtempo ballad.
No wonder I loved it. I was an angry petulant little brat that questioned everything just to be antagonistic. This one always felt cathartic. I love your analyses!
I think the key to a lot in this song is the context of the UK rave and electronic music scene that came before it, and the success of Unfinished Sympathy by Massive attack. The drums here are basically used like a breakbeat. The droning nature of the chords, circling around without moving anywhere much, is pretty standard in that era of dance, and post Unfinished Sympathy, atmospheric harmonically simple synth strings like that cello were everywhere. Britpop was a reactionary reassertion of rock culture by guys who went to dance clubs and raves but couldn't respect it as music, absorbing dance energy and tropes into pop-rock without acknowledging the influence.
3:55 "It becomes -- and I apologise in advance to the Gallagher brothers for using this particular adjective, but I think the best way to describe it is -- blurry." ***claps*** Well done, you!
At the absolute peak of the "anyway here's Wonderwall" meme i walked past a bar near my apartment and they had a live guitarist who was at that very moment playing Wonderwall
In a time before the internet as we know it now, I remember that for two months, you could hear this song everywhere-in every shop, from every house. A true hit.
Saw Oasis live at the sunday knebworth show in 96, this was a bit of a highlight, of an otherwise very drunk and drug blurred day in a field in Hertfordshire. The sun had mostly set, and I was up on a hill enjoying the music. Suddenly this song started up, and ALL THE LIGHTERS IN THE WORLD seemed to cast this wonderful spooky light on the scene. It was, to my high as a kite mind, the most beautiful thing in the world. They did a good rendition from what I remember, and I don't think they ever quite recaptured that moment since. In some senses, perhaps that was my peak as well, a crazy 20 something with the world at my feet. Ah, different times.
@eugeniaandinolucas7391 a video game by Team Cherry called Hollow Knight had a fan favorite character called Hornet. She was supposed to get a prequel about her called Silksong. The fandom has been waiting for almost 5 years since it was announced, but there's still no even tentative release date.
so i have been listening to this song since i was 15. i heard it once and fell madly in love with it and have brought over my wma copy across more than a dozen computers over the decades.....and exactly today it was explained to me as clearly as looking through glass what it was that i loved about it that i personally never knew WAS what i loved about it i have also listened to this song several thousand times and whenever you broke down the individual bits it was like i was hearing them for the first time. it is fascinating to have been so intimately aware of a song without having ever actually _seen_ it as it was then have someone break everything down into its component parts in a way that is easy to understand and agree with. you have given my a new precious treasure made from my own well-loved and long-loved comfort. i'mma go listen to it right now once again for the very first time
9:18 the mellotron is an early type of a rompler, a sampler with read-only memory (in this case represented by analog recordings on tape), with its samples being recorded sometime before synths took off in the late 60s, so I would say that it's a lot more likely to be a real cello, just sampled for the mellotron
I heard this song when I had no idea of its popularity and I immediately liked it and found it intriguing. I don’t know anything about music theory but something they did was just odd enough but still familiar that I can easily see why it became popular
“I was there, man!” I was right in the midst of the “Oasis moment,” and I’ve always loved to pretend that I don’t love this song. But how can you not? It’s a terrific piece. Does it mean anything in particular? Probably not. But the guitar, mellotron, and brushes are all fantastic, and I even like Liam’s delivery.
I watch these and feel so much smarter and understand the song so much more, but could NEVER relate how to anyone. Kinda like a really good professor who blows your mind. Thanks especially for your ‘bangs’ isolating things making them so helpful!
Honestly, as someone who prefers blur a bit more, what I like the most about oasis's music is the drums and I feel like people don't talk about it enough. Alan White and Tony McCarroll are such underrated drummers. Their playing style is so fluid and smooth
I only understood a small fraction of this video because I'm not a musician, but it really helped me hear and understand the underlying parts of the song that I've missed over the last 30 years, even though I've listened to this whole album probably 100 times (it's the first album I ever bought).
I had to rewatch a chunk of the video because my brain got yanked sideways when you said Alan White was on drums. 30 seconds of googling later, I discovered he's a *different* brilliant English drummer named Alan White, not the one who played with Yes. 😁
Great breakdown. It's so cool to learn why something resonates with us especially when it's a song a dude sat down with a capo and played familiar chords but heard different voicings and added textures based on that new outlook. Of particular interest to me is hearing that little run on two different guitars at the end of the chorus that is very similar to Simon & Garfunkle's "Mr. Robinson" and adds a little folk to the feel. Keep up the amazing work!
I had noticed that the drums come in a bar after the lyric "backbeat", and I always thought this was intentional. Also, I think one of the reasons the song is so compelling is because, as it cycles through its chord loops, it keeps adding layers one or two at a time that result in a slow, inexorable crescendo effect, kind of like Bolero.
To me the opening gives the feeling of attempting to move but being stuck in the same place with the combination of the drone and the plagal cascade. The singer seems to be obsessed with someone and wants to bring them down to their level, but can’t. It’s like the anthem for bucket crabs, feeling edgy but at the same time poignant because you realize the singer wants to move on but is stuck.
The song itself feels like how “Nice Guys”, quotation marks 100% intentional, think the world should work. The singer wants to be with someone and thinks he might have a chance now that the person is at their lowest. It’s why it sounds so dark and petulant and not really like a love song because it isn’t. The guy just wants what he thinks he deserves and it’s cathartic because you get the sense the singer isn’t going to get it.
Interesting take. I like it. I have always heard it as a call to the last person you think you can count on. Again, not a love song. In that spectrum, not what I deserve but what I need
My take on it is more that it’s bittersweet. It’s two people fundamentally incompatible, and the POV character acknowledges that but still consoles their “wonderwall”, ultimately to neither’s benefit. Related in subject matter to The Offspring’s “Self Esteem”, of someone knowingly staying in a horribly toxic relationship for “love”. Interesting how it has so many interpretations.
Yes. Exactly. It’s profoundly abusive and misogynistic. The feelings in the song are really ugly. It’s amazing to me that most of the listeners don’t pick up on it. Sad. Tried to play this’s in the Justin guitar learning program. Musically worthwhile, but so offensive I had to put it down.
@@lkj974 This is like being offended at "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" because it has a character named "N-Word Jim." It's just part of the art. It's not an endorsement of bad behavior. Don't let being offended ruin the opportunity for intellectual engagement with a brilliant piece of art.
I know it will never happen, but I would really love to see you break down the Neil Cicierega track Wndrwll because of how well it takes all of these ideas and just blows them into weird balloon animal shapes.
I just left a comment myself saying it's weird to hear excerpts from the actual song because I'm always expecting it to turn into a meme or something, and Wndrwll is probably the biggest single reason for that.
I've been outta touch with RUclips for a while, and I am just really glad I came back and found this. You do so much interesting theory work and it really makes my brain buzz in a lovely way. Thank you, from a long-time admirer!
"It tends to feel like the band has run out of ideas but can't figure out how to just wrap things up." A minute later: "I didn't really plan an ending for this, so I guess I'm done." I see what you did there!
I literally said, looking at the elevator on the first page, "Man I'd like to see this guy draw a Penny Farthing" and let me tell you my shock & surprise at 3:45 was insurmountable
I'm pretty sure that the only reason why they added the drone on top was because it's acoustic guitar and it's an idea that any acoustic guitar player has considered
It’s actually a lot easier to play it that way because your ring and pinky fingers never have to move, leaving them to anchor the hand. Meanwhile, the index and middle finger pretty much move as a unit to create the chord changes. There’s a reason people who don’t know how to play guitar know how to play Wonderwall, it’s to guitar what Chopsticks is to piano.
@@ConnerCreativeMediaI disagree, this technique is directly useful for accompanying yourself and for outlining a harmony with some more nuance up its sleeve than straight up triads. Chop sticks is a party trick. Everything you do with chop sticks sounds more dynamic when played with ”proper” technique. It’s not a viable accompaniment technique for what most people want to play/hear, as opposed to these types of chord shapes, which are genuinely useful in a broad pop/rock context. Equating adding 4ths, 9ths and 7ths to chop sticks comes out as gatekeepy and disingenuous in this context. Even if it is equal in how relatively skilled you need to be at your instrument, it is not equal in usefulness and purpose.
@@samuelthorn408 I was pretty clearly speaking purely in terms of the level of technical ability required to squeeze out a recognizable rendition of either, but sure, go off. I’ll change it to “the ‘Heart and Soul’ of guitar” if that will mend your battered feelings. Edit: you are clearly an authority on not being equal in usefulness or purpose.
Idk, maybe it's just because I don't frequent the kinds of dive bars and parties where this song might become "overplayed" but... I don't feel like I've heard it overmuch. I've always found it to be an interesting song, for reasons I couldn't quite pin down, and which this video explains very well. Intentional or not, there's a lot of interesting motion and contradiction happening, and that's what I like in music. I like Wonderwall, and I mean... I can't be the only one, as you said yourself, a song doesn't become overplayed because no one likes it. lmfao
I was in sixth grade when this song came out, and at that time my friends and I were all listening to Pantera and Metallica. I loved this song, but couldn’t tell my friends out of fear they would make fun of me. Years later, I found out we all felt that way. This is the only song that I can remember, that had that effect on us.
11:21 As a mid-aged adult who was EXACTLY the right teenage when this song hit (1995), I gotta say your analysis here is on-point. “Wonderwall” captured the attention of adolescents in North America at a time when we were curious, confused, a little bit spoiled, and overly-confident… or as you put it, petulant. And, exactly as you said in the video, the word “petulant” often presumes a negative connotation, but not so much in this context. My generation (the tail-end of “Gen X”) was indeed, petulant, in the mid-90’s, but not in an anarchistic or overtly rebellious way. When those of us who are now in our mid-forties look back at “Wonderwall”, we do fondly, but also with a twinge of regret. There are a few other noteworthy contemporaneous songs that capture the same sentiment (“My Own Prison” by Creed, “Clumsy” by Our Lady Peace, and “The Freshmen” by The Verve Pipe), but none of those tracks were as commercially successful nor as transcendent as “Wonderwall”.
You must spend literal tens of dollars on Sharpies and Music Paper for your production on these videos... and your presentation is so enlightening, even philosophical at times. Thank you!
"The point is that there's a drone." Great point! As a rock songwriter and theatrical composer, that's how I think. The drone adds tension, melancholy, whatever feeling I want (if I do it right) over a chord loop that usually gives some other feel (e.g., like a shattered mirror. You still see a reflection, but the main feature is that it's now shattered). The drone becomes the "thing", more than the loop.
I'm glad your channel is doing well and you are safe from the devastation in your home. Your musical experience is the antithesis of mine I'm not sure if we should start a band or fight to the death. For now I'll wish you well.
in the 90s when i made mix tapes for people, i would always stick it on the end of a side when there were less than a few minutes of tape left, so that it would get cut off. because i hated myself for how much i loved the song. i also picked up a cd of george harrison's album entitled wonderwall in an effort to better understand the song.
Thanks, 12tone, your very entertaining video helped me understand why I don't like Wonderwall. It's more of what you didn't discuss than what you did. What you discussed mostly was the musical structure of the song. I like that part of Wonderwall, and it was fascinating to hear your breakdown! But it's still a song at the end of the day. It has lyrics. Those are the part I don't like. If I went another 20 years without hearing the words "and all the roads we have to walk are winding, and all the lights that lead us there are blinding," I would just hope for another 20 years. The lyrics actually get in the way of me enjoying the music.
Considering how heavy and uptempo the rest of Oasis' catalogue usually is, it's interesting that a more acoustic downtempo pseudoballad became their biggest hit. It reminds me of hair metal band Extreme whose's biggest hit is More Than Words, a stripped down acoustic ballad. And in Oasis' case, their last really big hit iirc is also another stripped down tune that became divisive, Stop Crying Your Heart Out. Guess the general public (ironically) really digs their softer side.
There are a lot of bands that show this phenomenon. Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters", Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", both "Dream On" and "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" for Aerosmith, Boston's "Amanda" and "More Than a Feeling"...
i really appreciate that you went into so much detail about the drums, because i tend to forget about them usually, and now i realize more about the song. (and also inspires me to look more into the drums in britpop because i don't listen to very much >_>)
The Gallagher brothers biggest obstacle in rock and roll always seemed to be the mirror. They could literally never let themselves go and just rock out
I always interpreted the drums coming in halfway through a line as gaining confidence. Like before it was that nervious "listen to me please right now" energy, but after its more "now that I've got your attention I've got this in the bag."
I think I’ve figured out what I like about the song now. You mentioned a lot of things that sound like they shouldn’t work, like the guitar and singer “fighting”, the drums sounding like they belong in a different song and such. And yet it comes together very cohesively (like how the drums come in at a weird time, but a very effective time). The song manages to pull off sounding tightly written and well rehearsed AND sounding improvised at the same time.
I have to take issue with you about the end of section one: it's NOT a fermata on F#m7 - Liam comes off the 'L' of "Wonderwall" in time for one lone measure of 2/4 on A, then the F#m7 is the start of a 4/4. I've counted it over and over; ain't no 7.8, the drums start in again on the second quaver of a bar of 4/4. Couple more things about Liam's voice - it's absolutely, characteristically Mancunian, and nasopharyngeal more than strictly nasal (ie there's pharyngeal as well as nasal resonance); compare with Davy Jones of The Monkees, another scion of Manchester, on, eg, "Daydream Believer." What's great about his tone is that it adds a really aggressive element into this ballad; but also pay attention to his timing - he always comes off notes in _exact_ time, as precise as a sequencer and as vicious as a switchblade. For this reason I have always compared him to that other great proponent of exact-note-length singing, Karen Carpenter.
Yes, the drum fill and the "fermata" before it are definitely in tempo. Your analysis is correct - the A major is a 2/4 measure and the F#m7 is a whole note in 4/4. Then you have an 8th note rest on the downbeat of the next measure, and then the drum fill begins. Of course without hearing the musical context before the drum fill, you couldn't know which beat it starts on. But I don't think you will lose the sense of pulse when the pause only takes a single measure (+ an 8th note). There is enough musical context before the fill to hear it clearly starting on the and of one.
Oh no. I hate thousand miles more than just about any other song lol. Rather hear the Friday song even. I'm glad that it is actually bringing someone joy though.
Fun fact: My first time hearing Wonderwall was in a Mashup with Boulevard of Broken Dreams. And it was my first time hearing the latter as well so for over a year I thought they were the same song until somebody heard me singing and asked what the hell I was doing.
Wonderwall is the name of the Supporter's Section at Allianz Field. After every Minnesota United FC (MLS) home win the entire stadium, all ~20,000 people, sing Wonderwall. Why? Because it was a former coach's favorite and it became the teams victory song in the locker room. When the fans found out we started singing it after wins. All the way back in 2011. Now a MLS (not the biggest futbol league) team in Minnesota (not the biggest market) leans all the way in to it this Oasis classic.
Some additional thoughts/corrections:
1) Seriously, please consider supporting fire relief efforts: www.calfund.org/funds/wildfire-recovery-fund/
2) I promise I don't go looking for songs with the plagal cascade loop. They just keep happening.
3) I do try, as a rule, to not say bad things about other people's art, and I feel like this one is sort of walking that line a little bit, but given the unusual position the song holds (and the artists' contentious relationship with it) I felt like that was alright. I also do think it's important for music theorists to make clear that analysis is not a value judgment, and this seemed like a good place to do that. Apologies if it came across unnecessarily negative, though, that's never my goal.
4) On the multi-fill in the 3rd verse, it's also important that, while the lines drift out of sync, they come back together for the final F#, giving the disorienting bouncing effect a definitive close. Didn't really have a way to talk about it that fit into the script, but it's an important part of the effect.
@@EnheTook50Benadryl ?
is that the Wildfire campaign where a portion goes to ActBlue instead of actual relief or is that a properly vetted relief effort?
> Seriously, please consider supporting fire relief efforts,
I just donated a few hundred dollars. For those who can't afford to donate, we've got your back, and will also do our best to help you if (when) your own locale faces destruction.
didnt actually read the comment and "oh cmon"ed at the wrong time
Re:drums in Wonderwall, Oasis was heavy influenced by Stone Roses, legendary British indy band, that known for blending break bits with rock.
Alan “Reni” Wren had changed face of British rock.
"Is Wonderwall a good song?" Well, I said Maybe...
Take my like and get out
Very nice very nice
Is this comment going to be the one that saves me?
It's a great song by a great band. The proof is that 12tone made a video about it. And the other proof is these comments with fragments of the lyrics that we could do ad infinitum.
@@DonovanPresents after all, it's my wonderwall
1:55 can’t believe you dropped the opportunity to say “anyway, here’s wonder wall”
Assume you meant 1:47. :)
literally embarassingly low hanging fruit
The problem with Wonderwall isn't that it's a bad song. It's that people have just heard it too much. In 30 years I don't think I've ever heard anyone criticize it on the basis of quality. It was just SUCH a hit in the 90s that it became inescapable, and it didn't help that it was such an easy choice for karaoke, or anyone with a guitar at a beachside bar anywhere in the world. And you know what? People at those bars sing along when it comes up. It's cringe BECAUSE it's popular. It's the musical equivalence of the old aphorism that "No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
I think your comment was very accurate.
Same issue with Nickelback. No one would mind if they heard it once in a while, but when it's all the time...
Saying that as a person who likes both because I was able to avoid the places where they were being overplayed.
@@Leafsdude Exactly. Coldplay also occurs to me. Nothing like selling out stadiums for decades to make you unpopular, lol
Nothing destroys a song more effectively than overexposure. That's why I listen to my favourite songs sparingly.
Wonderwall is the everyday version of maria carries all I want for Christmas. It's a good song and you can't help but sing along but the first 10 seconds you hear it make you die inside externally from cringe
As a teenager I was very hostile to music that didn't fit my tastes and that included pop. While that kind of attitude sucks and makes one limited in terms of music literacy (I have since changed my approach completely) it had one upside: a lot of songs that people consider overplayed are still fresh to me and I can enjoy them. Wonderwall is one of them
It was so fresh when it came out - it was so long since we'd heard anything like it. It was something to do with pop made by people who looked like people you know, and it felt so sad that it was telling us that it wasn't real, that it was an appeal to nostalgia that advertised its own inauthenticity, knowing we were going to believe in spite of the song.
I’ve learned ironic enjoyment dovetails pretty easily into actual enjoyment. plus it’s funny to play old 90s pop hits at people
Whoah... so that means you were so hipster, you looped back around to enjoy mainstream after it's become retro?!
TEACH ME YOUR WAYS!!
It's incredible to me that, 30 years later, this is their biggest song. I never would have predicted that as a kid rocking out to that CD in middle school.
Sad that they weren't bigger in the States. To me they have a ton of better songs, but somehow this is the only one that actually charted in the US Top 10
Hi Mr. Beat
It felt like half that album had constant airplay in the States at the time.
Maybe there was something on the backend, corporate wise, for why their other albums didn't seem to get any airplay at all here?
My breats give me monis
I have the exact same thoughts about the Black Parade. Who'd have thought that band that was *just* starting to get known I got super into in middle school back in '06 would turn into my generation's national anthem?
One hot summer night in July 1996 I leant out of a window at the back of my house to sniff the warm air outside. The neighbours a couple of doors away were having a barbecue party and had been playing fairly loud and obnoxious dance music for the whole duration. By the end of the evening they were all fairly high and to finish off the event the DJ put on Wonderwall, which they all sang along with loudly and enthusiastically. It struck me at the time that what had previously been considered as an indie tune had now crossed over to the mainstream and absolutely everyone was onboard with it. The next evening I went to the local pub and at closing time Champagne Supernova was playing on the jukebox and everyone in the building was singing along with it at the top of their voices. Oasis were absolutely walking on water at that point and couldn't put a foot wrong. Thoroughly embedded in the national consciousness. Still don't understand why, but it was astonishing to observe and an enduring memory which will remain with me.
They make music that people enjoy, simple as that.
Anyhow, here's Wonderwall.
I was totally expecting him to say that after nearly trailing off with his outro. Would have been chef’s kiss.
not funny. never was. never will be. move on.
@@Hyperlink1337 funny. was. will be. on.
Bruh why are you so lame? It's 2025 and there isn't a lot for people to be happy about just let people meme for fucks sake. So fucking toxic... So anyway, here's wonderwall.@@Hyperlink1337
@@Hyperlink1337 I'm a guitarist of 12 years and i still get a chuckle out of it, humour is subjective, stop shitting on other peoples fun and be a little more positive
Even though many people make fun of the song for being overplayed by obnoxious guitarists, I find the song to be great regardless of time
I think it's popularity is a testament to how great of a song it is. Learning to play a song, for a musician, can be super intimate. Playing it in front of others is just as intimate. No one's picking up their guitar in public to show off that they learned Animals
This is the correct opinion
I saw your comment and thought it was something I posted and forgot about. Kinda funny we share the same first name and profile color
@goldenandesite, I agree with you that the song is great but I disagree that there’s any such thing as a “correct” opinion. I believe that it greatly benefits us as a world when we are open to discussion and always believe that we could be wrong.
Hot take, but I don't think it's overplayed by obnoxious guitarists. It makes perfect sense. It's easy to play, teaches good strumming and arpeggios, and it's familiar. Totally valid to learn as a beginner, and it's a good rite of passage
i have a theory that at least half of oasis' songs are love letters from noel to liam, but despite having performed them thousands of times, neither brother consciously understands that this is the case.
That's some old school LiveJournal fan- fiction fodder you're spinning there. At least those of the PG variety
the good ending
Nah Noel definitely wrote songs about women in his life but Live Forever is 100% about Liam
@@jaimedeleon1194 "love letter" in this context doesn't mean it has to be romantic love. It can be homage, respect, brotherly admiration.
@designersheets don't tell that to the 2006 MySpace LiveJournal population
20:37 "The A in the bass *destabilizes the structure, but it's not enough to replace it.*" Drawing Luigi there is an interesting choice 🤔
Good one
oooooh nice
Shoutout to Alan White, drummer of Oasis, for that incredible drum part. I encourage you to check the isolated drum track on RUclips.
wasnt it tony mccarroll?
@@martin-mz2dv Tony McCarroll had been fired by then.
@martin-mz2dv Noel kicked him out after Definitely Maybe because he thought he would've been incapable of doing justice to the songs he wanted to put out in the following album (Morning Glory). If you listen to live forever or supersonic, it's hard to argue against him on that.
yes its a fantastic part
The drum part really makes it. Imagine how draggy the whole song would feel if the drums were just plodding along like you'd expect from a midtempo ballad.
A bar in my hometown had a "No Wonderwall" song put up for open-mic nights.
hahaha. Thats great. On the list with Stairway.
No Wonderwall, denied!
I thought I knew this song inside out. Somehow, you have shown me a hundred new levels and instrumentation I never realised was there.
Mind blown.
No wonder I loved it. I was an angry petulant little brat that questioned everything just to be antagonistic. This one always felt cathartic. I love your analyses!
The drawing of hornet when he says, "waiting for literal years" 😂😂😂
Yeah lmao
I love seeing songwriters break the "rules" of music theory, it's legitimately impressive.
one of the many reasons the Beatles were legitimately impressive
I think the key to a lot in this song is the context of the UK rave and electronic music scene that came before it, and the success of Unfinished Sympathy by Massive attack. The drums here are basically used like a breakbeat. The droning nature of the chords, circling around without moving anywhere much, is pretty standard in that era of dance, and post Unfinished Sympathy, atmospheric harmonically simple synth strings like that cello were everywhere. Britpop was a reactionary reassertion of rock culture by guys who went to dance clubs and raves but couldn't respect it as music, absorbing dance energy and tropes into pop-rock without acknowledging the influence.
I’m glad you’re safe from the fires. Thanks for the links, I’ll check them out. Love your work.
3:55 "It becomes -- and I apologise in advance to the Gallagher brothers for using this particular adjective, but I think the best way to describe it is -- blurry." ***claps*** Well done, you!
At the absolute peak of the "anyway here's Wonderwall" meme i walked past a bar near my apartment and they had a live guitarist who was at that very moment playing Wonderwall
I thought "petulant" a beat before you said it. Great lead in that took us right where you wanted us to go. Nailed it.
In a time before the internet as we know it now, I remember that for two months, you could hear this song everywhere-in every shop, from every house. A true hit.
"A pensive, withdrawn quality"
: Onion
I can't decide whether that's entirely accurate or completely wrong.
It's entirely accurate until it's suddenly completely wrong.
I have never seen an image of Onion used to such perfect effect in a conversation about emotional feeling.
glad you're safe buddy
Saw Oasis live at the sunday knebworth show in 96, this was a bit of a highlight, of an otherwise very drunk and drug blurred day in a field in Hertfordshire. The sun had mostly set, and I was up on a hill enjoying the music. Suddenly this song started up, and ALL THE LIGHTERS IN THE WORLD seemed to cast this wonderful spooky light on the scene. It was, to my high as a kite mind, the most beautiful thing in the world. They did a good rendition from what I remember, and I don't think they ever quite recaptured that moment since. In some senses, perhaps that was my peak as well, a crazy 20 something with the world at my feet. Ah, different times.
hornet being drawn to punctuate 'waiting for literal years' broke me completely, well done.
Someone please explain the joke?
@eugeniaandinolucas7391 it's cause hollowknight silksong (the game you play as hornet in) has taken years to release.
@eugeniaandinolucas7391 a video game by Team Cherry called Hollow Knight had a fan favorite character called Hornet. She was supposed to get a prequel about her called Silksong. The fandom has been waiting for almost 5 years since it was announced, but there's still no even tentative release date.
@@eugeniaandinolucas7391the sequel to Hollow Knight, Silksong, with Hornet as the main character has been in development for around 6 years
so i have been listening to this song since i was 15. i heard it once and fell madly in love with it and have brought over my wma copy across more than a dozen computers over the decades.....and exactly today it was explained to me as clearly as looking through glass what it was that i loved about it that i personally never knew WAS what i loved about it
i have also listened to this song several thousand times and whenever you broke down the individual bits it was like i was hearing them for the first time. it is fascinating to have been so intimately aware of a song without having ever actually _seen_ it as it was then have someone break everything down into its component parts in a way that is easy to understand and agree with. you have given my a new precious treasure made from my own well-loved and long-loved comfort. i'mma go listen to it right now once again for the very first time
9:18 the mellotron is an early type of a rompler, a sampler with read-only memory (in this case represented by analog recordings on tape), with its samples being recorded sometime before synths took off in the late 60s, so I would say that it's a lot more likely to be a real cello, just sampled for the mellotron
I heard this song when I had no idea of its popularity and I immediately liked it and found it intriguing. I don’t know anything about music theory but something they did was just odd enough but still familiar that I can easily see why it became popular
"I'm not sure what it's supposed to be about", draws the pennyfarthing bicycle from The Prisoner. I see you 12tone.
“I was there, man!” I was right in the midst of the “Oasis moment,” and I’ve always loved to pretend that I don’t love this song. But how can you not? It’s a terrific piece. Does it mean anything in particular? Probably not. But the guitar, mellotron, and brushes are all fantastic, and I even like Liam’s delivery.
I've always found it really easy to not love this song, but I recognise I'm in the vanishing minority on that.
“I didn’t really plan an ending for this, so… I guess I’m done.” I see what you did there 😉
I watch these and feel so much smarter and understand the song so much more, but could NEVER relate how to anyone. Kinda like a really good professor who blows your mind. Thanks especially for your ‘bangs’ isolating things making them so helpful!
Honestly, as someone who prefers blur a bit more, what I like the most about oasis's music is the drums and I feel like people don't talk about it enough. Alan White and Tony McCarroll are such underrated drummers. Their playing style is so fluid and smooth
I only understood a small fraction of this video because I'm not a musician, but it really helped me hear and understand the underlying parts of the song that I've missed over the last 30 years, even though I've listened to this whole album probably 100 times (it's the first album I ever bought).
I had to rewatch a chunk of the video because my brain got yanked sideways when you said Alan White was on drums. 30 seconds of googling later, I discovered he's a *different* brilliant English drummer named Alan White, not the one who played with Yes. 😁
i did the same thing
Yes? No.
@Chigger , well played! 😁
Great breakdown. It's so cool to learn why something resonates with us especially when it's a song a dude sat down with a capo and played familiar chords but heard different voicings and added textures based on that new outlook. Of particular interest to me is hearing that little run on two different guitars at the end of the chorus that is very similar to Simon & Garfunkle's "Mr. Robinson" and adds a little folk to the feel. Keep up the amazing work!
genuinely jolted in my seat at the pathologic reference
its an amazing song. The cello mellotron, the distorted bass, the guitar leads in the pre chorus, the piano at the end wow
Today, is gonna be the day... that I'll see an analysis on this track
By now you should've somehow realized 12tone got your back
I don't believe that anybody does what Cory does with music facts
"i feel like I've been waiting for literal years" and a Hornet drawing. Perfect.
Just about to mention this
For anyone who asks, timestamp is about 14:18
I was wondering how many people got the Silksong reference.
For years (until I saw the name of the song in written form), I always heard "Wonderbra".
a friend recorded a parody version called that
I had noticed that the drums come in a bar after the lyric "backbeat", and I always thought this was intentional. Also, I think one of the reasons the song is so compelling is because, as it cycles through its chord loops, it keeps adding layers one or two at a time that result in a slow, inexorable crescendo effect, kind of like Bolero.
Your analysis of the singer's tone was very interesting
I think it was the highlight of the video
To me the opening gives the feeling of attempting to move but being stuck in the same place with the combination of the drone and the plagal cascade. The singer seems to be obsessed with someone and wants to bring them down to their level, but can’t. It’s like the anthem for bucket crabs, feeling edgy but at the same time poignant because you realize the singer wants to move on but is stuck.
That’s a really good way of putting it. An anthem for bucket crabs. You get the sense both the subject and the singer are bucket crabs.
The song itself feels like how “Nice Guys”, quotation marks 100% intentional, think the world should work. The singer wants to be with someone and thinks he might have a chance now that the person is at their lowest. It’s why it sounds so dark and petulant and not really like a love song because it isn’t. The guy just wants what he thinks he deserves and it’s cathartic because you get the sense the singer isn’t going to get it.
Interesting take. I like it. I have always heard it as a call to the last person you think you can count on. Again, not a love song. In that spectrum, not what I deserve but what I need
My take on it is more that it’s bittersweet. It’s two people fundamentally incompatible, and the POV character acknowledges that but still consoles their “wonderwall”, ultimately to neither’s benefit. Related in subject matter to The Offspring’s “Self Esteem”, of someone knowingly staying in a horribly toxic relationship for “love”.
Interesting how it has so many interpretations.
I don’t hear that at all in the lyrics.
Yes. Exactly. It’s profoundly abusive and misogynistic. The feelings in the song are really ugly. It’s amazing to me that most of the listeners don’t pick up on it. Sad. Tried to play this’s in the Justin guitar learning program. Musically worthwhile, but so offensive I had to put it down.
@@lkj974 This is like being offended at "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" because it has a character named "N-Word Jim." It's just part of the art. It's not an endorsement of bad behavior.
Don't let being offended ruin the opportunity for intellectual engagement with a brilliant piece of art.
I know it will never happen, but I would really love to see you break down the Neil Cicierega track Wndrwll because of how well it takes all of these ideas and just blows them into weird balloon animal shapes.
I just left a comment myself saying it's weird to hear excerpts from the actual song because I'm always expecting it to turn into a meme or something, and Wndrwll is probably the biggest single reason for that.
I've been outta touch with RUclips for a while, and I am just really glad I came back and found this. You do so much interesting theory work and it really makes my brain buzz in a lovely way. Thank you, from a long-time admirer!
14:11 "I feel like I've been waiting for literal years" **draws a picture of Hornet from Silksong** 😂😂
"It tends to feel like the band has run out of ideas but can't figure out how to just wrap things up."
A minute later: "I didn't really plan an ending for this, so I guess I'm done."
I see what you did there!
I literally said, looking at the elevator on the first page, "Man I'd like to see this guy draw a Penny Farthing" and let me tell you my shock & surprise at 3:45 was insurmountable
Welcome to the channel. (In case you didn't know, that pennyfarthing has been 12tone's default depiction of the number 6 for years now.)
Dude, what way are you holding that pen!!?? That's crazy! And great video! Wonderwall is a banger at a party.
1:48 Anyway, here's Wonderwall.
gracious, you are so good. thank you so much. please keep doing what you do, I’m in love
"Annoyed To Be Here, Now," was the original title.
I'm pretty sure that the only reason why they added the drone on top was because it's acoustic guitar and it's an idea that any acoustic guitar player has considered
It’s actually a lot easier to play it that way because your ring and pinky fingers never have to move, leaving them to anchor the hand. Meanwhile, the index and middle finger pretty much move as a unit to create the chord changes. There’s a reason people who don’t know how to play guitar know how to play Wonderwall, it’s to guitar what Chopsticks is to piano.
@@ConnerCreativeMediaI disagree, this technique is directly useful for accompanying yourself and for outlining a harmony with some more nuance up its sleeve than straight up triads. Chop sticks is a party trick. Everything you do with chop sticks sounds more dynamic when played with ”proper” technique. It’s not a viable accompaniment technique for what most people want to play/hear, as opposed to these types of chord shapes, which are genuinely useful in a broad pop/rock context. Equating adding 4ths, 9ths and 7ths to chop sticks comes out as gatekeepy and disingenuous in this context.
Even if it is equal in how relatively skilled you need to be at your instrument, it is not equal in usefulness and purpose.
@@samuelthorn408 I was pretty clearly speaking purely in terms of the level of technical ability required to squeeze out a recognizable rendition of either, but sure, go off. I’ll change it to “the ‘Heart and Soul’ of guitar” if that will mend your battered feelings.
Edit: you are clearly an authority on not being equal in usefulness or purpose.
Idk, maybe it's just because I don't frequent the kinds of dive bars and parties where this song might become "overplayed" but... I don't feel like I've heard it overmuch. I've always found it to be an interesting song, for reasons I couldn't quite pin down, and which this video explains very well. Intentional or not, there's a lot of interesting motion and contradiction happening, and that's what I like in music.
I like Wonderwall, and I mean... I can't be the only one, as you said yourself, a song doesn't become overplayed because no one likes it. lmfao
Thank you for using your audiences power to do good for your community
i cant believe it took me this long to notice (i've been watching your videos for a little while) that you draw with your left hand
I was in sixth grade when this song came out, and at that time my friends and I were all listening to Pantera and Metallica. I loved this song, but couldn’t tell my friends out of fear they would make fun of me. Years later, I found out we all felt that way. This is the only song that I can remember, that had that effect on us.
Been waiting for this song for long time
11:21 As a mid-aged adult who was EXACTLY the right teenage when this song hit (1995), I gotta say your analysis here is on-point. “Wonderwall” captured the attention of adolescents in North America at a time when we were curious, confused, a little bit spoiled, and overly-confident… or as you put it, petulant. And, exactly as you said in the video, the word “petulant” often presumes a negative connotation, but not so much in this context. My generation (the tail-end of “Gen X”) was indeed, petulant, in the mid-90’s, but not in an anarchistic or overtly rebellious way.
When those of us who are now in our mid-forties look back at “Wonderwall”, we do fondly, but also with a twinge of regret. There are a few other noteworthy contemporaneous songs that capture the same sentiment (“My Own Prison” by Creed, “Clumsy” by Our Lady Peace, and “The Freshmen” by The Verve Pipe), but none of those tracks were as commercially successful nor as transcendent as “Wonderwall”.
You must spend literal tens of dollars on Sharpies and Music Paper for your production on these videos... and your presentation is so enlightening, even philosophical at times. Thank you!
Would love to see a video about "Supersonic"! I love that song and I think there might be some fun musical stuff to talk about
"The point is that there's a drone." Great point! As a rock songwriter and theatrical composer, that's how I think. The drone adds tension, melancholy, whatever feeling I want (if I do it right) over a chord loop that usually gives some other feel (e.g., like a shattered mirror. You still see a reflection, but the main feature is that it's now shattered). The drone becomes the "thing", more than the loop.
As the band Travis said: "and what's a Wonderwall anyway?"
And that line was even added in the iconic Wonderwall/Boulevard of Broken Dreams mashup from that Dean Gray remix album.
@KremBotop 100%
That was my first intro to that song!
Hope they stay together long enough for me to see them in Sydney at the end of the year!!!
I'm glad your channel is doing well and you are safe from the devastation in your home. Your musical experience is the antithesis of mine I'm not sure if we should start a band or fight to the death. For now I'll wish you well.
I'd love to see you cover Don't Look Back In Anger or any of the singles from Definitely Maybe
I always like to tell people about the original from Mike Flowers Pops
in the 90s when i made mix tapes for people, i would always stick it on the end of a side when there were less than a few minutes of tape left, so that it would get cut off. because i hated myself for how much i loved the song. i also picked up a cd of george harrison's album entitled wonderwall in an effort to better understand the song.
That was a waste of money. ;-)
Thanks, 12tone, your very entertaining video helped me understand why I don't like Wonderwall. It's more of what you didn't discuss than what you did. What you discussed mostly was the musical structure of the song. I like that part of Wonderwall, and it was fascinating to hear your breakdown! But it's still a song at the end of the day. It has lyrics. Those are the part I don't like. If I went another 20 years without hearing the words "and all the roads we have to walk are winding, and all the lights that lead us there are blinding," I would just hope for another 20 years. The lyrics actually get in the way of me enjoying the music.
Me going to Guitar Center to play Wonderwall for 2 hours without buying anything: 🎸💪🗿🔥🔥🔥
Considering how heavy and uptempo the rest of Oasis' catalogue usually is, it's interesting that a more acoustic downtempo pseudoballad became their biggest hit. It reminds me of hair metal band Extreme whose's biggest hit is More Than Words, a stripped down acoustic ballad. And in Oasis' case, their last really big hit iirc is also another stripped down tune that became divisive, Stop Crying Your Heart Out. Guess the general public (ironically) really digs their softer side.
There are a lot of bands that show this phenomenon. Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters", Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", both "Dream On" and "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" for Aerosmith, Boston's "Amanda" and "More Than a Feeling"...
there's not a songwriter on the planet who doesn't secretly wish they wrote Wonderwall.
I haven't actually heard Wonderwall before, so I can't wait to watch this.
i really appreciate that you went into so much detail about the drums, because i tend to forget about them usually, and now i realize more about the song. (and also inspires me to look more into the drums in britpop because i don't listen to very much >_>)
Using Hornet as a visual gag for waiting forever is peak
Wonderwall is the butt of a lot of jokes made by people who wish they could write a song half as good.
The Gallagher brothers biggest obstacle in rock and roll always seemed to be the mirror. They could literally never let themselves go and just rock out
10:03 now I want a cover of this, which is done entirely on the drums. At first, it’s just someone’s naked voice, and then the drums arrive.
I always interpreted the drums coming in halfway through a line as gaining confidence. Like before it was that nervious "listen to me please right now" energy, but after its more "now that I've got your attention I've got this in the bag."
"... And right off the bat we've got a very familiar chord loop." You don't say 😂
Every guitarstore's dreamsong. Campfires love it too.
I think I’ve figured out what I like about the song now. You mentioned a lot of things that sound like they shouldn’t work, like the guitar and singer “fighting”, the drums sounding like they belong in a different song and such. And yet it comes together very cohesively (like how the drums come in at a weird time, but a very effective time). The song manages to pull off sounding tightly written and well rehearsed AND sounding improvised at the same time.
I have to take issue with you about the end of section one: it's NOT a fermata on F#m7 - Liam comes off the 'L' of "Wonderwall" in time for one lone measure of 2/4 on A, then the F#m7 is the start of a 4/4. I've counted it over and over; ain't no 7.8, the drums start in again on the second quaver of a bar of 4/4.
Couple more things about Liam's voice - it's absolutely, characteristically Mancunian, and nasopharyngeal more than strictly nasal (ie there's pharyngeal as well as nasal resonance); compare with Davy Jones of The Monkees, another scion of Manchester, on, eg, "Daydream Believer." What's great about his tone is that it adds a really aggressive element into this ballad; but also pay attention to his timing - he always comes off notes in _exact_ time, as precise as a sequencer and as vicious as a switchblade. For this reason I have always compared him to that other great proponent of exact-note-length singing, Karen Carpenter.
Live Forever - the verse is another example that have strange timing details, some delayed words
Yes, the drum fill and the "fermata" before it are definitely in tempo. Your analysis is correct - the A major is a 2/4 measure and the F#m7 is a whole note in 4/4. Then you have an 8th note rest on the downbeat of the next measure, and then the drum fill begins.
Of course without hearing the musical context before the drum fill, you couldn't know which beat it starts on. But I don't think you will lose the sense of pulse when the pause only takes a single measure (+ an 8th note). There is enough musical context before the fill to hear it clearly starting on the and of one.
14:13 Silksong mentioned
Made me do a spit take, and now I'm sad
Of course he used it for the "waiting for years" part 😭
"Blurry" is crazy 💀 4:04
Which one do you prefer, Oasis, or Blooor?
@@hobbified I only know 1 song from each, wanna guess which ones? 💀
@@wolfe_864WOO-HOO
@@wolfe_864hmmm lemme guess.. Wonderwall and Song 2?
@flyingscotsman_a3 Bingo 😭
I fuckin' loooove Wonderwall. Idc that it's basic, makes me wanna sing anytime I hear it, along with Teenage Dirtbag and Thousand Miles.
Oh no. I hate thousand miles more than just about any other song lol. Rather hear the Friday song even.
I'm glad that it is actually bringing someone joy though.
Fun fact: My first time hearing Wonderwall was in a Mashup with Boulevard of Broken Dreams. And it was my first time hearing the latter as well so for over a year I thought they were the same song until somebody heard me singing and asked what the hell I was doing.
I dont blame you i haven't heard either song in full and my memories of both bleed into each other
0:30 first song i ever learned on guitar was actually "Hey Ya!"
Real OutKast fan
I have been playing drums for 3 years and struggling to learn this song the whole time. ❤
This is in the category of "probably great songs I've heard too often". Nevertheless I enjoyed the video! Congrats and thanks.
Wonderwall is the name of the Supporter's Section at Allianz Field. After every Minnesota United FC (MLS) home win the entire stadium, all ~20,000 people, sing Wonderwall. Why? Because it was a former coach's favorite and it became the teams victory song in the locker room. When the fans found out we started singing it after wins. All the way back in 2011. Now a MLS (not the biggest futbol league) team in Minnesota (not the biggest market) leans all the way in to it this Oasis classic.
I'm glad that you're ok
Your staff paper looks like the margin of every textbook I ever used in highschool. Every page of every single one.
Great analysis btw.👍
You got me with Hornet on the "waiting for literal years" 😂
I can’t believe the timing that this video dropped right before the BMTH cover