For MusicRadar, I wrote an analysis of “Everybody Loves The Sunshine” to honor the passing of Roy Ayers. I have loved this tune for a long time, but I could never muster the energy to work out those chords until now.
Author Archives: Ethan
What key is “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac actually in?
Here’s a simple-seeming song that is a subject of a lot of music-theoretic controversy. “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac only has two chords (plus a third chord that only appears once), so it seems like it would be easy to analyze its harmony. And yet, no one can agree what key it’s in. The two chords …
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Bring It On Down To My House
I came to Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys through my dad. He had the first volume of The Tiffany Transcriptions on CD, a series of live recordings that the Texas Playboys made for radio syndication. My dad was an impeccably highbrow opera fan, and aside from the Elvis Christmas Album, Bob Wills was the …
Visualizing secondary dominants
In my MusicRadar column honoring Roberta Flack, I thought of a new analogy for secondary dominant chords, and I figured that I should work it into a new explainer with some new graphics. So, if you are having trouble understanding how these chords work, read on. Secondary dominant chords solve a specific problem: how to …
A year of writing for MusicRadar
I am now a year (plus a couple of weeks) into my first professional (non-academic) music writing job as a columnist for MusicRadar. Most of the columns so far have been assignments from my editor Matt. Once I got the hang of things, I started pitching more ideas too, most of which Matt has agreed …
RIP Roberta Flack
I asked MusicRadar if I could do a Roberta Flack column in honor of her passing, and they agreed, so here’s an analysis of “Killing Me Softly With His Song” along with a broader appreciation of her. Before researching the column, I did not know her music beyond the greatest hits, how funky and political …
Is music getting dumber?
For the first time, MusicRadar asked me to write about a couple of scientific papers rather than a song or album. The basic argument of both papers is that popular music is getting simpler over time. The papers have some limits to their data sets and methodology that should lead you to take their sweeping …
Terrapin Station
I took a break from analyzing the Grateful Dead while working on other things, but now it’s time to resume, with a tune that is deeply loved by Deadheads and not of conceivable interest to anyone else. Terrapin Station is a weirdly disjointed album, reflecting the conflicted motivations behind its creation. After their record label …
Doechii on Colbert
I’m having a busy week on MusicRadar! They had already assigned me the Kraftwerk column, but then Doechii won her Grammy, and like everyone, I got all fired up about her. So I convinced my editor to publish my take on Doechii’s breathtakingly great performance of “Boiled Peanuts” and “Denial is a River” on Colbert. …
Fahren fahren fahren auf der Autobahn
My latest assignment from MusicRadar was to look at “Autobahn” by Kraftwerk. My studies of electronic music history have seriously neglected these guys, so it was nice to have a reason to dig into their music.