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Blues-based pop/rock tonality |
Modern pop/rock owes a great debt to the blues. This "tonal system" includes not only songs that are explicitly based on a 12- or 16-bar blues progression, but also songs that exhibit harmonic structures that have grown out of those patterns—most notably the prominence of V–IV–I in recent rock.
For example, the eighth-chord cycle that forms the basis of The Beatles' "Let It Be" ends I V IV I, and this "backwards" classical move is the main harmonic punctuation at end points within the song.
<iframe class="spotify" src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:7iN1s7xHE4ifF5povM6A48" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>For more blues-based rock examples, see the blues progression resource.