OLD TOWN ROAD - L'il Nas X

(also '34 Ghosts IV' - Nine Inch Nails and ‘Old Man’ - Neil Young)

OLD TOWN ROAD by L'il Nas X (YouTube video of Harmony Space analysis here ) samples a chord sequence from '34 Ghosts IV' by Nine Inch Nails. This is a highly effective chord sequence, previously used, for example, by Neil Young In Harvest's 1972 "Old Man" . The chord sequence each case is in the Dorian mode - but more specifically in the Picardian Dorian (i.e. the home chord, which would normally be played as minor in the Dorian, is played instead as major). Despite the home chord being major, L'il Nas X sings a minor third against it, i.e. a blue note, reflecting the ambiguity always present in picardian modes. In moving from the first chord to the second chord, Old Town Road subjectively makes a subtle aural twist characteristic to this extended mode, as there is no major chord lying a minor third above another major chord in any plain diatonic scale. But then, as the HarmonySpace trace shows, the chords drive up in a beautiful extended plagal cadence (i.e. the arrows driving diagonally upwards in a straight line) all the way back to the home chord. You can always argue about harmonic analyses - for example many people would argue that perhaps the guitarist merely felt like playing all major chords. But only a handful of chord sequences played with all major chords have a resonance anything like this song - and there is generally a reason to be uncovered. One test of the value of this kind of analysis is to vary the proposed structure to compose new chord sequences making use of the insights offered.