"Pop": Exactly zero musical attributes were provided for the term but we were to take meaning from it somehow, apparently meant to comport with a pleasant quality owing to an absence of dissonance; and as though this should be considered a key feature of musicality. So the only actual meaning in that argument is found in the word, short for popular. As if all music that has enjoyed popularity must be this one thing, everything neatly conforming to a simple notion.
I don't think a narrower scope than 'all of pop music over time' will have helped very much, but this blanket statement is what we got. Before I drop this bomb, I should mention that a whole lot of super sweet pop songs use a major/major seventh chord, and a fair number end on it.
So if we are going to want a definition of the word dissonance, we won't find an objective definition as if to suit every usage, as musical terms will always be contextual. A glossary of intervals collated pertaining to qualities of or shades of consonance and dissonance is going to call the major seventh dissonant.
One of the more dissonant examples actually. Once Frank Zappa, providing an interviewer quickie examples of the mood of chords said "The major seventh chord means you're in love."
The single most dissonant interval in western 12 note temperaments will be said to be the 'minor second'. Yet we find it in the typically quite romantically poignant minor add2 chord.
It's the first chord in the guitar to a single that reached #9 in the US Pop charts, and charted high in every kind of chart (eg., most played on radio, most heard in jukeboxes etc). Sold 3 million copies. The second chord is minor/major seventh. It's harmonically seriously complex.
https://youtube.com/shorts/72eqI8b6hRA? ... 4Q1Y8C-Ppt
Massive hit.
I don't think a narrower scope than 'all of pop music over time' will have helped very much, but this blanket statement is what we got. Before I drop this bomb, I should mention that a whole lot of super sweet pop songs use a major/major seventh chord, and a fair number end on it.
So if we are going to want a definition of the word dissonance, we won't find an objective definition as if to suit every usage, as musical terms will always be contextual. A glossary of intervals collated pertaining to qualities of or shades of consonance and dissonance is going to call the major seventh dissonant.
One of the more dissonant examples actually. Once Frank Zappa, providing an interviewer quickie examples of the mood of chords said "The major seventh chord means you're in love."
The single most dissonant interval in western 12 note temperaments will be said to be the 'minor second'. Yet we find it in the typically quite romantically poignant minor add2 chord.
It's the first chord in the guitar to a single that reached #9 in the US Pop charts, and charted high in every kind of chart (eg., most played on radio, most heard in jukeboxes etc). Sold 3 million copies. The second chord is minor/major seventh. It's harmonically seriously complex.
https://youtube.com/shorts/72eqI8b6hRA? ... 4Q1Y8C-Ppt
Massive hit.
Statistics: Posted by jancivil — Mon Oct 20, 2025 3:54 am