Modulation / key changes have been used in music for ages but the style I’m talking about is the distinctive last verse (or chorus) sudden key change up to power through to the end. Seems to have come about sometime in the 60s/70s and was everywhere in the 80s onwards.

Examples:

Heaven is a place on earth - Belinda Carlisle

I will always love you - Whitney Houston

But who popularised it? What was the first big song to do it and set the style for the genre?

    • @FourPacketsOfPeanutsOP
      1•3 months ago

      Yes that’s exactly the pattern I’m talking about. The upwards change is only used at the end where it’s used twice. “I just called” is from 1984 though. Through digging around the earliest I’ve found the style is in Penny Lane 1967. Am a bit on the fence about that though as the key shifts a lot through the song, but there’s a definite key change up for emphasis on the last chorus.