Popular Music/Modulation

The following is a list of songs with modulations. In music, a modulation is a change in key or tonality. For the purposes of this page, a key-shifting song or modulated song is defined as a song that satisfies each of the following:

• The song must start in one key and end in a different key.
• The chorus must be sung at least once in the original key and at least once in the finishing key.

Popularity in pop music

The popularity of the key change varies with musical fashion over time. In Western popular music, the popularity of the key change has declined sharply, having largely disappeared in chart-topping songs by the 2010s. From the 1960s to the 1990s, about one quarter of number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 featured a key change, but only one number-one hit in the 2010s had one. The number-one hit in question was Travis Scott's "Sicko Mode" from 2018. Even so, key changes still appear in charted songs, despite their absence from number-one hits.

On December 10, 2022, a blog post at Why Evolution Is True noted the strong consensus that rock and pop music were declining in quality. In a poll about the past five decades (1970 to present), 42% of respondents voted for the 2010s as the one that produced the worst pop music. This consensus exists among all age groups, even for the youngest age group in the poll (18-29). The blog post goes on to give the decline of key changes as one of the factors for this. The blogger "[maintains] that modulation in a song is no guarantee of its quality but is correlated with quality," saying that such modulations show inventiveness that boosts complexity.

Examples

• Kelly Clarkson's "Because of You" starts in the key of G# and stays in that key for most of the song, but starting at 2:51, the song changes to A#, concluding with its final chorus in that key.
• Taylor Swift's "Love Story" is mostly sung in the key of D, but after 3:18, the key changes to E, and the outro chorus ("Marry me, Juliet, ...") is sung in that key instead.

Non-examples

Although the songs in this section have key changes, they are not considered key-shifting songs or modulated songs because there is no chorus or other repeated segment that is shared by both keys throughout the song.

• Rihanna's "Only Girl" is not a key-shifting song. The verses are in the key of A, and the chorus and bridge are in the key of D; however, at no point in this song does Rihanna ever sing the verses in D, and at no point in this song does Rihanna sing the chorus or bridge in A.
• Jennifer Lopez's "Dance Again" ft. Pitbull is not a key-shifting song. All verses are in the key of B, and all choruses are in the key of D.

List of songs with modulations

The following table shows the list of songs with modulations.

Artist	Song Title	Year	Length	Original Key	Time of Modulation	New Key
Bon Jovi	Livin' on a Prayer	1986	4:10	G	3:23	A#
Michael Jackson	Man in the Mirror	1988	5:18	G	2:52	G#
Celine Dion	My Heart Will Go On	1997	4:35	E	3:24	G#
Kelly Clarkson	Because of You	2005	3:37	G#	2:51	A#
Taylor Swift	Love Story	2008	3:53	D	3:18	E
Michael Bublé	Haven't Met You Yet	2009	4:12	C#	2:16	D#
One Direction	Night Changes	2014	4:00	G#	2:28	A#
Meghan Trainor	Dear Future Husband	2015	3:04	C#	1:45	D
Lady Gaga	Perfect Illusion	2016	3:04	A	1:51	A#
BTS	Dynamite	2020	3:43	E	3:04	F#
Bruno Mars	Leave the Door Open	2021	4:02	C	2:24	C#
Lizzo	2 Be Loved	2022	3:05	G	2:15	A