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Short thread about the musical genius of depressionwave/depressioncore, inspired by talking with a friend about Low Roar being the Death Stranding soundtrack.
I mostly categorize my favorite music as "depressioncore", since it spans a massive variety of genres, but the common element is its bleakness and soft, gentle, warm sadness. At first glance though, the composition doesn't reflect that!
A lot of the songs are in major keys, warm, rather than the intense pain of heavy minor commonly associated with sadpop songs. They use much more subtle, and much more impactful tricks to achieve the mood that characterizes the genre.
A little bit of music theory: GENERALLY, the most restful, least tense place in a key is the I chord - the tonic. In a C major key, this is a C major chord. The tonic is often called the "home" chord; it's a calm, stable place that doesn't have any tension that needs to resolve.
The other important chord is the V chord - the dominant. In C major, this will be (C=I, D=ii, E=iii, F=IV) a G major(7). The dominant is a tense chord with a very strong instability that wants REALLY HARD to resolve to the tonic. A V-I resolution is called a perfect cadence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadence#Perfect_authentic_cadence
Here's an example.
So, keep in mind that the dominant has a lot of tension and instability and wants to go "home", to the I chord. We'll need that thought in a moment.
Here's an example.
So, keep in mind that the dominant has a lot of tension and instability and wants to go "home", to the I chord. We'll need that thought in a moment.
For now though, let's look at how what "home" itself means in "depressioncore". The place tension resolves to, the most stable place in a song- when you think of pop, this is the "tonight" in every song where the chorus ends on the word "tonight". It's the "here and now".
The tonic is the baseline, the fundamental state of reality in the story told by a song. In depressioncore?
Case 1. Soko's "We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow". G Major. Let's skip to the very end, where it's most clear ( ) "Let's love fully, let's love loud"-
Case 1. Soko's "We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow". G Major. Let's skip to the very end, where it's most clear ( ) "Let's love fully, let's love loud"-
- lands on the vi (E minor) - which to me feels like one of the saddest chords in a key - and resolves to the tonic on... "'cause soon enough we'll die".
The song is in major, but "let's love" is a sad, heartbreaking place, while safe, warm home is "soon enough we'll die".
The song is in major, but "let's love" is a sad, heartbreaking place, while safe, warm home is "soon enough we'll die".
THAT is the depressioncore sound. Hell, let's go revisit a song from the Life is Strange soundtrack, which made great use of the genre. Syd Matters, "To All Of You":
B major. The song mostly bounces between the I and iii chords...
B major. The song mostly bounces between the I and iii chords...
But sometimes lands on the heartbreakingly sad vi we already know from the previous example. Let's look at the lyrics!
Our I, home chord, comes on lines like "(I) I cry sometimes walking around my (iii) own place". Crying is our home, and "own place" hits a sad, minor note.
Our I, home chord, comes on lines like "(I) I cry sometimes walking around my (iii) own place". Crying is our home, and "own place" hits a sad, minor note.
Our stable, safe place is crying, and to me the minor iii makes "my own place" feel lonely and empty. But let's go further and see what line the heavy heartbreak of the minor vi lands on! First verse- oh.
"Watching the world from the (vi) bright side"
Yup. "The bright side".
"Watching the world from the (vi) bright side"
Yup. "The bright side".
Let's take another incredible song with a similar feel. Damien Rice, "Cold Water":
C major. Remember what I said about dominant chords?
One of the most fundamental chord progressions is a ii-V-I. The entirety of jazz (and anime openings!) is ii-V-Is.
C major. Remember what I said about dominant chords?
One of the most fundamental chord progressions is a ii-V-I. The entirety of jazz (and anime openings!) is ii-V-Is.
The chorus in "Cold Water" lands on a ii chord, which to me generally feels - unlike the other two minor chords in a major key, the iii and the vi - like a warm, inviting sadness; a sort of soft nostalgia rather than despair. It then bounces between the ii and V a couple times.
"Lord, (ii) can you hear me now? (V)... Or am I (I) lost?"
These three chords tell such a great story. The soft yearning and missingness on "Lord", the instability and tension in "can you hear me now?"- And resolving, coming home, and finally resting on "am I lost?"
These three chords tell such a great story. The soft yearning and missingness on "Lord", the instability and tension in "can you hear me now?"- And resolving, coming home, and finally resting on "am I lost?"
All these tricks make up the depressioncore sound. It's not about writing sad music; it's about music that's at home in sadness. About music where happiness is an uncertain, tense place, and sadness and loneliness feel warm and familiar and inviting.
More than that, it's about music where the sadness is AT REST. The lyrics in "Cold Water" are asking "am I lost?", but the harmony isn't - the harmony is saying "You're lost; you've always been lost, and that's okay. This is familiar. This is safe. This is all you know.".
It's not even sadness; it's the softest missingness, the gentlest thought about if things could have been better, and an acceptance that it's too late to change them, and it no longer matters now. It's music about wounds that have long since healed, but still left scars.
So, Kojima choosing Low Roar - one the bands I consider a staple of "depressioncore" and one of my favorite bands in general - for a post-apo game in a lonely and bleakly beautiful, dying world is like choosing a punk rock band for a game about resistance towards the state. 10/10
Going back to "We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow" because I love that song so much.
"I (I) can't go on (IV) wasting my (I) time, cause (vi?) all I (V) hear is (IV) I'm not ready (I) now"
"I can't go on wasting my time" is on the tonic, at home. There's no pain there, no tension...
"I (I) can't go on (IV) wasting my (I) time, cause (vi?) all I (V) hear is (IV) I'm not ready (I) now"
"I can't go on wasting my time" is on the tonic, at home. There's no pain there, no tension...
...No ire or resentment. It's not a complaint, it's just the way things are; a calm statement of an accepted fact. All the tension is on "all I hear" - the music puts no blame on the other person and isn't even hurt by them "not being ready". It just can't hear about it anymore.
Stories in other music go something like "I'm leaving." "No! Don't leave! I need you!" - and they do that super well! But in depressioncore, the dialogue is slightly different. It's "I'm leaving." "I know. Thanks for having been here." It's immutable facts and acceptance.
One more, just for fun - Soko's "People Always Look Better In The Sun", A Major.
It's a variation of the common I-V-vi-IV progression, except the last chord is the V again for a stronger resolution back to the tonic - A, E, F#m, E.
It's a variation of the common I-V-vi-IV progression, except the last chord is the V again for a stronger resolution back to the tonic - A, E, F#m, E.
It's upbeat, and bright, and seemingly happy, but note our favorite color of sadness with the F#m - the minor vi - showing up. Let's do our usual thing, and look at the part of the song that actually feels the saddest - the finale. "(I) It's (V) just a sunny day (vi) (V)"
V-vi, if the song ended here, would be a deceptive cadence - instead of going home from the place of biggest tension, we turn sad. It's often described as "hanging", "unresolved", "disappointed". It's no accident that this happens on the line "a sunny day".
We then repeat the cycle, with the words "Probably not a good day-", hit the dominant on "-to say what's in my-" and land home on "mind". The important part here is how the melody moves - it stays on the A on the I, goes briefly to a B on the V, and lands back on A on the vi.
A, once again, is our tonic, the base of the key, and the root note of the I chord. On the V (E), the B is the fifth - a powerful, but neutral sound. However, when we land back on A on the vi, the note is the minor third of the new chord - the note that creates all its sadness.
When we resolve on the line "what's in my heart", despite the subject going unsaid, the harmony tells us all we need to know - we have a perfect cadence, and a beautiful resolution to complete rest - the root of a I chord - but it's on the same note that also happens to be...
...the minor third of the only minor chord in the song. A is a familiar, safe place, and a place of complete rest, but it's also what allows for all the sadness in the harmony - and A is the "heart" in "what's in my heart".
I love this genre. I love the genius of creating sadness with happy chords and upbeat lyrics.
Note that I managed to discuss the indie pop/folk side of depressioncore - Soko, Syd Matters (for more: Cat Power, Eddie Vedderâs âUkulele Songsâ, Bright Eyes) - while completely forgetting to even mention the post rock/ambient side that actually features in Death Stranding.
Mogwai, Hammock, and - yes - Low Roar. In an even more big brain move, I talked about making major songs sound sad, but not about how minor keys work in depressioncore. And this is very important, because the song that opens the game - "Don't Be So Serious"...
...is, in fact, very, very minor, and uses a really cool trick in its chord progression! Before I talk about that trick, though, let's just appreciate how perfect the lyrics are for Death Stranding.
âWe bury bones [...]"
âShut my eyes, Iâm not here, there must be some mistakeâ
âWe bury bones [...]"
âShut my eyes, Iâm not here, there must be some mistakeâ
âWatch our words turn to dust as we forget, as we move onâ.
The chord progression is a i-VI-VII-i in A minor: A- F(^7) G A-. It looks slightly weird at first glance - the only immediately obvious thing is the stepwise movement up starting on the fifth of the A-.
The chord progression is a i-VI-VII-i in A minor: A- F(^7) G A-. It looks slightly weird at first glance - the only immediately obvious thing is the stepwise movement up starting on the fifth of the A-.
The aforementioned fifth, E, goes up to an F, then to a G, then lands on the A. Neat, but that's not all that's going on here! An F^7 going to a G should've piqued your interest - it's a IV-V in C major, and our key - A minor - just so happens to be the relative minor of C major.
Every minor key has a relative major, and vice versa. It's the key that shares the exact same notes, but we start counting them from a different point - our tonic in the relative minor is the vi of the major, and our tonic in the relative major is the III of the minor.
So let's, for the purposes of figuring out "Don't Be So Serious", look at the chords as if the song was in C major. Our VI-VII-i is now a IV-V-vi. Hello! It's our friend, the deceptive cadence: https://twitter.com/Slavfoxman/status/1194956988536565760
Not only do Low Roar use the color of the V-vi - a dissatisfying resolution, disappointment - to invoke its bleakness and loneliness, they do it in a minor key, adding a solid dose of pain and hopelessness to the mix. It really is the perfect hello song for a dying world.
