hey, welcome to 12tone! honestly, when I was
a kid, No Doubt was one of those bands I'd
heard of but I never really listened to.
their breakout album, Tragic Kingdom, came
out when I was 5 years old, so they were a
little before my time, and while some of the
older kids I knew were into them, by the time
I was listening to that sort of thing, Gwen
Stefani had moved on to her solo career, which
at the time wasn't that interesting to me,
and I just sort of assumed that's what No
Doubt sounded like too.
a while back, though, I decided to check it
out and see what I was missing, and folks,
it was a revelation.
Tragic Kingdom is such a good album, they
do so many amazing things, and while I could
probably make a pretty interesting video on
basically any song off it, I think the best
place to start is the one that really catapulted
them into the spotlight, the feminist anthem
Just A Girl.
let's take it apart.
(tick, tick, tick, tick, tock)
the song starts with Tom Dumont playing its
signature riff: (bang) and there's a couple
different ways to look at this.
the first is as a chord progression: if we
assume every beat represents a change in harmony,
then we have a D power chord, B minor, Bb
major, and an A power chord. this looks to
me like two really common chord progressions
smashed together: the Doo-Wop Changes (bang)
and the Andalusian Cadence.
(bang) both progressions start on I and end
on V, but in the middle, the Doo-Wop Changes
kinda float down in 3rds, whereas the Andalusian
Cadence takes a more direct approach, walking
down in steps.
Just A Girl combines both those techniques,
starting off with the same I-VI motion we
see in the Doo-Wop Changes, but instead of
continuing to the IV, Dumont switches to bVI
and slides down to V like in the Andalusian
Cadence. this lets us capture that strong
walk-down effect while still emphasizing the
I chord by making the departure from it relatively
weak, thus marking it as our ultimate harmonic
destination.
but the really interesting thing here is that
the two progressions exist in different modalities:
the Doo-Wop Changes are major, while the Andalusian
Cadence is minor.
but if we're combining them into one progression
then we have to pick a side, right? we can't
be major and minor at the same time.
how would that even work?
well, the fact that I'm asking means you probably
already know that they did it, and it all
comes down to the way Dumont structures the
riff. you see, when determining modality,
the first thing you want to look for is the
3rd of the scale, which is what's called the
primary modal note.
this note defines the quality of the I chord,
which is what determines whether we're in
major or minor.
but if we look at the riff again: (bang) do
you notice something missing?
yeah, there's no 3rd.
he starts off by playing the I chord as a
power chord, which is just the root and 5th,
meaning it has no apparent quality.
he also ends on a power chord, establishing
that as his primary chord shape, but in the
middle, things get tricky. if he played them
all as power chords it'd sound like this:
(bang) but then he'd have to use either F
or F#, which would give us a 3rd to work with,
so instead he switches to playing the root
and 3rd of the chord in order to hide the
3rd of the key.
normally, this wouldn't be a problem: if the
primary modal note fails us, we can always
fall back to the secondary modal note, which
is… the 6th. uh-oh. much like how the 3rd
defines the quality of the I chord, the 6th
defines the quality of the IV chord, and since
those two qualities are usually the same,
we can use the 6th to help us at least guess
what the 3rd would be if we had one.
except you may have already noticed a problem:
Dumont plays both major and minor 6ths with
roughly equal prominence, so that's not gonna
do it either.
so, ok, the riff can't help us, but surely
some other part can.
I mean, Dumont's not the only one playing
notes here.
let's go to the most prominent instrument
of all, Gwen Stefani's vocals.
(bang) ugh, come on.
seriously?
yeah, the back half of the verse melody is
mostly just Stefani alternating between F
and F#, to make absolutely certain that we
can't tell which one is the real 3rd. and,
look, I'm pretending to be frustrated by this
for comedic effect, but honestly, I think
it's really cool: the song is all about how
Stefani feels cut off from participating in
the world at large by her gender and the patronizing
sexism she experiences because of it, and
aggressively blending major and minor into
one hybrid mode serves as a perfect metaphor
for the sort of invisible cage she feels trapped
in.
everything's good and happy, except actually
it's not, you just weren't paying enough attention
to notice.
the other way to look at this riff, though,
is to notice that, for the majority of the
bar, Dumont is playing either D or A, the
two notes of a D power chord, so maybe this
is actually not a progression at all, it's
just one chord with a couple decorations thrown
in.
this interpretation is supported by the other
instruments: both Tony Kanal's bass and Eric
Stefani's synth play a couple Ds at the beginning
of the bar and then lay out (bang) implying
that that's all they need to establish the
harmony.
in this framework, we don't really have to
worry as much about the modality: instead,
I want to focus on the part-writing.
Dumont's riff has two separate melodic lines
running through it, each based on one of the
two notes of the D power chord.
the root-based line sounds like this: (bang)
where we sit on D for most of the bar, then
step up to E at the last second before falling
back down.
this part provides an anchor for the riff,
constantly grounding us by reminding us where
the root is, and the E at the end provides
a bit of motion, rising up so it can fall
back down.
it makes the downbeat feel a bit like a resolution,
whereas if he'd just played another D there:
(bang) it's… incredibly boring.
the 5th-based line is more melodic: (bang)
but I think the structure is easier to see
if we drop this first note down an octave.
(bang) we start and end on A, and in between
we go up to B, then walk back down in half-steps.
while the root line is mostly there to ground
us, this line gives us a direction: each statement
feels like it's falling.
if we just played As here (bang) it would,
again, suck. not quite as bad as removing
the E, but still, noticeably worse.
but what really excites me here is the way
the two lines intersect rhythmically.
you might assume we'd just alternate between
them, like this: (bang) but that sounds absolutely
terrible so instead they weave them together
into a more complex pattern.
on the first beat, we get the root line, then
the 5th, but after that they flip them around,
starting each beat with the 5th line before
returning to the root. this does a couple
things: first, it drives home that offbeat
ska feel. in ska, you tend to de-emphasize
the primary beats, instead shifting the accents
onto the notes in between, so that's the most
logical place for our anchoring root line.
keeping it on the downbeat, though, helps
ensure that we still hear it as the root,
because otherwise the trick doesn't work.
to balance that out and keep the offbeat emphasis,
they shift the first A up an octave, making
it the highest note in the riff, with the
added benefit of strengthening the falling
effect in the 5th line.
so which of these analyses is correct? is
this a four-chord loop or a decorated power
chord?
yeah, no, that's not how this works.
both approaches provide valuable insight:
viewing it as a loop highlights the modal
ambiguity of the riff, while viewing it as
a single chord draws your attention to its
melodic structure instead.
if one sounds more correct to you than the
other then yeah, go with that one: personally,
I feel like the single-chord version more
closely reflects my experience, but my experience
doesn't have to match yours, and either way
I think using both approaches is the best
way for me to really understand what's going
on.
anyway, they keep playing that riff throughout
the verse, ending with this: (bang) where
Kanal joins in to play a version of the riff
without the 16th notes, adding some power
in order to ramp up into the chorus.
(bang) you might have noticed that this section
has no D chords.
so what's the deal? did we change keys? it's
hard to say.
like, maybe we're in B minor now and the chords
are just sliding around the top of the scale,
or maybe we're still in D but they're just
not playing the I chord in order to give this
section a floaty, disconnected feel.
this is complicated further by the melody:
(bang) which mostly sits on F# but resolves
back to D at the end of each line.
personally, I'm inclined to apply a model
I talked about in a previous video called
hybrid tonality, where the root of the melody
and the root of the harmony aren't necessarily
the same root: the chords seem centered on
B but the melody seems like it's in D. the
thing is, though, B minor and D major have
what's called a relative relationship, which
means they have all the same notes, they just
use them differently, so the fact that they're
kind of operating in different tonalities
isn't immediately obvious because you can
analyze either part in the other part's key.
the two keys complement each other, giving
us two overlapping interpretations of the
same musical events.
this means we have to talk about them separately,
so let's start with the melody: it gives us
the primary modal note in order to clearly
answer the ambiguity of the verse, and then
it resolves to the root to provide some closure.
pretty straightforward.
we do get a bit more in the second half: (bang)
where she jumps up to the 5th for decoration,
which pushes her into a range where her voice
goes a bit raspy to drive home her frustration,
but that's about all I have to say on that
point.
as for the harmony, the main structure of
it is this whole step slide.
(bang) by making every chord transition the
same, the loop de-emphasizes its key center,
instead putting all four chords on roughly
equal footing.
there's no one place that feels like our ultimate
destination.
any of these chords could be the I chord,
we just default to B because it's the first
one in each statement, which makes it feel
more important.
as you can see, each part is, on its own,
pretty straightforward.
it's a simple melody and a simple chord progression,
but because they're secretly operating in
different keys, the end result isn't quite
so simple.
I also want to look at the bass here, because
it's doing something weird: (bang) it starts
by playing the root of each chord, but then
jumps up to play some 16th note Es. and that's
the thing: it's always E. and it's not like
E is a particularly important note in either
key: it's the 2 in D major and the 4 in B
minor, and while the 4 is relevant in theory,
it's not a major part of the actual progression
being played.
the closest it comes to fitting is under the
A chords, where it's the 5th, but since he
plays it under the B and G chords too, I think
that comes off as more of a coincidence than
a plan.
so why is this E here?
well, honestly, I think it's here precisely
because it doesn't quite fit.
it adds a dissonant edge to an otherwise fairly
clean chord progression, giving the section
a bit more musical bite to match Stefani's
sarcastic delivery.
from there we move to the post-chorus (bang)
and this is where that whole step slide really
pays off, because it makes the G chord feel
surprisingly appropriate.
if we played a normal loop like the Doo-Wop
Changes (bang) and then suddenly turned around
and went back to the 3rd chord at the end,
it wouldn't sound complete.
that's not where the loop is pointing: it
has a clear destination that it spends a bunch
of time setting up, so breaking that expectation
feels wrong.
but if there is no destination, there's no
reason we can't move down instead of up.
it just… works.
harmonically, the section feels like an extension
of Stefani's story.
she's momentarily letting loose: up to now,
all her anger has been wrapped in sarcasm
and irony, but she's finally had enough and
just for a second she tells you how she's
really feeling before she suddenly regains
her composure and goes back to playing the
role.
likewise, instead of the smoothly falling
loop in the verse or the ambiguous slide from
the chorus, the band plays one of the most
classic, aggressively punk progressions out
there: the I-IV vamp. except they don't actually
play it as a vamp, 'cause after just one statement
it gets cut off by a sudden return to the
verse riff.
(bang) it's a momentary outburst before Stefani
remembers she's not allowed to be that blunt.
I also want to talk about the melody, though,
'cause this is where things get a bit confusing
for me.
check it out.
(bang) so here's the thing: I just said that
this G chord is acting as the I, and I think
that's right.
when I listen to the guitar, it feels like
that's where it wants to settle, and the sudden
D-based riff feels like an intrusion.
but that's not really true in the melody:
this G she's singing doesn't feel resolved
to me.
it feels like it wants to fall to either F#
or D. why?
well, I think this is the payoff for that
hybrid tonality in the chorus.
the harmony shifted into a tonally ambiguous
space that allowed it to exit into a new key,
but the melody never left D major, and since
it's been stable on that the whole time, it
becomes natural to hear it in that context
here too, so even though the harmony and the
melody are literally playing the same note,
they wind up behaving differently, at least
to my ears. on the flip side, this means that
the harmony has this sudden jolt back to the
original key while the melody gets to just
gracefully glide in for a landing.
it's a really cool effect.
but maybe I'm overcomplicating things.
I get accused of that a lot. and sure, maybe
it is all in D major and the chords are just
IV-bVII-I. that's a valid analysis.
I'm not saying it's not.
bVII to I is a pretty common resolution.
it even has its own name, the backdoor resolution,
and it shows up a lot in rock music.
it wouldn't be surprising to see it here.
but while that's a perfectly good label for
what's happening, it just doesn't match my
experience listening to the song.
this: (bang) doesn't sound like a backdoor
resolution to me.
it sounds like an interruption, and the hybrid
tonality model does a better job explaining
why.
and that's basically it: we go through those
again, get a synth solo over the chorus progression,
then end by actually looping the vamp for
a bit, because Stefani's not interested in
playing nice anymore.
that culminates in this: (bang) where the
band slows down for one last statement of
the I-IV changes before finally settling on…
B? a B chord?
huh. alright, I guess I have one last thing
to explain.
this is, again, the I chord in the chorus
harmony, and it fits with the melodic F# while
being different from the chord we've heard
here before, so I think the way I'd view this
chord is as a statement that, at the end of
the song, Stefani is leaving that fragile
good-girl act behind and claiming her own
power.
she's stepping out of that ambiguous D key
and staking her claim in a new tonality, one
she has more control over.
she's had it up to here, and she's never going
back.
and hey, thanks for watching.
as always, this song was chosen by my patrons
on Patreon: the poll to pick the next one
goes up over there next week.
you can also join our mailing list to find
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subscribe, and above all, keep on rockin'.
