Double-Tonic Complexes in Rock Music

Abstract

Most analysts consider a song either to be in a single key or to exhibit competition or ambiguity among multiple possible keys. This article proposes an alternative in which two keys combine to create a coherent, stable tonality. I adapt Robert Bailey’s concept of the “double-tonic complex” to demonstrate that in many rock songs, relative major and minor keys coexist with neither superior to the other and no conflict between them. These songs are not quite in two keys at once, but rather each component key represents a different incarnation of a single, more abstract tonality encompassing them both. The prolonged generative tonic of such a structure is a four-note sonority built from the union of the two tonic triads; this sonority often—but not always—appears as a surface chord at structurally important moments.