Don’t believe it? Watch this! 
This is brilliant. Reusing this four well known and favourited chords is apparently easier way to success…
The guy who played a piano reminds me of Liam Lynch 
That was awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA3YInU1deE
Music is something you can use to frame words and surprise people. The newness of the words makes the music seem new. No one expects new notes. New words and stories is what the heart seeks.
Fixed it 
That was funny. And there are many more with that same chord progression of I - V - VI - IV.
And then there are tons of I - VI - IV - V and VI - IV - I - V and of course the ever so popular I - VI - II - V (- III - VI - II - V).
They’re all very popular chord changes.
This is exactly the problem! No one expects new notes. Instead, the public is content with hearing the same old stuff over and over again; democratization of taste = repetitive proliferation of the mundane. If you’re seeking new words to make your music interesting, you need new music.
I seek new notes. Words and stories are merely accessories to music, not vice versa.
Pretty much all western music from the last 40 years uses the SAME TWELVE NOTES oh noooo! If you want new notes, look outside western music. A lot of Indian music uses microtones (smaller than a semitone), a lot of traditional Japanese music is considered atonal and if you want western music with the same notes that truly sounds different, check out 12-tone music which is also atonal (especially Schoenberg) but if you have a western ear like most of us are programmed with it’ll take a while for you to get into.
By new notes, I really mean new combinations of notes in popular music, rather than the same old chords. I’ve found the use of new notes, along with formerly “experimental” sounds and timbres, in mainstream stuff like Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens, and minimalist consonant and dissonant harmony in Four Tet, but mainstream music for the most part still utilizes those same old chord changes.
I prefer Webern to Schoenberg (as suggested, it did take me a while to get into), but do really like the Schoenberg piece for band (maybe a transcription). I can only take Eastern music in small doses…it’s a bit harsh and chaotic for my Western ears, but I like some of the stuff coming out of Japan, for example Jiru Censhu, a mixture of traditional Japanese music with the Western tonal system.
That said, I must confess I DO listen to music with the standard chord changes. Music can certainly have redeeming qualities aside from the chords it uses, or simply have personal significance.
I personally find rhythm and texture far more interesting, but even though those standard chord progressions are so prevalent, they can still be voiced differently (which is quite common). I dabble in electronic music myself and every time I come up with some standard progression I just can’t hack it at all, but when I play bass or guitar having an easy progression is a blessing for improvisation!
Listen to good jazz or classical
Did you guys not see Rob’s Pachelbel Rant 5 years ago?
i had to sit through half an hour of watching those guys… Granted to four chord song is a good idea, but then its sort of a… oh shit, we dont have anything else funny, lets make a song about making a cake then use the same tune and make it about rapeing… and make fun of one of us for being short. But it was worth the wait to see sam simmons.
I’ll bet almost all of them are in 4/4 time too!
Just because either the three chord or four chord tricks will fit a particular tune, it doesn’t meant that the actual recorded versions stuck to those three or four chords. Also, the writer makes a choice as to which key, because different keys convey different moods, and very often a tune modulates to use the same basic set of chords from a different key.
Apart from that, each of the chords can appear in different inversions. Each of those is a different fingering, a different sound, and different mood or feel.
I play mainly traditional English folk music and in any given key I will tend to use I, IV and V, but also the minor versions of II and VI and occasionally the minor version of III. But that’s on concertina. On melodeon, I’d use a simpler progression for the same melodies.
People who say “it’s only three chords” are usually (but not always) people who aren’t quite sure what a chord is.
Words like LOL, ROFLOL, <3?