Gold rush – Emma Stevens

The unique guitar opening and bridge proves Emma has the creativity to work well. however, the four chord progression and unimpressive chorus combine to destroy the message in the foot. Yes, its a love song, *seemingly* not symbolic of her success in pop music. But I argue the song contradicts its meaning, especially since the verses’ progression prove Emma has potential.

The problem I have with the song is that she claims she doesn’t need a gold rush, yet uses the most pleasing but boring pop tune that draws the most people. It seems that she is still taking shortcuts rather than sticking to ”you and me“ (her own original ideas and unique chord progressions). “I’m just lying in the sun” hurts her in a musical theory sense, because she implies she is satisfied with mere normal music — **what EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING**, contradicting the idea that she doesn’t associate herself with “gold diggers”. I agree that the message seems to be “love conquers all”, but how cliche have you seen the message? Doesn’t it seem more likely in the grand scheme of things, that the song represents her love of music? The implication when you take the four chord progression musical theory TOGETHER with her lyrics, everything crashes down. As another Reddit user said about the four chord progression, “It isn’t using what is best, or even close to best. It is using what is good enough, what is satisfactory. It is settling for far, far less than perfection, and that is what many people do not like about it.”

In other words, Emma Stevens *implies* through the structure of the music that the real “gold rush” is the ability to make outstanding music, but she is satisfied with mediocrity. She can’t produce the incredible solos of Hotel California, Comfortably Numb, nor the versatile story of Bohemian Rhapsody. Yet the catchy opening of the song proves she feels she *may* be able to do something unique and personal to her own style, yet chooses not to do so. I appreciate that she doesn’t use auto tune all that much, but it isn’t enough. This song is clearly incredibly difficult to write to express what kind of person she is both in life and in love. I give her an A+ for effort, but end the end, I’m forced to axe her guilty pleasure. When making music, I consider your song’s music theory to speak about yourself just as the message in the song. It just so happens the two clash in this circumstance. Grade: C

2023 add on: I think the rhythm of the chorus is also problematic, the main instrument hook is a really snappy la la la, la la la la la, meanwhile the chorus is stuck with a really slow la la laaaa laaa la la la, la laaaaa laaa, la la la la la, la la, la la la la la la. I actually do think some other better rhythms might have been okay with four chord. Especially considering the domination of “Forgotten Words” (which uses a similar four chord progression) in my songs…