Considering the music of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer (we already considered the lyrics last week), two issues emerge. First: What’s up with that awesome key change near the end? And second: What the hell key is the song in, anyway? Step into the Think Tank to find out.

This is the passage we're talking about, FYI.

Lee: I read that epic key change as a change from Em to Gm. Is there a harmonic relationship between the two? Most certainly. The relative major scale of Em is  G major, and the parallel minor scale to G major is G minor.

So in other words, Gm is the parallel minor of the relative major of Em.

Also, the chord progression of the key change itself goes from D major (“…all that you got!”) to G minor (“Whoaaaaa…”). Clever in that D major is both the VII chord of the original key of Em and the V chord in the new key of Gm.

Smooth as silk.

Wrather: Mark, doesn’t that depend on whether you hear that last chorus as being in G minor or in B-flat major? That is to say, in “Livin’ on a Prayer,” I hear a strong arrival at the tonic on the second line of the chorus (“Woah…”) which is underscored by the suspended figure in the melody line over a dominant harmony (“…halfway there”).

We're not having a poll this week, but let us know in the comments which of these you prefer.

I think you could argue that there are 3 or 4 key changes in that song—or at least changes of mode—since the verse is in minor and the chorus (as it sounds to me, anyway) is in the relative major.

[This week, the Think Tank tackles a seminal work of 1980's literature: the lyrics to Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer." Stay tuned next week for music theory analysis.]

Literary Theory, Mlawski
Knowing nothing about music theory and unable to come up with anything of note to say about “Living on a Prayer” as poetry, I’ve decided to complete an assignment I once had to do when I was getting my masters in English education.  It’s… the literary theory assignment!  Behold!

Living on a Prayer, the New Criticism reading: The lyrics start with the claim that this story happened “once upon a time, not so long ago,” which is our cue to read the text as a modern day fairytale.  What happens in the text itself, however, is not the stuff of fairytale at all.  “Tommy,” our dock-worker, is no knight in shining armor, though he tries to be by putting his six-string in hock.  But, like Prince Charming in the fairy stories of old, Tommy does represent Everyman, the ideal.  Likewise, “Gina” is no princess, but she is indeed a damsel in distress, the Everywoman in need of protection.  Thus, the “once upon a time” introduction to the song is meant to be a somewhat ironic reference that suggests that “Living on a Prayer” is at once a fairytale and something of a satire of one.