The Royal Road Progression in Japanese Popular Music

Abstract

The so-called royal road progression (RRP), whose archetypal lead-sheet representation is F–G–Em–Am, is a distinctive feature of modern Japanese popular music. The RRP arose from the manipulation of basic elements of diatonic harmony and coexists with several closely related progressions in J-pop style. Composers often use the RRP to lend Aeolian flavor to major-key songs; however, the RRP is a tonally flexible pattern. After presenting a typology of phrases that use the RRP, I argue that the progression can articulate partial tonic function and can induce a binary tonal system, which occupies the conceptual space between tonal pairing and double-tonic complex. I also provide a diachronic account of the RRP as an element of J-pop history and pop-music history in general. By relating the concepts of partial tonic function and binary tonal system to the RRP, this paper gives insight into the understudied harmonic language of J-pop and invites application of the concepts to other musics.