Money Note - in Pop and Rock Music

In Pop and Rock Music

In pop music, the term is used because "money notes" on a CD help to 'sell' a song for a listener, and also because singers capable of performing these emotionally stirring passages are able to make income from the performance. In Whitney Houston's version of the Dolly Parton song "I Will Always Love You", at the beginning of the third rendition of the chorus, there is a pause, a drum beat, and then Houston sings and emphatic line “I will always love you.” The Céline Dion song from Titanic "My Heart Will Go On": the key change that begins the third verse — “You’re here / There’s nothing I fear.” The Dream Theater song Learning to Live: James LaBrie sings a wordless vocal melody in the main instrumental section, culminating in a long, very high note (F#5) at 7:08. In the realm of musicals, money notes can be common elements in songs, often becoming as well known as the song themselves. The attractiveness or exciting qualities of a singer or recording are subjective and vary between listeners, cultures, and time periods. Different vocal styles are considered to be desirable in different cultures. In Southeast Asia, for example, female pop singers sing with a very high-pitched, nasal tone; while this singing style would be unlikely to create positive responses for most Western listeners, for Asian audiences, the sound of the most popular singers hitting high notes creates a physiological response of emotional excitement. Even within a single culture, the singing styles vary widely from one style to another. Within the death metal fan subculture, the low, guttural sound of a well-performed "death grunt" is widely admired; for a typical Western pop or rock listener, though, this type of singing would elicit only puzzlement, not excitement.