Why do so many songs rise in pitch around 2/3 of the way through the song, then go back down?

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There seems to be this trend in lots of modern music, across genres, where the song will be coming around for a repeat of the chorus and then it ticks up in pitch for that section, then drops back down for the ending of the song.

What is the purpose of this? What is it called? Is it supposed to produce some kind of mood? My level of music understanding is “major = happy, minor = sad” and that’s about as far as I go. Please go on the music theory.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

It is called a modulation (it doesn’t always go up, it can sometimes go down). But many songs have a common structure such as :- intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-outro

The bridge part is usually fairly short so the listener gets two chorus parts fairly close to each other which can sound too repetitive. To add interest or “lift” to the song and sort of signal an end, one common technique is to modulate the last chorus before the end. This makes it feel different from the just heard chorus.

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