Ah, drop-D tuning. Long beloved by nu-metal bands, with usage dating back to The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and many more.
Guitarists and bands really began implementing it in songwriting in the 1990s, with just about every rock band on the airwaves crafting songs in drop-D tuning, while bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit almost exclusively used it.
Not every band/artist has explored drop-D tunning to its full potential, but why don’t we take a look at a few who have been more creative with it…
“Hey Man Nice Shot” – Filter
The first song on Filter’s debut album, Short Bus, is “Hey Man, Nice Shot,” an iconic 1990s alt-rock song. The track was literally their first single ever, following founding frontman Richard Patrick’s exit from Nine Inch Nails. Patrick played with NIN in the late ’80s and early ’90s, contributing to the band’s debut studio album, Pretty Hate Machine.
In the mid-’90s, he left NIN and set his focus on Filter, the band he started with guitarist and programmer Brian Liesegang. In ’95, the band dropped their debut single, “Hey Man, Nice Shot,” a tune that blends industrial mechanics with a killer grungey drop D tuning, for an unmistakable riff that fans can clock in seconds.
The story behind the song is also quite interesting, and you can read that here.
“Loser” – Beck
Interestingly, Beck’s “Loser” was also a debut single, though he’d written and recorded lots of music before its release.
Once again, the very first song on his first studio album (record companies loved doing that shit in the ’90s), “Loser” is a blend of rock, hip-hop, and folk that makes for one legendary track about self-loathing.
While there are so many aspects of “Loser” that make it stand out, that drop D-tuned acoustic guitar is just so clever and distinctive, keeping with the modern musical aesthetic while still paying homage to more classic drop D-tuned songs like Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon.”
(Click here to read about how the song’s reception made Beck feel.)
“Meant to Live” – Switchfoot
Isn’t that duel guitar intro just so perfect? Switchfoot’s 2003 “Meant to Live” — mixed by Grammy-winning music producer Chris Lord-Alge — is a wild case study on alt-rock.
The track’s fuzzy drop-D tuning gives it this really cool grunge vibe with pop-rock arrangement, and frontman Jon Forman’s sensitive-meets-confident vocals… It’s like Dishwalla meets Marvelous 3 (shout out Butch Walker).
The track builds and builds before ending on that same harmonious drop-D guitar riff, coming full circle in a way that other alt-rock songs only aspire to.
The post 3 Alt-Rock Songs That Use Drop D Tuning in Creative Ways appeared first on VICE.
