I knew about 1/4 of the songs, and it was definitely funny, but not entirely accurate. Anyone who knows anything about music should know about transposition and deconstruction. You can take ANY TUNE IN THE WORLD and simplify it into a few chords, or even two. While many of those songs are undoubtedly four chords, I doubt that they're the same four chords, played the same way, at the same rhythm. In fact, you get a simply pattern going like that, and you can stick any short phrase in there and it'll match.
The fact is, in Western music, there are 12 half steps in an octave, and only so many octaves humans can here, and many note-combinations (chords) are dischordant and unpleasant to the ear. That leaves a finite (and relatively small) number of possible chord progressions. With as much music as is out there, it is next to impossible to come up with a chord progression that is truly unique. Someone, somewhere, has done that before. Therefore, the magic comes in
interpretation. In that clip, they mashed up "With or Without You" by U2 and "Down Under" by Men at Work, and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" by Elton John and "Africa" by Toto, and a reggae song by Bob Marley. These five songs couldn't sound any different, even if they're the same chord progression in different keys.
I'd love someone who's really good at this stuff to point out where Yes, Floyd, Crimson, Rush, etc., have done the same thing. I'm sure there are some Rush songs that at heart are four chords, it's just that their arrangements are not "strumming" and therefore it doesn't sound like four chords.
Now, don't get me wrong, there's a massive amount of unoriginality out there, as evidenced by this
mash-up of two different Nickelback songs. But that doesn't mean a tune made up of just a few chords has to be something to deride. There are a LOT of great songs out there that are just a few chords, but done originally, "With or Without You" by U2 being a prime example. Heck, most of the Beatles early stuff is mainly three chords, with a key change in the middle eight. For that matter, "Tomorrow Never Knows" is one chord.
My point is simple.
The issue isn't in number of chords or anything so simplistic as that. The issue is arrangement of the chords, no matter how many or how few. I'll take a four-chord song like
this that's arranged well, is beautiful, full of soul, and full of passion, than any Dream Theater "watch me play all these chords" song that's non beautiful, devoid of soul, and devoid of passion.
I didn't mean for this post to go so long and be a diatribe, but in the words of (I can't believe I'm quoting them here) Third Eye Blind, "The four right chords can make me cry."