What's the Frequency, Kenneth?

and why it rocks so hard

The first single from Monster, and it’s a sonic slap to the face. This is the song that signalled a dramatic shift in direction for R.E.M. from the acoustic, orchestral vibes of Automatic for the People. I played this song so often and so loudly when this hit the radio waves in 1994, I recall my Mum coming into my room, asking me to turn it down or play something else.

Why What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? rocks so hard

There are many reasons why What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? (WTFK?) rocks. Each member of the band contributes strong elements to the song’s overall success. We could call out Peter Buck’s overdriven guitar, chunky chord progression and his warped, backwards solo or Mike Mills’ kicking, melodic bass lines and typically powerful vocal performance or Bill Berry’s precision and economy at the kit or Michael Stipe’s roaring vocals and Elvis moves. The video to the song draws out each band member’s contributions, capturing the group’s energy as they launch this new phase of their career.

However, I would say a major factor contributing to how this song rocks is to do with how R.E.M. crafted the start to the verses of the song.

The A chord that goes BOOM!

The first clue comes with the intro. Peter Buck strums a D chord and then a G chord, and then repeats. We may not realise this as listeners, but this sets the song up in the key of D. This is a powerful but subliminal suggestion to our ears that the D chord will be “home” in the song, the musical landing spot we want and expect the phases of the song to return to, to bring resolution. This is actually what happens as R.E.M. build (through G and A and some fancy bass work) in the pre-chorus sections and then hit us with that D at the start of each chorus just as Michael sings “I never understood the frequency, Uh-huh!!” or “You wore a shirt violent green, Uh-huh!!” That chord at the start of the chorus feels great because we have resolved to D, we’ve come “home.” That resolution also occurs at the end of each chorus and at the end of the song with a final resounding D chord. These are certainly rocking moments.

Where it gets interesting is that R.E.M. choose to start the verses somewhere else - they start on an A chord (the 5th in the key of D). Why does it matter? Because our ears find this unexpected and exciting. That step, that interval from the expected D to the 5th makes the room jump. To add to the suspense around that A chord, before every verse, R.E.M. leave the previous chord resonating, hanging. Bill Berry (and later the other touring drummers) would count the band in to that A chord by tapping the hi-hat (tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk) and then hitting an early snare drum (snap) half a beat before that A chord… this works like a countdown to lift off: 4-3-2-1-AND(snap)-BOOM!(A chord) and the band explode and the audience jumps!

As an aside, the first chord of Crush with Eyeliner, the second song on Monster, is a long, loud A chord loaded with fuzz and tremolo that follows the final D chord of WTFK? I’m sure this has been deliberately sequenced to provide continuation with WTFK? It’s as if Crush with Eyeliner is both a new song and the NEXT rocking verse of the last song, our ears now already expecting A chords to be the place where rocking things happen.

Is the verse a sort of chorus in disguise?

A final reason the start of the verses rock so hard is to do with how R.E.M. load up the verses like they are choruses. Many rock songs, and particularly grunge songs, create big choruses by contrasting these with quieter, minimal verses (e.g. much of Nirvana’s back-catalogue). In other words, the contrast in dynamics between verse and chorus is really important in many rock songs, particularly in the 90s. R.E.M. can do this too (e.g. Bang and Blame) but on WTFK? they pack the verses with noise and energy as if the verses are sort of like choruses. So, Peter’s guitar sound is still just as loud and screamy in the verse as it is in the chorus. And Michael bellows the title of the song at the start of verse 1 and verse 3, the lyric we are probably most likely to sing with him.

As another aside, this kind of mixing up of things we expect in verses and choruses happens at other times with R.E.M., especially when Michael sings the main hook of a song over the verse chords e.g. Losing my Religion.

Live examples

All of this is to say WTFK? rocks and rocks hard and part of how it rocks is to do with how the band have crafted the starts to the verses. You get a sense of this most clearly in the live versions of the song. So, here are some examples.

In this early live version of WTFK? on Saturday Night Live you get Michael shout “What!” (or is it “One!”?) just as the verse starts and you can see the whole band literally jump in, inviting the audience to lift off with them as the song kicks in:

And in this live version from Cologne in 2001, watch out for how the band leave an extra bar of suspense to keep the expectant crowd hanging after the guitar solo and before the start of the third verse. Mike Mills' literally counts us in to the SNAP and BOOM (at 2:10 in the video):

The guitars on What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?

In Peter Care’s music video, Peter Buck is seen playing Kurt Cobain’s Fender Jag-Stang - donated to the band by Courtney Love after Kurt’s death which occurred just a few months earlier. The guitar appears to be upside down as it is a left-handed guitar (Kurt was left-handed) restrung for use by a right-hander (Peter Buck is right-handed). When playing live Peter Buck normally forgoes his preferred Rickenbacker guitar to use a Gibson Les Paul a guitar that tends to create a heavier, warmer sound.

The “chugga-chugga” guitar effect that repeats in the chorus sounds like it is made with some kind of tremolo FX pedal. That sound will feature prominently throughout Monster, no less than in the next song on the album Crush with Eyeliner. However, in performing WTFK? live, you can see auxiliary/touring guitarist Scott McCaughey use the pick up switch on his Les Paul to create the effect (You can see this in the SNL video above at 0:55). By switching between the lead and rhythm pickups, while having one of the pickups dialled to zero volume, the effect is recreated.

The name of the song

Most R.E.M. fans will probably know that the phrase “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” refers to a bizarre incident in which the news anchor Dan Rather was attacked by assailants shouting “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” Just as bizarre is how R.E.M. managed to get Dan Rather on stage to perform the song with them.

(Country) Feedback and Comments

Thanks for reading. Keep me posted in the comments with any of your thoughts about this awesome song by R.E.M.

All for now,

DM