Everybody Hurts by R.E.M.

Overview

Key: G major · Chords used: 11 · Sections: 11

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). This page shows that transcription as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Section by section

Part 1 (0:00)

• D – G (×2)
  V – I
• D
  V

Part 2 (0:19)

• G – D (×3)
  I – V
• G – D/F♯ – Em
  I – V⁶ – vi

Part 3 (0:50)

• A – Em (×2)
  II – vi
• A – D – G – D
  II – V – I – V

Part 4 (1:20)

• G – D (×4)
  I – V

Part 5 (1:51)

• G – D/F♯
  I – V⁶
• Em – A (×3)
  vi – II
• F♯7
  VII7

Part 6 (2:19)

• Bm – F♯7 (×2)
  iii – VII7
• Bm – C – G – C
  iii – IV – I – IV

Part 7 (2:51)

• G/B – Am
  I⁶ – ii
• D – G (×3)
  V – I
• D
  V

Part 8 (3:20)

• G
  I
• Em – A (×3)
  vi – II

Part 9 (3:51)

• D – G (×3)
  V – I
• D7 – G
  V7 – I

Part 10 (4:22)

• D – G (×2)
  V – I
• D7 – G (×2)
  V7 – I

Part 11 (4:52)

• D7 – G (×3)
  V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A acts as V/V: it resolves to D.
• F♯7 acts as V/iii: it resolves to Bm.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Automatic For The People), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Automatic For The People), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• Not verified: only one expert transcription of this song is available so far.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.