In Theory: 'Self Esteem' by The Offspring

By Brian Adam McCune

The crux of the harmonic content in The Offspring’s “Self Esteem” is the following chord progression:

A5 – F5 – C5 – G5

Look familiar? It’s the power-chord version of the tried-and-true four-chord song progression, which we explored in the Silverchair article.

vi – IV – I - V

It’s the backbone of countless hits in many styles from a wide array of artists, including Coldplay's "The Scientist" and Linkin Park's "Numb," just to name two. But how do all these different artists employ such a simple chord progression time and time again? Most of the time, it comes down to instrumentation and coming up with a memorable melody to place over that progression.

"Self Esteem" starts with the band singing the root notes of the chord progression: A, up to F, down to C, then down to G. It’s safe to assume Dexter Holland knew he hadn’t broken any new ground with this chord progression, so it strikes me as an irreverent and tongue-in-cheek (or tongue-out-of-mouth) acknowledgement to how overplayed these chords are in music.

After this vocal intro, the band kicks in at full volume; we hear the electric guitars and bass outline our familiar chordal backdrop, then a brief variation on these chords, until the guitars drop out and we’re left with Greg K. on bass and Ron Welty on drums. In the first thirty seconds of this tune, we’ve had three very different textures: solo wordless vocals, full band without vocals, then just bass and drums.

Bassist Greg Kriesel, live with The Offspring in 2017

It's worth noting the bass' rhythm part when the guitars drop out, as the band very cleverly plays with rhythmic anticipation to create a fresh take on vi – IV – I – V. The bass jumps up an octave on the downbeats of the measure. What’s more, Greg K. does this after one 16th note. When you factor in that he also plays the pickup into beat 4, it creates a jarring syncopation and claims this version of the familiar 4-chord song as their own. It’s also important to note how much blank space Greg leaves in the middle of these measures. Music is nothing without silence, and The Offspring are masters of texture here.

"Self Esteem" offers a good example of how to take something familiar to the point of invisible and make it sound fresh and unique.

Brian Adam McCune joined the Rocksmith team in 2010 and became the Lead Notetracker in 2012. He holds a Master’s degree in composition, and is active as a composer, arranger, orchestrator, percussionist, and educator.

"The Offspring 2016" by Pixel Focus Media is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

"Greg Kriesel live in Rome" by Livioandronico2013 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.