I–V–vi–IV progression

The I–V–vi–IV chord progression or Axis progression (named after the Australian comedy rock band The Axis of Awesome, who popularized the chord progression's ubiquity), is a common chord progression popular across several music genres. It uses the I, V, vi, and IV chords of the diatonic scale. For example, in the key of C major, this progression would be C–G–Am–F. Rotations include:

I–V–vi–IV: C–G–Am–F

V–vi–IV–I: G–Am–F–C

vi–IV–I–V: Am–F–C–G

IV–I–V–vi: F–C–G–Am

The '50s progression uses the same chords but in a different order (I–vi–IV–V), no matter the starting point.

Variations

A common ordering of the progression, "vi–IV–I–V", was dubbed the "sensitive female chord progression" by Boston Globe columnist Marc Hirsh. In C major this would be Am–F–C–G, modulating the key to A minor.

Hirsh first noticed the chord progression in the song "One of Us" by Joan Osborne, and then other songs. He named the progression because he claimed it was used by many performers of the Lilith Fair in the late 1990s. Examples of the progression appeared in pop hits as early as the 1950s, such as in the Teddy Bears' "To Know Him Is to Love Him", written by Phil Spector.

Dan Bennett claims the progression is also called the "pop-punk progression" because of its frequent use in pop punk.

In this ordering, the progression ends with a double plagal cadence in the key of the dominant (in the Mixolydian mode) and could also be respelled ii–♭VII–IV–I, opening with a backdoor turnaround.