Browsing trough motivational/corporate tracks i couldn’t help noticing that majority of those tracks are based on similar if not same chord progression (or at least type of chord).
Do you know what I’m talking about?
Can you tell me what chords are those and what is the secret behind making them convey that exact feeling (optimistic-energetic that is) ?
As a few examples :
or
or
There’s this interesting blog with a thread about this 
That’s an interesting article but it doesn’t answer my question. Actually it answers everything else but.
I suppose the secret is in using Lydian something or other…
I have rudimentary knowledge of music theory. I mainly go by feel and improvise.
However, I have a feeling that the I IV V combo is very important. In other words, in the key of C, it would be C, F, G chords. But there are other useful combinations as swell.
Any consonant chords which sound resolute would work well (no excessive use of augmented, diminished, or minor chords). So always kind of sticking with the chords consisting of I, III, V notes (C, E, G in the key of C). That’s not to say you can’t deviate from this a little here and there.
There has been extensive talk about the different colors and moods of each key as well. I won’t go into that, but I used C as an example because that the most common and basic and easiest to use for examples.
Variation, creativity and ingenuity go a long way in coloring and flaring your music to make it sound unique, despite using similar chord progressions —there’s timing, tempo, style, orchestration, instrumentation, key used, key changes, use of silence, rhythms, and so and and so forth.
Octopusic saidhttp://youtu.be/0Yu62StlsMY
Try this progression C, Aminor, F, G,
Nice one! 
Hey, you still have the I IV V in there
Pop-progression
That “secret” chord progression is I-IV-VI-V
LucaFormicola saidThere’s this interesting blog with a thread about this
Interesting article. My latest track just went up a whole step 
Study pop music, major chord progressions…remember there are minor chords in major progressions. Usually a, I-IV-V progression sounds good with a vi (minor 6th) …then rearrange the chords in a order and feel that you like!
Hello the progression for the first track you posted is
C F Amin G Many Many times.
The second track revolves heavily around a G chord
The third track is the most interesting. I don’t think those are complete chords, I think they are harmonic intervals that go something like
CG - DG - AE - GD - FC - GD - CG - CG (mostly 5th’s).
These tracks all share:
*arpeggiated piano chords played rhythmically
*violin, usually staccato played rhythmically
*A nice beat
*They all start off slow and then the beat kicks in
*sometimes guitars and odd percussion.
*key of C.
I do not believe it should be difficult to duplicate this type of sound and feeling. Just work around some basic chord progressions in C and keep adding rhythmic notes and layering instruments until you get something that sounds similar. Good luck!
rocamusic saidThat “secret” chord progression is I-IV-VI-V
The popularity of this chord progression is actually astounding: this brilliant (and funny) video strings tons of famous songs together without changing chords:
EDIT: correction, the chord progression in this video is I-V-VI-IV which is probably the most common progression ever!
LucaFormicola saidThere’s this interesting blog with a thread about this
That is a really cool article. I may need to speed up, and transpose, some of my pieces.
I’m not fan of corp\motivational music, but I think mixolydian is good for it. About progression: there may be a lot of variations.