Isn't the blues' "blue" note somewhere between the third and fourth (minor and major), hence blues' massively universal appeal and ambiguity between happy and sad (simplifying hugely)? Though of course this note is actually not used by our tuning.I really don't like the major scale. Sounds way cheesy and classical. I never use it. i think it is rarely used in pop music. Instead modes like (mixo)lydian and so on dominate. And of course the blues scale, hugely influential.
Basically, in the first part of the 20th century, the conventional western classical scales have been generalised and displaced by the chord constructions that come from jazz (and not by atonal, 12tone, serialist stuff as classical musicians expected).
Aren't major scales are used all over the shop, pop-wise (although maybe less and less with the dominance of R'n'B/soul modes)? Sevenths are hugely important also - a major seventh complexifies and drastically reduces the "happy" positive feel of a major chord.
[edit] broken link above, BP! sounds interesting...
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