Truck driver's gear change...

A common device in popular music, the "truck driver's gear change" (or "Star Search modulation") is an abrupt modulation, usually to the key one or two semitones above, typically used to provide an "emotionally uplifting" finale. Hear examples at the end of Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" as well as in R.E.M.'s "Stand". An extreme gymnastic variant of the truck driver's gear change can be heard throughout Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line."