The Chemical Brothers: Metrical dissonance?!?!?!?

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Just read some rather serious academic review of the role of rhythm in electronic dance music. In it, the interesting point made is that far from having the block-rockin' beats that are normally associated with dance music, a lot of dance music, even straight-down -the-line 4/4 chunes, mess around with rhythm to an extent not seen since Jazz!!! Effects noted include: layers of differing rhythms leading to "metrical dissonance", tracks in which the rhythm can change depending on how you listen to it, assymetrical time signatures (as opposed to "swing" or "syncopation"), and other vague stuff about DJs doing their bit to further mix up the rhythm!

TBH, I'm a bit worried that the paper seems to have been informed by the sort of dance music you usually get in broadsheet newspapers (eg The Chemical Brothers, Underworld, 808-State, Juan Atkins, and, erm, Everything But The Girl!), and it's not really mentioned the 91/92 style of UK hardcore and everything that spun off it, (Jungle, UK Garage, etc.) or for that matter more obviously metronomic dance music like euro-trance. The music discussed in fact, appears to more in the style of early-ish dance music (88-92).

Looking at it in this way though, it's quite interesting to see that someone thinks that the early styles were a bit more complex musically than many people thought at the time!

So, wot do you lot think? Is there an inbuilt movement in dance music towards "metrical dissonance"?!?! And if so, is that a good thing?!?!?

― Old Fart!!!!, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hmm... Obviously, that's got you putting your thinking caps on!!!!!

― Old Fart!!!, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(it's a bloody long paper, Old, I'll have to print it off and read over weekend)

― Jeff W, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Are there really that many tracks with assymetrical time signatures? I mean, it seems like they still fall into 4/4 and very very rarely 3/4 (and all square variations within.) Occasionally you'll hear a 7/4, but 5/16 7/16 9/16 1/16? Or is there some other way to classify assymetrical time signatures other than Eastern European/Brasilian sounding stuff?

This kind of read as some electro-fanatic/young composers/music students trying to validate techno as sophiste. It seems like a lot of the metrical dissonance is just attitude, sloppiness, or what the technology is conducive to. I mean, we don't call an elementary school orchestra's version of "Rodeo" "embued with metrical and harmonic dissonance," do we?

― Mickey Black Eyes, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I really really cant recognise if the song is 4/4 3/4 or anything else and i study music so i understand in the score but not when im jsut listening to music what is the way you do to see what the tempo is

― Chupa-Cabras, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Absolutely rhythmic interplay is the heart of dance music. Cf. Tim explaining somewhere to Josh that House isn't just four to tha floor, but has different syncopations becuz of the cymbal hits.

― Sterling Clover, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

For the most part, it seems like House either does simple syncopation or hit-and-miss blees and bloops. I think this is because of the way beatboxes are set up. Either you go with simple synco's or you get out of that setup altogether, wherein the skill of the producer is occasionally nontraditional, and so you get the sort of attack of the weird subtle snare and blip roll thingies. Certainly in House it's pretty much simpler than any other form of music other than, perhaps, punk or emo.

In IDM, though, and sometimes in some other genres, occasionally it's surprising how intricate some of the patterns that are cohesively generated are--Lamb, for instance. DAMN! So weird.

And Chupa, I wasn't sure if you were just being jokey, but 3/4 is usually BOOM-ba-ba BOOM-baba. And 4/4 is Boom-ba-ba-ba.

― Mickey Black Eyes, Sunday, 20 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Are there really that many tracks with assymetrical time signatures? I mean, it seems like they still fall into 4/4 and very very rarely 3/4 (and all square variations within.) Occasionally you'll hear a 7/4, but 5/16 7/16 9/16 1/16? Or is there some other way to classify assymetrical time signatures other than Eastern European/Brasilian sounding stuff?

Actually, I was probably being a bit imprecise when I said "assymetrical time signatures", which makes it sounds like a lot of dance tracks aren't 4/4. What the essay was really going on about was assymetry within time signatures, where the beats appear to vary their timing within a bar. Instead of the beats being spaced throughout the bar something like

0---0---0---0---

, it's more like

0---0-0---0-----

. The obvious example is stuff like UK garage, which is effectively 4/4, but not played in the four-to-the-floor style like in house. Other examples are jungle, hip-hop (the "swing" bit of the rhythm) and indeed anything breaky-beaty!!!

― Old Fart!!!, Sunday, 20 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

oOOH--I geddit. What I still get a kick out of is when the track starts with a bass beat or a bassline and then the cymbals or the rest of the stuff starts in the MIDDLE of the 4/4 bar, so all of the sudden, what was the beginning accent is now the middle. Gives me this wonderful feeling of suddenly going backwards or something. Neato.

― Mickey Black Eyes, Sunday, 20 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(okay, I've read it now)

First half of paper about displacement dissonances is well-argued. And yes, it is fairly central to most house & techno (and glitch - cf. Clicks & Cuts 2). Was less convinced by the second half - the asymmetrical bit - am not sure 3+3+2 (or even 3+3+3+3+4) are enough to put EDM on a par with the African music examples cited. Still, if nothing else, the paper got me to play Dig Your Own Hole again - man, that's a fine LP.

― Jeff W, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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