The 100 best pop/rock/etc songs in waltz time

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I'd definitely say 12/8. The chords change once every twelve eighth notes (four beats), the melodic phrases are built around the 12 (or 4) groupings, the guitar plays at the beginning of each grouping of 12 when it enters.

One must put up barriers to keep oneself intact (Sund4r), Sunday, 19 January 2020 04:44 (four years ago) link

When there is a standard rock backbeat that would be analysed as 4/4 at any other time, it generally seems most logical/natural to me to continue counting it as quadruple metre even if it is subdivided into triplets, so I tend to default to 12/8 in these situations unless there is a really compelling reason to count 6/8.

One must put up barriers to keep oneself intact (Sund4r), Sunday, 19 January 2020 04:49 (four years ago) link

Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" feels like an actual triple metre to me: the drums are actually playing groups of 3, the chords change once every three beats. Agree with "Manic Depression" upthread as well.

One must put up barriers to keep oneself intact (Sund4r), Sunday, 19 January 2020 04:59 (four years ago) link

The canonical text for rock/pop is the recording, and different people can interpret it differently. Heck probably even different musicians who played on it interpreted it differently (such as the drummer vs the singer or guitarist).

(I agree with this 100%, to be clear. Obv there are wrong interpretations but there can definitely be multiple credible interpretations.)

One must put up barriers to keep oneself intact (Sund4r), Sunday, 19 January 2020 05:02 (four years ago) link

"Cloudbusting" moves between 4/4 and 6/4, sorry. Remembered wrong.

One must put up barriers to keep oneself intact (Sund4r), Sunday, 19 January 2020 05:12 (four years ago) link


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