Taking sides: Rhythm vs Melody

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Which rocks your world more? Prompted by a pinefox/Ewing face off in the pub the other day (or was that itself prompted by an ILM thread? If so, can someone point me in the right direction?)

― N., Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Why can't we have both? Goddammit! I'm sick of harmonious songs with no rhythm and rhythm-laden grooves with no harmony! Sick I Tell You! Gimme BOTH! Settle for nothing less!

― Lord Custos 2.0 beta, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I don't have a clue which I prefer and this makes feel happy and healthy.

― Ronan, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm more of a melody/harmony junky myself although I do like the odd funky beat. I get a bit bored of say Richard Devine and stuff. I reckon Drum'n'Bass could do with a bit more melodies in it too. Guess that's why I'm more into the IDM school a la Plaid/BoC/AFX.

― dog latin, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Isn't it the combination and interplay of melody and rhythm and harmony that makes music GRATE?

― Nick Southall, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Both...but for me it's mainly about chords/chord structure & textures.

― Jez, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Strange phenomenon: most music has both + harmony = could be anything. The stuff that only has melody and harmony = thought of as fluff by hardliners, gorgeous by fans. Stuff that only has rhythm and melody = hard fucking core, eg late period Coltrane, Ruins or hyper-minimalist. Harmony appears to be the fabric softener in the wash, unless it's atonal, in which case it only fleshes out the madness.

So, to pit rhythm vs melody is to pit the electron vs proton = STAND BACK!

― dleone, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i demand more music with neither!! viz HUNDRED REASONS har har (ps i haf not heard hundred reasons)

― mark s, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Hum Along and Dance" vs "September Song"

(actually I think rhythm is the KEY to "September Song" - melody grows like mature Virginia Creeper but without latticework of the implied rhythm the whole vine falls over; just a whisper is enough since the implication is so strong; brushwork on Willie Nelson's Stardust version is perfect for me.)

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Rhythm is important - but I'm not sure that it's usually very *interesting*.

― the pinefox, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

you can't dance to a melody!

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

You can't whistle a rhythm

― harveyw, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes you can!

― N., Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah, but can you whistle a snare drum?

― dleone, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

No, but I can tuna fish!

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Geir Hongro to thread! (or not.)

― Nate Patrin, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

without rhythm all melodies would just be amorphous shifting ambient tones = lame

― brains, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes, you can whistle a snare drum part. The reason rhythm isn't interesting in a lot of music that you hear is that most musicians are kinda lame when it comes to that and don't MAKE it interesting.

So in conclusion yeah music needs rhythm and melody and harmony all working together but for me it always comes back to the RHYTHM. See jazz...even the simplest material can sound great if it swings.

Speaking of rhythm, I heard a great Autechre track from the most recent album at someone's house last night that was the most rhythmically interesting thing I had heard in awhile.

― Jordan, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

without rhythm all melodies would just be amorphous shifting ambient tones = lame

= Ned's record collection

― N., Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes, you can whistle a snare drum part

But it doesn't sound like a snare drum. Even a wet one.

― dleone, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

OK maybe you can whistle a rhythm. But it's a rhythm with a melody. If we're gonna be like that, you can dance to a melody quite easily too.

― harveyw, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Isn't the aesthetic goal of avant schmindie to abolish these oppressive aspects of creative musical expression?

― Clarke B., Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Neither, it's how the person making the melody or rhythm looks.

― A Nairn, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Interesting rhythms: Led Zeppelin's 'Black Dog', lots of reggae things, lots of 'Latino' things.

― PJ Miller, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Geir Hongro to thread! (or not.)

You are playing with fire.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Whatever became of Geir, anyway? ;)

Anyway, I will admit, all things being equal, I'm much more a melody fiend. Or, perhaps more accurately, a harmony fiend--I love songs that you can sing along with in the car. Okay, I'll quit now before I start sounding too much like Darth Hongr...er, you know...

― Joe, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Further, I would say that rhythm component needs to have a great deal of variability to draw me in. Generally speaking, I am more enticed by the 'busier' kinds of drumming with polyrhythms, odd accentuations, sheer power (e.g. Vander, Bruford, Cobham are three of my favorite rock drummers)--the drummers who make you feel that they could play the same beat in 100 different ways, as a function of accentuation and dynamics, and access any of those 100 different ways instantly--rather than the more minimalistic, little-variation, repetitive rhythms (e.g. common in Kraut bands), which often (though not always) bores me after not too long.

I think Jaki Liebezeit, though, would probably be my ideal melding point of those two approaches.

― Joe, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

nine months pass...

Melody is course. Melody (along with harmony) means everything, rhythm means absolutely nothing at all.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 3 March 2003 12:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

without rhythm, melody would be notes played at random intervals

― oops (Oops), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

oops do you not like coldplay?

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

ha ha!

― oops (Oops), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

one month passes...

Hm. It seems the search function doesn't work properly, then.

― man, Saturday, 26 April 2003 20:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Enter an exact part of the title, not keywords"

Oops!

― man, Saturday, 26 April 2003 20:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

three years pass...

Lee Siegel is Geir Hongro! Who knew?

http://www.tnr.com/blog/culture?pid=14783

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 1 May 2006 21:02 (eighteen years ago) link

"Martha Bayles, a former music and television critic at the Wall Street Journal, published a beautiful book titled, A Hole in Our Soul" - Good lord.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 1 May 2006 21:09 (eighteen years ago) link

Except he's wrong. There are great tunes out there today too. Just they are very difficult to notice because they are drowning in all the R&B and hip-hop in the singles lists.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 00:21 (eighteen years ago) link

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