search: pop songs with weird time signatures and metric shifts

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (476 of them)

View Previous Page...

I seem to remember a Pretenders song in 5/4.

King Crimson, Yes, Genesis... all UK chart acts no? Or is that cheating.

― factcheckr (factcheckr), Friday, 22 September 2006 18:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Lennon did this a lot:

She Said She Said
Good Morning
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Dig a Pony

― darin (darin), Friday, 22 September 2006 18:13 (seventeen years ago) link

And great job to Limp Bizkit for covering the 5/4 Mission Impossible theme in... 4/4.

― mtpisgah (mtmoriah), Friday, 22 September 2006 20:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Led Zeppelin: Kashmir

And if that one doesn't count as "pop", then I guess that Puff Daddy/Jimmy Page collaboration based on "Kashmir" does anyway.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 22 September 2006 21:33 (seventeen years ago) link

kool & the gang "jungle boogie"

― dave q (listerine), Friday, 22 September 2006 21:38 (seventeen years ago) link

hey dave

― youn (youn), Friday, 22 September 2006 21:42 (seventeen years ago) link

"Ageless Beauty" by Stars

This is straightforward 4/4.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 22 September 2006 21:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Led Zeppelin - Black Dog (15/4)

― Cheek0 (Cheek0), Friday, 22 September 2006 23:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Simply Red, "Fairground" - each bar in the verse is in a different time signature.

Does "Say A Little Prayer" count?

― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Friday, 22 September 2006 23:26 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't think the Beatles' "Blackbird" was mentioned. The time signature is constantly shifting. If "radio-friendly" (= gets played on the radio) is the criteria, then Zeppelin and Floyd and Soundgarden should definitely count, as should a bunch of Rush songs ("Tom Sawyer" and "Distant Early Warning" def) and Jethro Tull's "Livin' In the Past" (5/4?).

― Sundar (sundar), Friday, 22 September 2006 23:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I was wondering about "Ageless Beauty" too; I'm just going by memory but I don't remember any rhythmic weirdness.

― aaron d.g. (aaron d.g.), Friday, 22 September 2006 23:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Hey Ya doesn't have any unusual time signatures. It just has a bar of 2. Same thing with Blackbird. It's not that weird to have some bars of 2 in a 4/4 song.

Weezer's got a few that play some tricks in this vein

Like which?

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Friday, 22 September 2006 23:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Damnit, I keep fucking up the italics.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Friday, 22 September 2006 23:43 (seventeen years ago) link

SUB-THREAD:
"It's not the down- it's the up-beat": Pop Songs and Dance Anthems Where the One is Not Where You Think It Is

anyone?

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Saturday, 23 September 2006 04:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Hey Ya doesn't have any unusual time signatures. It just has a bar of 2.

I think that counts as a metric shift.

― aaron d.g. (aaron d.g.), Saturday, 23 September 2006 04:44 (seventeen years ago) link

This tab for "Blackbird" gives the opening figure as a bar of 3/4 followed by a bar of 4/4. Then the verse has a bar of 3/4 followed by 3 bars of 4/4 while the chorus is 2 bars of 3/2 (or 6/4) followed by a turnaround that consists of 2 bars of 4/4 followed by a bar of 2/4. It's not just a 4/4 tune with a little bit of 2/4 thrown in. The whole rhythmic push and pull comes from the movement between 3 and 4.

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 23 September 2006 05:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Hey, 'Say a Little Prayer' totally counts! Nice one! The chorus has 2 bars of four, then one of 3, then repeats, and then has triplets on the climactic "heartbreak" line.

Maybe it's unfair to exclude Devo. But is Jocko Homo (Are we not men?) the only one?

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Saturday, 23 September 2006 09:24 (seventeen years ago) link

We should probably mention the only hit song (AFAIK) named after its time signature, Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" (so titled because it swings in 5/4).

― Dan Heilman (The Deacon), Saturday, 23 September 2006 13:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Hey Ya doesn't have any unusual time signatures. It just has a bar of 2.

It's a bar of 3, isn't it? What other pop songs have this?

― Cheek0 (Cheek0), Saturday, 23 September 2006 13:51 (seventeen years ago) link

I guess my question is, at what point does a song become "two bars of 4/4 followed by a bar of 3/4" instead of just 11/4?

― Cheek0 (Cheek0), Saturday, 23 September 2006 13:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Isn't "Follow You Follow Me" in 9/8 or sump'n or did I dream that?

― Dedicated to Jaggers Who Do Drive-Bys (noodle vague), Saturday, 23 September 2006 14:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Hang on, I meant "Turn It On Again".

― Dedicated to Jaggers Who Do Drive-Bys (noodle vague), Saturday, 23 September 2006 14:13 (seventeen years ago) link

steely dan's "dirty work" is missing a beat right before each chorus, it's done very smoothly though

― RalphTheHardDrive (RalphTheHardDrive), Saturday, 23 September 2006 14:15 (seventeen years ago) link

I think that counts as a metric shift.

It does, it's just not very unusual or weird in my estimation.

I guess my question is, at what point does a song become "two bars of 4/4 followed by a bar of 3/4" instead of just 11/4?

It depends on the accents. A lot of this ground was covered here.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Saturday, 23 September 2006 14:51 (seventeen years ago) link

And really, sometimes there's no audible difference between, for example, alternating between 4/4 and 3/4 or just playing in 7/4, i.e. "All You Need is Love."

Part of "Tallest Man, Broadest Shoulders" or whatever it's called from Illinois is in 11/8. It's 6+5 or 5+6, I forget.

And "Everything in its Right Place" is in 10, I believe. It's 4+4+2.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Saturday, 23 September 2006 14:54 (seventeen years ago) link

But "Hey Ya" isn't just 4/4 with a bar of 2/4 thrown in, is it? I count it as 11/4 (or two bars of 4 and one of 3, as mentioned above) and it seems others do as well. I'd like to get this sorted.

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 23 September 2006 15:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Does Metallica's "One" count?

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 23 September 2006 15:55 (seventeen years ago) link

(The way the drummer [Dre?] plays "Hey Ya," it's easy to count it as 22 8ths. I only noticed this after reading it, but it seems pretty clear to me now.)

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 23 September 2006 16:00 (seventeen years ago) link

As much as I hate to bring it up, Third Eye Blind's "Losing a Whole Year" qualifies...

― Myke. (Myke Weiskopf), Saturday, 23 September 2006 19:40 (seventeen years ago) link

"Here Comes The Sun" has a ton of weird stuff going on, esp. before, during and after the "sun, sun, sun, here it comes" bit.

― Douglas (Douglas), Saturday, 23 September 2006 20:39 (seventeen years ago) link

The extra beat in the otherwise straight-forward(ish) waltz of 'Golden Brown' by The Stranglers. Ja.

― Wax Cat (Wax Cat), Sunday, 24 September 2006 19:39 (seventeen years ago) link

kool & the gang "jungle boogie"

This is straight 4/4.

The verse in 'Hey Ya' is a six bar phrase where the last bar is 6/4 (or a bar of 4/4 and a bar of 2/4 if you want to think of it like that). Didn't we cover this at length in another thread?

― Jordan (Jordan), Sunday, 24 September 2006 20:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Does Metallica's "One" count?

I don't think so, the first section is in 3/4 then the rest is in 4. 'Master of Puppets' has an odd bar in the verse, though, if that counts.

― Jordan (Jordan), Sunday, 24 September 2006 20:11 (seventeen years ago) link

IIRC "One" switches back and forth between 3/4 and 4/4, sometimes with a 7/4 feel (like the 4/4 bar replacing 3/4 in the last bar of the verses), & some weird metric shifts in the intro. It also often implements sections of, say, 7 bars, rather than organizing them into multiples of 2 or 4 bars.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 24 September 2006 20:22 (seventeen years ago) link

I just realized that the accents in Tool's "Schism" (in 6/4, or 12/8, I suppose) form a mirror image within each bar:

^-^-^--^-^-^

(^ = accented eighth-note)
(- = unaccented eighth-note)

Perhaps to represent the idea of a "schism" itself. Maybe this is what people are talking about when they say Tool are clever/inventive (because to me they mostly just sound like a shitty rock band).

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 24 September 2006 20:30 (seventeen years ago) link

IIRC "One" switches back and forth between 3/4 and 4/4,

Oh, you're right. And then in the section before the drum break, it's in 3/4 but the drums play through it in 4/4. Then the double-time section is all in 4.

(wow I had not heard this song for years)

― Jordan (Jordan), Sunday, 24 September 2006 21:28 (seventeen years ago) link

The verse in 'Hey Ya' is a six bar phrase where the last bar is 6/4 (or a bar of 4/4 and a bar of 2/4 if you want to think of it like that). Didn't we cover this at length in another thread?

Where's this thread? I'm pretty convinced of it being 4+4+3 right now.

― Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 24 September 2006 21:47 (seventeen years ago) link

"Hey Ya" (as written on the handy-dandy sheet music I have at hand) = 4+4+4+2+4+4

― Rodney doesn't like polka. He is racist. (R. J. Greene), Sunday, 24 September 2006 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Sorry, I actually listened to it this time: it's six bar phrases, but the 2/4 is in the fourth bar (so it's 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4).

There's definitely no bar of three, because the backbeat never changes.

xpost

― Jordan (Jordan), Sunday, 24 September 2006 22:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Outkast - Hey Ya

― Jordan (Jordan), Sunday, 24 September 2006 22:26 (seventeen years ago) link

The most notable ones listed on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_in_unusual_time_signatures) are "Wired For Sound" by Cliff Richard (7/4), "Addicted to Love" (7/4 intro drum solo), and "I Love Rock n Roll" (a few 7/4 bars), but the one that really surprised me is "Buy Me a Pony" by Spiderbait, which is mostly in 6/4 and 7/4. Non-Australians probably wouldn't know it, but it's a classic in these parts.

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Sunday, 24 September 2006 22:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I can hear "Hey Ya" as 4+4+4+2+4+4 now. I think I was counting the pickup as beat 1 before hence the confusion.

― Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 24 September 2006 23:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Go-betweens, "Cattle and Cane"

― scriblerus (mike lynch), Monday, 25 September 2006 02:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Annie's "Chewing Gum", maybe?

― daavid (daavid), Monday, 25 September 2006 16:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Chewing Gum is regular 4, isn't it? Although, admittedly, I can only remember the chorus.

― Wax Cat (Wax Cat), Monday, 25 September 2006 18:57 (seventeen years ago) link

There seems to me like a beat is missing somewhere or maybe an unusual part is accentuated. It just sounds odd. Dunno much about this really.

― daavid (daavid), Monday, 25 September 2006 21:37 (seventeen years ago) link

seven months pass...

I know it's not radio-friendly enough for the original question but how do you guys count Sunny Day Real Estate's "Seven?" I hear it as alternating between sections in 4/4 and sections in 5/4 (e.g. the bit that begins at 0:13, switching back to 4/4 around 0:40), but with tempo shifting at the same time so that one bar of 5/4 takes as long as one bar of 4/4 (allowing them to sometimes use similar riffs over both sections.) (I'm a little disappointed that none of it is in 7.) Am I off?

― Sundar, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't understand most parts of music technically at all, but if I were to just go by ear, I'd guess that the Stranglers' "Strange Little Girl" might have this?

― Kim, Saturday, 5 May 2007 19:39 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost

I don't know that song Sundar, but what you're describing sounds like it could be playing quintuplets rather than changing meter.

Also not radio-friendly, but there's a song in 5 and a song in 7 on Final Fantasy's He Poos Poo. I don't remember the titles. I've wondered if that aspect didn't draw more commentary because of the lack of drums on the album.

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Saturday, 5 May 2007 19:47 (seventeen years ago) link

I just realized what Myke meant by the weirdness in "Ageless Beauty" -- I think it's how the bassline hits the home chord early in the chorus, before the downbeat. It's something you don't even notice because your mind has already set up the chords on its own, or something. It's nothing that screams "LOOK AT ME I AM OUT OF SYNC" (and I still wouldn't call it a matter of time sig/meter), but it is interesting nonetheless.

― Curt1s Stephens, Saturday, 5 May 2007 19:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Skipping 376 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

On occasions like this I like to pull out "South African Man" by Bohannon - which was a hit single in case anyone objects, in the UK at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO3BEUMyzgs

― Michael Oliver of Penge Wins £5 (Tom D.), Thursday, 17 October 2019 06:52 (four years ago) link

I overheard MGMT’s Electric Feel and noticed it has an unusual time signature. Double checked on google and it’s apparently on 6/4 safe from the instrumental bridge which is 4/4.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 17 October 2019 15:27 (four years ago) link

one year passes...

This song is quite similar to the Jones hit "Someone I Used to Know."

Except that song ("A Girl I Used to Know") features the standard 32 beats per 8-measure verse. "Not What I Had in Mind" has 30 beats in each verse — just count them.
Even if you consider this a two-step, there are still two beats "missing" in each verse. It doesn't bother me — I actually think it's a pretty cool thing to do in a country song. But I'm surprised so many people can't hear it.

― TO BE A JAZZ SINGER YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO SCAT (Jazzbo), Tuesday, 27 October 2020 17:30 (three years ago) link

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.