4 ms·

Fair number songs use other time signatures. http://www.songfacts.com/category-songs_with_unusual_time_signatures.php http://www.songfacts.com/category-songs_w

by bluetwo 10y ago

Fair number songs use other time signatures. http://www.songfacts.com/category-songs_with_unusual_time_signatures.php http://www.songfacts.com/category-songs_with_unusual_time_si... Many more play with the 8-bar structure. But don't hold your breath for oriental tuning. I don't see any reason why that would ever catch on. ick.

bsaul 10y ago
Thanks for the link. One remark thoug / I've looked at some song from famoust bands, and i saw things like "3/4" or 6/8 ( which was in fact more like a 4/4 with strong 1 and 3 hits, filled with a ternary drum pattern) , flagged as unusual time signature... The other were indeed made by famous artists ( such as bjork) but the songs themselves weren't popular... Anyway, let's hope people continue to try. You'd probably need to invent a dance for the thing to catch on in pop music. Jazz has been doing much more ambitious things for decades now, it's scary to see how long it can take for "mainstream" to cacth up..
- ZenoArrow 10y ago
  > "Jazz has been doing much more ambitious things for decades now, it's scary to see how long it can take for "mainstream" to cacth up.." You are really missing the point of music. Music isn't something that only reaches its pinnacle when it's at its most complex. Technical excellence isn't the high watermark of great music. The only thing that matters in music is how it makes you feel. Also, simplicity can be deceptive. Take a listen to this k.d. lang song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXqPjx94YMg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXqPjx94YMg Listen to how natural her vocal sounds, how well it fits the song and the lyrics, how she varies her vocals based on what she's singing. Skill with phrasing is the hardest to teach because it comes with musical awareness, but when you listen to someone with great phrasing it can bring a whole piece of music to life. So instead of talking about what music "should be", share what you enjoy, and not just what you enjoy on an intellectual level, what you enjoy for what it conjures within you. What music do you enjoy?
  - bsaul 10y ago
    the "point" of music ? to me music is an art form,like painting. So you may say that the goal of painting is to have something pretty to put on your walls, which is indeed one way to look at it, but painters usually think of some higher goals. now, if pop music was vibrant and renewing itself constantly, i wouldn't have said anything, but as OP shows, it is kind of dying artisticaly..
    - ZenoArrow 10y ago
      > "but painters usually think of some higher goals." Whilst some artists may be satisfied with the concept itself being the artistic statement, the highest art is all about eliciting a emotional reaction from the viewer, otherwise what's the point of creating the painting? If you want to look at it from the point of view of skill, the hardest skill to master is to create art that can communicate to the viewer without explanation, where the reaction to the art is the experience, rather than the explanation of the art being the experience. The best visual art communicates something that you can't easily express with words. It's the same with music. > "now, if pop music was vibrant and renewing itself constantly, i wouldn't have said anything, but as OP shows, it is kind of dying artisticaly.." I've been listening to pop music long enough to be sure it's not dying in the way you describe, it moves in cycles. Trends rise in popularity, get played to death, and new trends arise. You see it all the time in pop music.
- ehnto 10y ago
  I think you misunderstand the tendencies of mainstream music. It isn't that it is lagging behind, in fact looking to the past you see much more complicated and interesting song structures. The more likely scenario is that pop music or mainstream music has trended away from anything too complicated. Aiming instead for reproduceable hits and music that is as least alienating as possible. Every now and then an interesting song will make it to the pop stations, but it is rare. Not to worry though, because you need only scratch past the surface to see that the music world (not industry) is alive, vibrant and more diverse and complex than ever.
ZenoArrow 10y ago
> "But don't hold your breath for oriental tuning. I don't see any reason why that would ever catch on. ick." I can understand your personal preference. That said, I think the ear is more adaptable than you might think, I've found myself enjoying music that employs microtones. To give one example, here's some Turkish music played on microtonal guitar: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iRsSjh5TTqI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iRsSjh5TTqI
- jdminhbg 10y ago
  Listening to that, the microtones remind me of bends on guitar solos in popular Western music. So maybe we don't officially use them, but I think they do appear more than we might realize.
  - ZenoArrow 10y ago
    Yeah, quarter note bends are common in blues guitar, and by extension blues-rock and rock. This video gives a simple introduction to what these sound like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihZTuRmmBxA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihZTuRmmBxA As another example, honky-tonk piano can be out of tune compared to standard piano tuning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tack_piano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tack_piano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUP6k5xkdBU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUP6k5xkdBU There's also been some Eastern influence on the vocals of Western singers. For example, Jeff Buckley talked of being inspired by the Sufi singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Here's Jeff Buckley covering a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58E-9ZEw-yQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58E-9ZEw-yQ
- bluetwo 10y ago
  Seems like they just reinvented the lute. There's a reason no one but Sting plays it.

by bluetwo 10y ago

bsaul 10y ago

Thanks for the link. One remark thoug / I've looked at some song from famoust bands, and i saw things like "3/4" or 6/8 ( which was in fact more like a 4/4 with strong 1 and 3 hits, filled with a ternary drum pattern) , flagged as unusual time signature... The other were indeed made by famous artists ( such as bjork) but the songs themselves weren't popular... Anyway, let's hope people continue to try. You'd probably need to invent a dance for the thing to catch on in pop music. Jazz has been doing much more ambitious things for decades now, it's scary to see how long it can take for "mainstream" to cacth up..

ZenoArrow 10y ago
> "Jazz has been doing much more ambitious things for decades now, it's scary to see how long it can take for "mainstream" to cacth up.." You are really missing the point of music. Music isn't something that only reaches its pinnacle when it's at its most complex. Technical excellence isn't the high watermark of great music. The only thing that matters in music is how it makes you feel. Also, simplicity can be deceptive. Take a listen to this k.d. lang song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXqPjx94YMg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXqPjx94YMg Listen to how natural her vocal sounds, how well it fits the song and the lyrics, how she varies her vocals based on what she's singing. Skill with phrasing is the hardest to teach because it comes with musical awareness, but when you listen to someone with great phrasing it can bring a whole piece of music to life. So instead of talking about what music "should be", share what you enjoy, and not just what you enjoy on an intellectual level, what you enjoy for what it conjures within you. What music do you enjoy?
- bsaul 10y ago
  the "point" of music ? to me music is an art form,like painting. So you may say that the goal of painting is to have something pretty to put on your walls, which is indeed one way to look at it, but painters usually think of some higher goals. now, if pop music was vibrant and renewing itself constantly, i wouldn't have said anything, but as OP shows, it is kind of dying artisticaly..
  - ZenoArrow 10y ago
    > "but painters usually think of some higher goals." Whilst some artists may be satisfied with the concept itself being the artistic statement, the highest art is all about eliciting a emotional reaction from the viewer, otherwise what's the point of creating the painting? If you want to look at it from the point of view of skill, the hardest skill to master is to create art that can communicate to the viewer without explanation, where the reaction to the art is the experience, rather than the explanation of the art being the experience. The best visual art communicates something that you can't easily express with words. It's the same with music. > "now, if pop music was vibrant and renewing itself constantly, i wouldn't have said anything, but as OP shows, it is kind of dying artisticaly.." I've been listening to pop music long enough to be sure it's not dying in the way you describe, it moves in cycles. Trends rise in popularity, get played to death, and new trends arise. You see it all the time in pop music.
ehnto 10y ago
I think you misunderstand the tendencies of mainstream music. It isn't that it is lagging behind, in fact looking to the past you see much more complicated and interesting song structures. The more likely scenario is that pop music or mainstream music has trended away from anything too complicated. Aiming instead for reproduceable hits and music that is as least alienating as possible. Every now and then an interesting song will make it to the pop stations, but it is rare. Not to worry though, because you need only scratch past the surface to see that the music world (not industry) is alive, vibrant and more diverse and complex than ever.

ZenoArrow 10y ago

> "But don't hold your breath for oriental tuning. I don't see any reason why that would ever catch on. ick." I can understand your personal preference. That said, I think the ear is more adaptable than you might think, I've found myself enjoying music that employs microtones. To give one example, here's some Turkish music played on microtonal guitar: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iRsSjh5TTqI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iRsSjh5TTqI

jdminhbg 10y ago
Listening to that, the microtones remind me of bends on guitar solos in popular Western music. So maybe we don't officially use them, but I think they do appear more than we might realize.
- ZenoArrow 10y ago
  Yeah, quarter note bends are common in blues guitar, and by extension blues-rock and rock. This video gives a simple introduction to what these sound like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihZTuRmmBxA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihZTuRmmBxA As another example, honky-tonk piano can be out of tune compared to standard piano tuning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tack_piano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tack_piano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUP6k5xkdBU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUP6k5xkdBU There's also been some Eastern influence on the vocals of Western singers. For example, Jeff Buckley talked of being inspired by the Sufi singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Here's Jeff Buckley covering a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58E-9ZEw-yQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58E-9ZEw-yQ
bluetwo 10y ago
Seems like they just reinvented the lute. There's a reason no one but Sting plays it.