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Page 74

Section 6—

Rhythm

ABBREVIATIONSRoman numerals I VII

indicate chordrelationships within a key.

m maj minormajor

Song sectionsbr bridge :

c ch codachorus

hk i introhook

pch v versepre-chorus

Most of the chord-sequence examplesare standardized for comparison

intoFamous songs referred to in C or A minor. C major

orthe key of the original recordings A minor are not necessarily in.

Rhythm is a vital aspect of popular music. In fact, it is one of the things that makes popular music popular. Rhythm
is fundamental to human consciousness. In the womb, we grow to the beat of our mother's heart. Everyday activities
have rhythm – walking, or tapping our fingers on a table. Rhythm can be intoxicating, and it can carry people out of
themselves. Armies march to the sound of drums, and some religious rituals have used drums to assist with the
inducing of trance and altered states of consciousness. The overtly rhythmic nature of rock music itself was
characterised by some critics in the 1950s as primitive, a reversion to the jungle.
In classical music, the beat is implicit. A conductor signals the beats with waves of a baton, but rarely do classical
pieces have a percussion instrument marking every beat. Percussion is deployed at specific moments in order to
accent a theme or a dynamic change. By employing the drum kit (and, more recently, the drum machine), popular
music has insisted on making the beat explicit. This is part of its long-established connection with dance. In any
music intended for dancing, which much popular music always has been, rhythm is obviously important. But a
catchy rhythm can do more than just set your feet tapping; it can be an important part of what makes a song
memorable.

Songs Driven by Rhythm
In Section 1 we looked at this formula:

a song = lyric + melody + harmony + rhythm

Occasionally, we hear a hit song where the rhythm seems more important than anything else. This might be because
of an unusual drum pattern or percussion instrument, or because of a stark arrangement that exposes the drums.
Much dance music – from 1960s R&B, Stax, James Brown, Motown and funk to 1970s Philly and disco to 1990s
dance tracks – centers on rhythm. The drum track is usually loud in the mix, and the harmonic and melodic elements
are secondary. The impulse to reduce the melodic and harmonic elements of popular music as much as possible has
created genres like drum'n'bass.
The Chemical Brothers' 'Loops Of Fury' offers a good example of this reductionism. The instrumental lasts 4:38 and
its harmonic content is nothing more than a riff with a couple of variations based on a I-bVII change in B. The