[21] All of the examples considered thus far have contained layers of steady quarter-note or half-note motion (even though the metrical context of these layers was not always clear). However, while electronic dance music often features even rhythms very prominently, this is not always the case. For instance, in the track "Compression" by Everything But the Girl, a prominent drumbeat repeats the pattern quarter-eighth/quarter-eighth/quarter throughout. Timbral changes within the pattern suggest divisions after each of the eighth notes, and almost all of the rhythmic patterns in the track reinforce this 3+3+2 division; the only exception is the triplet pattern played by Synthesizer 1, which occurs at a low dynamic level. (See Example 4, a-e.) Thus there is very little to suggest a quarter-note pulse in this track. A 3+3+2 pattern (again divided into quarter-eighth/quarter-eighth/quarter) also underlies much of Underworld's "Pearls Girl" (though the variable fourth measure departs from this organization). (Example 5--audio only)
[22] Patterns that divide a measure asymmetrically occur in a number of different repertories, including folk music of the Balkans and drum ensemble music of sub-Saharan Africa. In some cases, especially in the former repertory, the number of pulses in the measure is a prime number, which means that the beat patterns comprising the meter mustbe irregularly spaced. In electronic dance music, however--as in much African percussion music--the measure contains a nonprime number of pulses. This makes it considerably more difficult to determine the meter when asymmetrical patterns are prevalent, since the measure can also be divided evenly. Should the recurring asymmetrical patterns be considered metrical, resulting in meters such as 3+3+2/8 or 3+3+3+3+4/16, or should they be treated as syncopations against a regular background?
[23] In addressing this question, it is useful to see what scholars of African music have to say, as some of them have given considerable attention to the issue. Thus in the next few paragraphs I will focus primarily on their arguments, though I will also relate their observations to electronic dance music. In general, Africanists' opinions on meter and asymmetrical patterns seem to fall into two different schools of thought. On the one hand, scholars such as Robert Kaufmann argue that regularly recurring asymmetrical patterns can become metrical, so that they do not seem syncopated. In such cases, notes that would be accented in a 4/4 meter might sound syncopated in a meter such as 3+3+2/8. For instance (returning for the moment to EDM), in Example 4b the third note of the Synthesizer 1 part, which would fall on a half-note beat in 4/4 time, would be syncopated if the beats follow a 3+3+2 division.
[24] On the other hand, quite a few ethnomusicologists have rejected this sort of interpretation, arguing instead that listeners infer a background of evenly spaced beats behind groupings such as 3+3+2. The view of meter as a grid--a regular background against which irregularity can occur--is also central to many music-theoretical models of meter. One of its most influential expressions occurs in A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. In this work, Lerdahl and Jackendoff posit the regular alternation of strong and weak beats as a precondition for meter. In their well-formedness rules for meter, they stipulate that "at each metrical level, strong beats are spaced either two or three beats apart" and that "each metrical level must consist of equally spaced beats."And while they focus specifically on Western tonal music, another music theorist, David Temperley, has recently applied their approach to both African traditional music and Western rock music.
[25] Scholars of African music have objected to the grid approach for a number of reasons. Some, like Kaufmann and Stone, feel that it represents a "Western" approach to meter rather than an African one. Others, while not denying that the grid can be applied to African music, question whether it really suits the music. Thus the question becomes not so much "is the meter 3+3+2/8 or 4/4?", but rather "what is the best way of conceptualizing rhythm and meter in music in which asymmetrical patterns are prominent?". This question is equally applicable to EDM featuring such patterns. While it is certainly possible to accommodate the 3+3+2 rhythms of "Compression" and "Pearls Girl" within a background of evenly spaced metrical beats, such a maneuver says little about how these patterns relate to that background.
[26] Furthermore, even if one accepts the separation between rhythm and meter that is fundamental to most grid approaches, there is much to suggest that the whole relationship between the two is different in EDM and African music. In much common-practice-era Western music, departures from the metrical structure end up reinforcing it; they pull against it just enough to call attention to it. Scholars have suggested that this phenomenon occurs with syncopation in rock as well; for instance, Temperley, arguing that rock syncopations are best understood as displacements from specific metrical beats, writes that "syncopated rhythms often seem to reinforce the metre of a song rather than conflicting with it." In African percussion music, on the other hand, the rhythms of the surface tend to set up expectations of their own through persistent repetition, in spite of their irregular spacing within the measure. Thus Jay Rahn writes:
[27] I contend that many of the same conditions apply to electronic dance music in which asymmetrical patterns are prominent. Although almost all EDM can be transcribed in 4/4 (or, less commonly, 2/4), the ways in which the music is layered, in combination with its persistent repetition of rhythmic patterns over long spans of time, encourages the listener to attend to the periodicities of individual layers rather than focusing on how those layers deviate from a single underlying structure.
[28] These observations suggest a shift in emphasis, a change in the way rhythm is viewed with respect to meter in electronic dance music. Rhythm begins to seem not so much like a foreground phenomenon embellishing some deep background structure, but rather as a structurally significant element in its own right. Writers studying other repertoires have suggested similar changes in focus. For instance, Dave Headlam, in a discussion of rhythm and meter in the country blues, writes:
[30] Much of Rahn's work in this area builds upon diatonic set theory, drawing parallels between pitch collections such as 7-35--a set that has long been treated as "structurally privileged"--and asymmetrical rhythm patterns. For instance, following Clough and Douthett, Rahn notes that these "diatonic rhythms" are maximally even: in informal terms, this means that the number of attacks within each pattern is distributed as evenly as possible among the pulses in the cycle. This property can also be seen in EDM, which contains many of the diatonic rhythms that Rahn discusses. For example, the quarter-eighth/quarter-eighth/quarter (2+1+2+1+2) pattern of Example 4 and Example 5 is a maximally even distribution of five attacks among eight pulses--in contrast, for example, to the foursquare rhythm eighth-eighth-eighth-eighth-half. Furthermore, while certain foursquare patterns (e.g., four quarter notes in 4/4 time) are also maximally even, diatonic rhythms such as 2+1+2+1+2 are maximally individuated as well. In other words, each note within the pattern has a unique set of relationships with every other note. For instance, in the 2+1+2+1+2 pattern, the third note occurs three pulses after the first note, one pulse after the second note, two pulses before the fourth note, and three pulses before the last note; no other note within the pattern has the same set of relations to its surrounding notes. In addition, in contrast to maximally individuated foursquare rhythms (for example, half-quarter-eighth-eighth), notes within diatonic rhythms cannot be easily ranked in terms of metrical strength.
[31] The properties cited by Rahn suggest possible reasons for the special presence of the asymmetrical patterns that occur in electronic dance music--the way in which they seem to stand on their own apart from any metrical grid. For instance, attacks within maximally even asymmetrical patterns are almost as regular as metrical beats. Because of the slight irregularities of these patterns, however, each attack has a unique relationship to every other attack, which is not the case in completely even rhythms. These structural features distinguish this type of organization from that of meter, even though the rhythms produced by diatonic organization can coexist with a variety of metrical structures.
[22] Patterns that divide a measure asymmetrically occur in a number of different repertories, including folk music of the Balkans and drum ensemble music of sub-Saharan Africa. In some cases, especially in the former repertory, the number of pulses in the measure is a prime number, which means that the beat patterns comprising the meter mustbe irregularly spaced. In electronic dance music, however--as in much African percussion music--the measure contains a nonprime number of pulses. This makes it considerably more difficult to determine the meter when asymmetrical patterns are prevalent, since the measure can also be divided evenly. Should the recurring asymmetrical patterns be considered metrical, resulting in meters such as 3+3+2/8 or 3+3+3+3+4/16, or should they be treated as syncopations against a regular background?
[23] In addressing this question, it is useful to see what scholars of African music have to say, as some of them have given considerable attention to the issue. Thus in the next few paragraphs I will focus primarily on their arguments, though I will also relate their observations to electronic dance music. In general, Africanists' opinions on meter and asymmetrical patterns seem to fall into two different schools of thought. On the one hand, scholars such as Robert Kaufmann argue that regularly recurring asymmetrical patterns can become metrical, so that they do not seem syncopated. In such cases, notes that would be accented in a 4/4 meter might sound syncopated in a meter such as 3+3+2/8. For instance (returning for the moment to EDM), in Example 4b the third note of the Synthesizer 1 part, which would fall on a half-note beat in 4/4 time, would be syncopated if the beats follow a 3+3+2 division.
[24] On the other hand, quite a few ethnomusicologists have rejected this sort of interpretation, arguing instead that listeners infer a background of evenly spaced beats behind groupings such as 3+3+2. The view of meter as a grid--a regular background against which irregularity can occur--is also central to many music-theoretical models of meter. One of its most influential expressions occurs in A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. In this work, Lerdahl and Jackendoff posit the regular alternation of strong and weak beats as a precondition for meter. In their well-formedness rules for meter, they stipulate that "at each metrical level, strong beats are spaced either two or three beats apart" and that "each metrical level must consist of equally spaced beats."And while they focus specifically on Western tonal music, another music theorist, David Temperley, has recently applied their approach to both African traditional music and Western rock music.
[25] Scholars of African music have objected to the grid approach for a number of reasons. Some, like Kaufmann and Stone, feel that it represents a "Western" approach to meter rather than an African one. Others, while not denying that the grid can be applied to African music, question whether it really suits the music. Thus the question becomes not so much "is the meter 3+3+2/8 or 4/4?", but rather "what is the best way of conceptualizing rhythm and meter in music in which asymmetrical patterns are prominent?". This question is equally applicable to EDM featuring such patterns. While it is certainly possible to accommodate the 3+3+2 rhythms of "Compression" and "Pearls Girl" within a background of evenly spaced metrical beats, such a maneuver says little about how these patterns relate to that background.
[26] Furthermore, even if one accepts the separation between rhythm and meter that is fundamental to most grid approaches, there is much to suggest that the whole relationship between the two is different in EDM and African music. In much common-practice-era Western music, departures from the metrical structure end up reinforcing it; they pull against it just enough to call attention to it. Scholars have suggested that this phenomenon occurs with syncopation in rock as well; for instance, Temperley, arguing that rock syncopations are best understood as displacements from specific metrical beats, writes that "syncopated rhythms often seem to reinforce the metre of a song rather than conflicting with it." In African percussion music, on the other hand, the rhythms of the surface tend to set up expectations of their own through persistent repetition, in spite of their irregular spacing within the measure. Thus Jay Rahn writes:
[Asymmetrical] ostinatos . . . are not mere outgrowths of the referential meters of the pieces in which they occur. In each case, they represent persistent deviations from the divisive patterns that accompany them. . . . Ethnomusicologists have observed that African musicians say these sorts of asymmetrical time lines represent an audible point of reference for the ensemble as a whole. That is, in some instances, African performers apparently find their point of rhythmic orientation within a dense texture not with respect to a pulsating pattern or a divisive, unsyncopated pattern, but rather in relation to a seemingly syncopated pattern that appears to deviate constantly from the meter of the piece.In comparison, meter seems to be more purely referential, a simple yardstick rather than the focus of compositional attention--in the words of Arthur M. Jones, "a kind of metronome which exists behind the music."
[27] I contend that many of the same conditions apply to electronic dance music in which asymmetrical patterns are prominent. Although almost all EDM can be transcribed in 4/4 (or, less commonly, 2/4), the ways in which the music is layered, in combination with its persistent repetition of rhythmic patterns over long spans of time, encourages the listener to attend to the periodicities of individual layers rather than focusing on how those layers deviate from a single underlying structure.
[28] These observations suggest a shift in emphasis, a change in the way rhythm is viewed with respect to meter in electronic dance music. Rhythm begins to seem not so much like a foreground phenomenon embellishing some deep background structure, but rather as a structurally significant element in its own right. Writers studying other repertoires have suggested similar changes in focus. For instance, Dave Headlam, in a discussion of rhythm and meter in the country blues, writes:
Is it more useful to regard, for instance, Robert Johnson's songs as beginning from a regular metrical basis, as many writers do, with the surface described as "irregular"? Or is an irregular (or, better, not necessarily regular) rhythmic approach more appropriate, with any regular surface meter regarded as a compositional and performance by-product of the grouping structures?[29] Likewise, Jay Rahn argues with respect to African music that "one might like to determine how such syncopated patterns can be considered 'rhythms of reference' and whether there is any sense in which they can be viewed as regular. Rather than describing these patterns negatively (e.g., as deviations from a divisive organization), perhaps one can discern positive features in their structures." To this end, he has explored the special properties of these rhythms. In fact, Rahn is one of a number of writers whose work suggests alternatives to grid-based views of asymmetrical patterns. In the rest of this section (paragraphs 30-36), I will explore three of these alternatives. It is not my goal in discussing this research to suggest an all-encompassing model of asymmetry (or, more generally, of rhythm and meter) in electronic dance music, for much additional research would needed before such a model could be proposed. I believe, however, that the approaches of these authors will suggest some ways in which the construction of a broader model might proceed.
[30] Much of Rahn's work in this area builds upon diatonic set theory, drawing parallels between pitch collections such as 7-35--a set that has long been treated as "structurally privileged"--and asymmetrical rhythm patterns. For instance, following Clough and Douthett, Rahn notes that these "diatonic rhythms" are maximally even: in informal terms, this means that the number of attacks within each pattern is distributed as evenly as possible among the pulses in the cycle. This property can also be seen in EDM, which contains many of the diatonic rhythms that Rahn discusses. For example, the quarter-eighth/quarter-eighth/quarter (2+1+2+1+2) pattern of Example 4 and Example 5 is a maximally even distribution of five attacks among eight pulses--in contrast, for example, to the foursquare rhythm eighth-eighth-eighth-eighth-half. Furthermore, while certain foursquare patterns (e.g., four quarter notes in 4/4 time) are also maximally even, diatonic rhythms such as 2+1+2+1+2 are maximally individuated as well. In other words, each note within the pattern has a unique set of relationships with every other note. For instance, in the 2+1+2+1+2 pattern, the third note occurs three pulses after the first note, one pulse after the second note, two pulses before the fourth note, and three pulses before the last note; no other note within the pattern has the same set of relations to its surrounding notes. In addition, in contrast to maximally individuated foursquare rhythms (for example, half-quarter-eighth-eighth), notes within diatonic rhythms cannot be easily ranked in terms of metrical strength.
[31] The properties cited by Rahn suggest possible reasons for the special presence of the asymmetrical patterns that occur in electronic dance music--the way in which they seem to stand on their own apart from any metrical grid. For instance, attacks within maximally even asymmetrical patterns are almost as regular as metrical beats. Because of the slight irregularities of these patterns, however, each attack has a unique relationship to every other attack, which is not the case in completely even rhythms. These structural features distinguish this type of organization from that of meter, even though the rhythms produced by diatonic organization can coexist with a variety of metrical structures.
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