Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-swr86 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T16:43:03.212Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the interaction of alliteration with rhythm and metre in popular music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2011

Keith Salley
Keith Salley
Affiliation:
Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA, USA E-mail: ksalley@su.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A number of scholars have written on characteristics of vocal melody in popular music, but little attention has been paid at the level of phonetic detail. This study argues that the phonetic structure of a melody can contribute in important ways to a song's reception and success, given the ways that listeners react and respond to vocalised melody. This article discusses different ways in which stressed syllables in familiar pop songs alliterate, and it investigates the way these patterns interact rhythmically with metre.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , October 2011 , pp. 409 - 432
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Adams, S. 1997. Poetic Designs: An Introduction to Meters, Verse Forms, and Figures of Speech (Peterborough, ON, Broadview Press)Google Scholar
Anderson, D. 1981. The Hollow Horn: Bob Dylan's Reception in the United States and Germany (Munich, Hobo Press)Google Scholar
Attridge, D. 1995. Poetic Meter: An Introduction (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Barthes, R. 1977. ‘The grain of the voice’, in Image–Music–Text, trans. Heath, Stephen (New York, Hill and Wang), pp. 179–89Google Scholar
Bauer, W.R. 2001–2002. ‘Scat singing: a timbral phonemic analysis’, Current Musicology, 71–3, pp. 303–3Google Scholar
Bayley, A. 2009. Recorded Music: Performance, Culture, and Technology (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Berger, H.M. 1999. ‘Death metal tonality and the art of listening’, Popular Music, 18/2, pp. 161–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biamonte, N. 2010. ‘Triadic modal and pentatonic patterns in rock music’, Music Theory Spectrum, 32/2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowden, B. 2001. Performed Literature: Words and Music by Bob Dylan (Lanham, University Press of America)Google Scholar
Burke, K. 1974. The Philosophy of Literary Form, 3rd edn (Berkeley, University of California Press)Google Scholar
Carlson, R., Friberg, A., Fryden, L., Granström, B., and Sundberg, J. 1989. ‘Speech and music performance: parallels and contrasts’, Contemporary Music Review, 4/4, pp. 391–404CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christgau, R. 1968. Rock Lyrics Are Poetry (Maybe). http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/music/lyrics-che.php (accessed 4 April 2010)Google Scholar
Clarke, E. 1989. ‘Issues in language and music’, Contemporary Music Review, 4, pp. 9–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, B.L. 1991. Popular Music Perspectives: Ideas, Themes, and Patterns in Contemporary Lyrics (Bowling Green, Bowling Green State University Press)Google Scholar
Cooper, G., and Meyer, L. 1960. The Rhythmic Structure of Music (Chicago, University of Chicago Press)Google Scholar
Dylan, B. 2004. Chronicles: Volume One (New York, Simon and Schuster)Google Scholar
Everett, W. 1997. ‘Swallowed by a song: Paul Simon's crisis of chromaticism’, in Understanding Rock, ed. Covach, J. and Boone, G. (Oxford, Oxford University Press), pp. 113–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Everett, W., and Covach, J. 2004. ‘Hand jive and ear prudence’, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Music, Cleveland, OHGoogle Scholar
Fabb, N. 1999. ‘Verse constituency and the locality of alliteration’, Lingua, 108, pp. 223–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabb, N. 2002. Language and Literary Structure (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fanany, R. 2008. ‘The musicality of language: an application of musical analysis to speech and writing’, Journal of Music and Meaning, 7. http://musicandmeaning.net/Google Scholar
Fitch, W.T., and Rosenfeld, A.J. 2007. ‘Perception and production of syncopated rhythms’, Caliber, 25, pp. 43–58Google Scholar
Frith, S. 1988. Music for Pleasure (London, Routledge)Google Scholar
Frith, S. 1995. ‘The body electric’, Critical Quarterly, 37/2, pp. 1–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frith, S. 1996. Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallantucci, B., Fowler, C.A., and Turvey, M.T. 2006. ‘The motor theory of speech perception reviewed’, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 13/3, pp. 361–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, M. 2000. Song and Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan (London, Continuum)Google Scholar
Griffiths, D. 1990. ‘Talking about “License to Kill”’, in The Dylan Companion, ed. Thompson, E. and Gutman, D. (New York, DaCapo Press), pp. 260–66Google Scholar
Griffiths, D. 2003. ‘From lyric to anti-lyric: analyzing the words in a pop song’, in Analyzing Popular Music, ed. Moore, A.F. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press), pp. 39–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffiths, D. 2005. ‘Memorable music, forgettable words? Dilemmas of song in British progressive rock, c. 1972′, Paper presented at Composition and Experiment in British Rock 1966–76, CremonaGoogle Scholar
Halle, J., and Lerdahl, F. 1993. ‘A generative text-setting model’, Current Musicology, 55, pp. 3–23Google Scholar
IPA (International Phonetic Association). 1999. Handbook of the International Association (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Jakobson, R. 1987. ‘Linguistics and poetics’, in Language in Literature, ed. Pomorska, K. and Rudy, S. (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press), pp. 145–79Google Scholar
Lacasse, S. 2010. ‘The phonographic voice: paralinguistic features and phonographic staging in popular music singing’, in Recorded Music: Performance, Culture, and Technology, ed. Bayley, A. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press), pp. 225–51Google Scholar
Ladefoged, P. 2001. Vowels and Consonants (Oxford, Blackwell)Google Scholar
Ladefoged, P., and Maddieson, I. 1996. The Sounds of the World's Languages (Oxford, Blackwell)Google Scholar
Lea, R.B., Rapp, D.N., Elfenbein, A., Mitchell, A.D., and Romine, R.S. 2008. ‘Sweet silent thought: alliteration and resonance in poetry comprehension’, Psychological Science, 19, pp. 709–16CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leech, G.N. 1969. A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry (London, Longman)Google Scholar
Lerdhal, F., and Jackendoff, R. 1983. A Generative Theory of Tonal Music (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press)Google Scholar
Lester, J. 1986. The Rhythms of Tonal Music (Carbondale and Edwardsville, Southern Illinois Press)Google Scholar
Levitin, D.J. 2009. The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature (London, Penguin Books)Google Scholar
Lilliestam, L. 1996. ‘On playing by ear’, Popular Music, 15/2, pp. 195–216CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malof, Joseph 1978. A Manual of English Meters (Westport, CT, Greenwood Publishing Group)Google Scholar
Martin, George 1983. Making Music: The Guide to Writing, Performing and Recording (London, Quill)Google Scholar
McMahon, B. 2007. ‘The effects of sound patterning in poetry: a cognitive pragmatic approach’, Journal of Literary Semantics, 6/2, pp. 03–20Google Scholar
Middleton, R. 1990. Studying Popular Music (Milton Keynes, Open University Press)Google Scholar
Middleton, R. 2000. ‘Rock singing’, in The Cambridge Companion to Singing, ed. Potter, J. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press), pp. 28–41Google Scholar
Minkova, D. 2003. Alliteration and Sound Change in Early English (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, A. 2001. Rock: The Primary Text, Developing a Musicology of Rock, 2nd edn (Aldershot, Ashgate)Google Scholar
Negus, K. 2007. ‘Living, breathing songs: singing along with Bob Dylan’, Oral Tradition, 22, pp. 71–83Google Scholar
Negus, K. 2008. Bob Dylan (Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press)Google Scholar
Pilkington, A. 2000. Poetic Effects (Amsterdam, John Benjamins Publishing)Google Scholar
Preminger, A., and Brogan, T.V.F. (eds). 1993. The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (Princepton, Princeton University Press)Google Scholar
Rosenblum, M. 1992. ‘Vocal music: phonetics, phonology, and musical structure’, PhD dissertation (Princeton, Princeton University)Google Scholar
Rubin, D.C. 1995. Memory in Oral Traditions: The Cognitive Psychology of Epic, Ballads, and Counting-out Rhymes (Oxford, Oxford University Press)Google Scholar
Santoro, G. 1986. ‘The interview: Keith Richards the Mojo Man rocks out’, Guitar World, March, pp. 30–80Google Scholar
Salmon, P. 1958. ‘Anomalous alliteration in Germanic verse’, Review of English Studies, 10, pp. 109–12Google Scholar
de Saussure, F.. 1966. Course in General Linguistics, ed. Bally, C. and Sechehaye, A., trans. Baskin, W. (New York, McGraw-Hill)Google Scholar
Springsteen, B. 1998. Bruce Springsteen: VH1-Storytellers (Sony, video, 53492)Google Scholar
Stefani, G. 1987. ‘Melody: a popular perspective’, Popular Music, 6, pp. 21–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Temperley, D. 1999. ‘Syncopation in rock: a perceptual perspective’, Popular Music, 18, pp. 19–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Traugott, E.C., and Pratt, M.L. 1980. Linguistics for Students of Literature (London, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich)Google Scholar
Turner, Steve 1976. Conversations with Eric Clapton (London, Abacus Books)Google Scholar
Waters, K. 1996. ‘Blurring the barline: metric displacement in the piano solos of Herbie Hancock’, Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 8, pp. 19–37Google Scholar
Zak, A. 2001. The Poetics of Rock: Cutting Tracks, Making Records (Los Angeles, University of California Press)Google Scholar
Zollo, P. 2003. Songwriters on Songwriting: Revised and Expanded, 4th edn (New York, De Capo Press)Google Scholar

Discography

Aerosmith, ‘Walk this way’, Toys in the Attic. Columbia Records, JCQ-33479. 1975Google Scholar
The Beatles, ‘Help’, Help. Capitol Records, C1-90454. 1965Google Scholar
The Beatles, ‘Nowhere man’, Rubber Soul. Parlophone Records, 1041151. 1965Google Scholar
The Beatles, ‘I am the walrus’, Magical Mystery Tour. Parlophone Records, 48062. 1967Google Scholar
The Beatles, ‘Lovely Rita’, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Parlophone Records, 46442. 1967Google Scholar
The Beatles, ‘She's so heavy’, Abbey Road. Capitol Records, CPT 464462. 1969Google Scholar
Bob Dylan, ‘It ain't me babe’, Another Side of Bob Dylan. Columbia Records, C-2193. 1964Google Scholar
Bob Dylan, ‘To Ramona’, Another Side of Bob Dylan. Columbia Records, C-2193. 1964Google Scholar
Bob Dylan, ‘Mr tambourine man’, Bringing it All Back Home. Columbia Records, CS-9128. 1965Google Scholar
Bob Dylan, ‘The mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)’, Self Portrait. Columbia Records, C2X 30050. 1970Google Scholar
Bob Dylan, ‘The mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)’, Biograph. Columbia Records, C3K 38830. 1985Google Scholar
Bob Seger, ‘Turn the page’, Back in '72. Reprise Records, 2126. 1973Google Scholar
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, ‘Turn the page’, Live Bullet. Capitol Records, STBK-11523. 1976Google Scholar
Bruce Springsteen, ‘Blinded by the light’, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ. Columbia Records, 31903. 1973Google Scholar
Don McClean, ‘American pie’, American Pie. EMI America, E4-46555. 1971Google Scholar
The Eagles, ‘Life in the fast lane’, Hotel California. Asylum Records, 1084. 1976Google Scholar
Elton John, ‘Goodbye yellow brick road’, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. MCA Records, 10003. 1973Google Scholar
Elton John, ‘I don't wanna go on with you like that’, Reg Strikes Back. MCA Records, MCAC-6240. 1988Google Scholar
Manfred Mann, ‘Mighty Quinn’, Mighty Garvey. Fontana Records, 5470. 1968Google Scholar
Manfred Mann's Earth Band, ‘Blinded by the light’, The Roaring Silence. Warner Bros. Records, 3055. 1976Google Scholar
Pink Floyd, ‘Time’, The Dark Side of the Moon. Harvest Records, 11163. 1973Google Scholar
Steely Dan, ‘Peg’, Aja. ABC Records, 1006. 1977Google Scholar
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, ‘Jammin’ me', Let Me Up (I've Had Enough). MCA Records, MCAD-5836. 1987Google Scholar