Conference Agenda

Research on the technique of metric modulation has been limited to the domain of art music, particularly with the music of Elliott Carter (Trakulhun 2020, Mead 2007, Bernard 1988). While this work is influential in understanding rhythm and meter in 20^th century composition, popular music offers a rich corpus worthy of studying metric modulation. As popular music styles are explored more in music theory, attention is beginning to turn toward the drum set and its rhythmic and metric complexities as evidenced by the work of Cairns (2022), Hudson (2022), Garza (2021), Biamonte (2014, 2018), and Butterfield (2006). Here, I pursue further study of the drum set and analyze the structure and purpose of metric modulation.

First, I develop a definition of metric modulation that is centered around the drummer’s backbeat and the reinterpretation of rhythmic values. Crucially, metric modulation is a misnomer; it does not necessitate a change in meter but rather an integer-ratio change in tempo (Benadon 2004). Such a temporal transformation is particularly salient when enacted by the drum set, as the rate of kick-snare-alternations of the backbeat is altered. Next, I analyze the use of metric modulation in a variety of popular music styles and propose two types: complete metric modulation and implied metric modulation. Complete modulation is utilized by the entire musical texture as a way of delineating formal sections with a new tempo. Implied modulation is a temporary illusion created by the drummer, implying a new tempo without fully enacting a change. I also consider possible perceptual interpretations of this technique following Krebs’ (1999) theories of metric dissonance. An implied metric modulation may either be interpreted as a metric dissonance or a new, but related, metric and temporal framework. Finally, I investigate the purposes for implementing metric modulation, drawing evidence directly from drummers through interviews, online lessons, and public forums (Buell 2018, Edgar 2011). More broadly, this paper illustrates the dynamic creative license afforded to the drummer and situates metric modulation as a temporal transformation in the timekeeper’s toolkit.

Drum patterns are a pillar of popular music’s soundscape. But the majority of scholarship about drum patterns focuses on their rhythmic and metric functions, and there is no widely adopted method for analyzing the formal functions of drum patterns throughout complete songs. Focusing specifically on the formal functions of drum patterns in post-millennial pop, I completed a corpus study of Billboard magazine’s top one hundred pop songs from 2012–2021, analyzing each song’s drum patterns and tracing their formal organization. My study found that pop songs have an average of only 1.54 chord progressions, but they have an average of 5.43 drum patterns and 9.15 drum pattern changes. In short, the drums do much more than simply establish a song’s rhythmic profile and metric framework. In post-millennial pop, the drums are a primary participant in expressing form. The first half of this paper summarizes the corpus data and presents an annotative system for drum patterns in this repertoire. In the second half, I provide analytical examples that highlight how drum patterns and drum pattern changes express formal boundaries, functions, and motion at different levels of form.

This paper presents a schema theoretical approach to musical cues and the cognitive mechanisms that enable group coordination in live settings. Drawing from cognitive and cross-cultural studies of improvisation, I advance a generalized model of cue processing centered around determining a contextually appropriate action by decoding the temporal location and musical content of an upcoming event from a perceived cue stimulus, aided by information from a musician’s knowledge base (Pressing 1998) and primed by an attention-orienting preparation phase. Memories of past cueing experiences—generalized into what I call cue schemas—guide this processor by supplying its component routines with a set of default values, easing the cognitive load of responding quickly and appropriately to cues in a live setting. To illustrate cue schemas in action, I survey live performances of the bluegrass standard “Muleskinner Blues” by Bill Monroe, which poses substantial coordination problems due to its metrical flexibility. By examining how different backing musicians responded to this flexibility, I highlight the ways that cue schemas cultivate shared attention to event boundaries, enabling coordinated musical actions in the absence of a fixed metrical structure.