Analyzing the Beat in Metrically Consonant Popular Songs

Abstract

The beat is regularly defined as a song’s primary pulse layer and as a requirement for metric formation. Despite the beat’s familiarity, however, its precise characterization and analytical application is inconsistent in scholarship. In this article, I present a new approach to analyze the beat in popular songs with a consonant, clear, and unchanging quadruple simple meter. At bottom, I take the traditional view of the beat as a singular entity and reframe it a multifaceted phenomenon where different aspects of music can simultaneously, and at times variably, create a sense of metric primacy. My analytical system has three parts: the drum pattern layer, the absolute time layer, and the preferred pulse layer. Further, I introduce the term “interpretive flexibility,” a spin on interpretive multiplicity, to refer to metrically consonant popular songs with multiple options for the perceived beat. In the second half of the article, I apply the three-part system and interpretive flexibility to analyze the beat in popular songs with multiple drum feels and layered drum feels. The evolving sense of metric primacy in these songs is experientially engaging, helps express musical form, and parallels extramusical narratives.