Anticipatory Syncopation in Rock: A Corpus Study

Abstract

While syncopation generally refers to any conflict between surface accents and underlying meter, in rock and other recent popular styles it takes a more specific form in which accented notes occur just before strong beats. Such “anticipatory” syncopations suggest that there is an underlying cognitive representation in which the accented notes and strong beats align. Syllabic stress is crucial to the identification of such syncopations; to facilitate this, we present a corpus of rock melodies annotated with lyrics and syllabic stress values. We propose a new measure of syncopation that incorporates syllabic stress; we also propose a measure of anticipatory syncopation, and show that it reveals a strong presence of this type of syncopation in rock music. We then use these measures to explore other aspects of syncopation in rock, including its occurrence in different parts of the 4/4 measure, its dependence on tempo, its historical evolution, and its aesthetic functions.

Second-Position Syncopation in European and American Vocal Music

“…Nearly all of these proposals consider only the pattern of onsets in the melody (and the length of notes, which-if defined in terms of inter-onset interval-is implicit in the onset pattern) and its alignment with the meter, disregarding other possible sources of phenomenal accent. Following Tan, Lustig, and Temperley (2019), I will refer to such definitions of syncopation as positional. Perhaps the most influential proposal of this type is that of Longuet-Higgins and Lee (1984).…”

“…This can create a conflict between meter and stress: In Figure 1D, the syllable "stock-" is more stressed than the previous syllable "of," but is on a weaker beat. This conflict can be resolved by viewing the syncopation as displaced or anticipatory: The fourth-position note really "belongs" on the following strong beat, but has been shifted to the earlier weak beat (Fox, 2002;Tan, Lustig, & Temperley, 2019). Second-position syncopations could also be regarded as anticipatory (with the note belonging on the third position), but there is less motivation for doing so; generally, the second-position syllable is less stressed than the first-position one (this is the case in all the excerpts in Figures 2, 3, and 7), so there is no conflict between stress and meter.…”

Expanding and Contracting Definitions of Syncopation: Commentary on Temperley 2019

“…Though Temperley argues convincingly that the relative accent of ostensibly syncopated notes must be considered, he ignores one of the most crucial phenomenological accents in vocal music: Syllable stress (no doubt, this was done for practical, not principled, reasons). The importance of incorporating syllable-stress information in rhythmic analysis has recently been discussed by Tan et al (2019) and has been highlighted in my own work as well (Condit-Schultz, 2016). Unfortunately, my current dataset does not yet include any syllable stress information, so I cannot expand upon Temperley's analyses in this regard.…”

The origins of syncopation in American popular music

“…It is simply a premise of my study that the devices discussed heresecond-position syncopation, anticipatory fourth-position syncopation and cross-rhythmcan account for most of the syncopation in 20th-century popular music; this could certainly use further confirmation. Regarding the prevalence of second and fourth-position syncopation in rock, Tan et al (2019) provides some evidence; Traut (2005) cross-rhythm in 1980s popular music. As noted earlier, the stress-metre conflict in fourthposition syncopations tends to make them easily identifiable, while second-position syncopations are more gradient in character; the second note in Example 19A seems more syncopated than that in Example 19B.…”