Abstract
This chapter addresses temporality in popular music, with a particular focus on hearing and interpreting notions of linearity in songs. Drawing on the work of Jonathan Kramer, I argue that linear (or goal-directed) time can be understood as arising from melodic, arrangement, lyrical, and performance elements of a song. This is demonstrated with respect to five songs by Queen, Prince, and Rod Stewart. In the final analytical section, I introduce a new term—the denouement coda—for a closing section of a song that introduces new musical material, and, in some way, provides a metaphorical or lyrical comment on the preceding sections
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Notes
- 1.
For a thorough discussion of the metaphors we use when talking about music, see Adlington (2003).
- 2.
- 3.
This quote may be apocryphal; see Brandreth (2013, 232). Nonetheless, it nicely captures the distinction to be made between “clock” time, measured in minutes and hours, and “musical” time, measured as experiential.
- 4.
It is important to note that Middleton follows this by pointing out the flaws of such a reductionist argument.
- 5.
For more on this matter, see Braae (2016, 134–35; 243–44)
- 6.
I think what also affords such a reading is that Mercury’s note is noticeably flat. The imperfection, as it were, of the intonation suggests that anything would suffice to break through at this point.
- 7.
To draw a slightly unorthodox, but pertinent comparison, one could make a meal (e.g. a casserole) with all the requisite ingredients (meat, vegetables, stock, herbs, etc.), which would be perfectly edible and identifiable as said meal. Yet upon adding that final dash of salt, to bring the flavors to life a little more, one might feel that the meal has now been properly completed. I am grateful to Brad Osborn for suggesting this analogy for a TCF, albeit in the context of Manhattan cocktails.
- 8.
This change in arrangement can also be understood as articulating a “coming together” narrative that aligns nicely with ideals of folk authenticity and hippie culture. I am grateful to Simon Zagorski-Thomas for pointing this out. This argument also resonates with Danielsen’s writing on James Brown (Danielsen 2006, 150–71); the difference is that with funk a listener becomes at one with the groove, whereas here it is the groove itself that changes to being at one with itself.
- 9.
Alex Harden alludes to and investigates similar points in his chapter of this collection on narrativity in popular song.
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Braae, N. (2019). Linearity in Popular Song. In: Braae, N., Hansen, K. (eds) On Popular Music and Its Unruly Entanglements. Pop Music, Culture and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18099-7_5
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