The Musical Language of Rock

Contents

• CONTENTS
• Preface
• About the Companion Website
• 1. Introduction
• 1.1 The music of rock
• 1.2 What is rock?
• 1.3 Controversial issues
• 1.4 The corpus
• 2. Scales and Key
• 2.1 Scales in rock: Previous views
• 2.2 A corpus approach to scales in rock
• 2.3 Key-finding
• 3. Harmony
• 3.1 The chordal vocabulary
• 3.2 Harmonic progression
• 3.3 The Line-of-fifths Axis
• 3.4 Common harmonic schemata
• 3.5 Linear and common-tone logic
• 3.6 Tonicization, cadences, and pedal points
• 4. Rhythm and Meter
• 4.1 Meter in rock
• 4.2 Syncopation and cross-rhythm
• 4.3 Harmonic rhythm
• 4.4 Hypermeter
• 4.5 Irregular meter
• 5. Melody
• 5.1 Melodic grouping
• 5.2 Motive, repetition, and rhyme
• 5.3 Melodic-harmonic divorce
• 5.4 Mediant mixture and blue notes
• 6. Timbre and Instrumentation
• 6.1 Approaches to timbre
• 6.2 Guitar
• 6.3 Drums
• 6.4 Other instruments
• 6.5 The recording process
• 7. Emotion and Tension
• 7.1 The valence dimension
• 7.2 The energy dimension
• 7.3 Complexity and tension
• 7.4 Groove
• 8. Form
• 8.1 Basic formal types
• 8.2 The blues progression
• 8.3 Verse and chorus
• 8.4 Other section types
• 8.5 Ambiguous and unusual cases
• 9. Strategies
• 9.1 The VCU boundary
• 9.2 The cadential IV
• 9.3 Tensional curves
• 9.4 Shaping a song
• 9.5 Scalar and tonal shift
• 10. Analyses
• 10.1 Marvin Gaye, I Heard it Through the Grapevine
• 10.2 Elton John, Philadelphia Freedom
• 10.3 Fleetwood Mac, Landslide
• 10.4 U2, Sunday Bloody Sunday
• 10.5 Alanis Morrisette, You Oughta Know
• 10.6 Destiny's Child, Jumpin' Jumpin'
• 11. Rock in Broader Context
• 11.1 The roots of rock
• 11.2 Stylistic distinctions and changes within rock
• 11.3 Interactions and fusions
• 11.4 Rock after 2000
• References
• Index