This is what I mean: at some point, probably the 1950s/1960s, someone got it into their head that the basic structure of a rock/pop song went much like this:
Short musical intro/hook
First paragraph of lyrics
Chorus
Second paragraph of lyrics
Chorus
Musical solo
Very brief third pargraph of lyrics
Repeat chorus with music until song ends/fades away.
Now, it’s true that there are lots of music that doesn’t follow this pattern, but most of it gets labeled “experimental” at best, or unlistenable at worst. Yet, for decades everything from Top 40 glam pop to heavy metal songs to even rap songs seem to follow this kind of structure.
Where’d this come from? Does it have a name? Any critics who’ve discussed it-- it’s influence/popularity/insidiousness? Is it mostly a Western thing (U.S./British music) or is it common worldwide?
FYI, I have no musical background, and a tin ear, so all apologies for getting things wrong.
The perfect rock/pop song was there from the beginning. Johnny B. Good, Maybeline, No Particular Place to go. The structure is there [as per your chart above], the three chord sequence, the energy without aggresion.
I can’t think of an earlier example. There were rock songs before, there were pop songs way earlier, but with a few simple song just before the mid 50’s, Berry wrote the template.
For 6 you can have a bridge instead of a solo. Wiki defines the bridge as “a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section.”
No clue about the history of the template form, though.
It goes back a long time before that. Listen to this 1911 recording of Alexander’s Rag Time Band. It’s all there – intro, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus, outro.
That’s from Irving Berlin, or more generally, Tin Pan Alley. The Tin Pan Alley “school” of music started in the 1890s. You can also hear something resembling the form in the works of Stephen Foster (listen to this version of My Old Kentucky Home, written in 1853.)
[slight hijack]Can any of you music types explain “vamp”? Somewhere in my collection I have a bluegrass song “(I Wrote This Song With a) Vamp in the Middle”.[/slight hijack]
Basically, a vamp is little bit of music that is repeated. As the Wiki article explains, it lets the singer improvise or, in musical theatre, gives a generic background theme to play behind dialogue or transitions.
A “vamp” is a repeating musical pattern (usually one or two bars) that’s played over and over. It can be used as an underlying figure to improvise over; it can be used as an intro or fade-out ending to a song; it can be used in musicals as a repeating figure to be played under dialogue until a cue occurs to direct the performer(s) to move on to the next part of the song, etc.
Usually its a repeating set of notes that serve as a backdrop to the main song. The piano part in Take Five is a good example of this - it plays through the entire song.
Hey, thanks so much for the illumination, really appreciate it.
It’s just something I’ve always been curious about, given how much modern music relies on it-- so much so that it’s always a bit weird (and sometimes welcome) to hear music that deviates from that structure.
I’ll admit, for a while there in the 1980s and 1990s, I came to hate that structure, as it appeared that every song released had to be 3 to 5 minutes long and fit into that haiku-like template. Once you notice it, it’s impossible to NOT notice it-- and then forever wonder why it’s so commonly used and rarely deviated from (or, perhaps more accurately, rarely deviated from well).
That’s a good question. It seems the rock/pop music structure goes back to early blues and country tunes, from all that I can gather. But I can’t help but see the structure also seems to share a lot in common with classical sonata form, which is:
exposition
development
recapitulation
We can start with an intro, then the exposition contains two themes, which are often repeated (kind of like verse-chorus-verse-chorus). The development is sort of a free-feeling fantasia that develops the themes in the exposition (sort of like your instrumental solo or bridge). And the recap brings us back to the first two themes with some variations.
This is, of course, greatly simplified, as there’s also key changes and other intricacies in sonata form. However, I can’t help but see pop music form being similar, at least superficially, to sonata form, though greatly simplified.
I would argue the basic format predates recorded music, much less rock/pop. Look at folk music.
Think about sitting around a fireplace. It’s very awkward to start cold, especially with a mixed group who haven’t practiced together. The intro lets everyone get into the song together and establish the rhythm. The alternating verse/chorus structure allows the song to tell a story, with a repeated section that everyone can join in on, even if they haven’t heard the song before. The bridge section provides a little creative flair for the key performer/s, and then the wrap up to the song with repeated refrain to ride the emotional tail.
Of course I could just be pulling this out of my… tuba.
I played violin in the pit for a number of high school musicals. A couple of nearby high schools didn’t have strings, so they would “borrow” us for thier musicals.
Anyway, ALL the music that might need to fill a delay (scene changes, costume changes, audience slow getting seated after intermission…you name it) had a vamp indicated at the end. I forget exactly why, but once we ended up vamping long enough that the musical director finally cut us off, and we did a reprise of an earlier number. On the other hand, we would often fade well before the end if the stage crew was especially efficient with a scene change.
Also, we never played under dialog. This was the days before wireless mikes were common, and it was a challenge (even with mutes) to play soft enough not to overwhelm the actors.
