Sometimes, you hear correspondences across very different kinds of music…
What do OutKast and Ricky Skaggs have in common?
A: They both use two-beat phrase extensions.
OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” (The Way You Move / Hey Ya!, 2003) and Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder’s “Shady Grove” (History of the Future, 2001) both feature phrases with insertions of two extra beats. “Hey Ya!” features an unusual five-bar phrase, with three bars of four beats interrupted by a short bar of two beats (numbers in bold in the following diagram), followed by two more bars of four beats. This phrase structure remains consistent throughout the song:
1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 :|| [=22 beats]
The extra beats create rhythmic ambiguity—calling into question the predictability of the backbeat just when we start to feel we know the shape of the phrase. The handclaps on beats 2, 3, and 4 (underlined in the diagram above) in the final measure signal that we’re coming around to the start of a new rhythmic unit (similarly to a drum fill), clarifying the previous ambiguity.
“Shady Grove” features a more typical four-bar phrase, with two extra beats sometimes tacked on to the final bar:
1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 (x) :|| [=18 beats]
The song reverts to more conventional 16-beat phrases within its verses and instrumental solos, reserving the two-beat extension for punctuation between formal sections. Several times, the ensemble plays unison hits on beats 3, 4, and 1 of the penultimate measure of the phrase (underlined in the diagram), and sustains the third hit—letting the tension build through the extra space created by the inserted beats—before slamming into another unison hit on the “and” of beat 6 (indicated by the underlined parenthetical “x”). This syncopated anticipation of the next phrase’s downbeat temporarily destabilizes the listener’s sense of pulse and meter, such that we may temporarily reconceive offbeats as on the beat, and beats as offbeats.
What do Missy Elliott and Gustav Holst have in common?
A: They both use Phrygian melodies that move from scale-degree 6 to 5, then leap to the lowered scale-degree 2 and fall to 1.
Missy’s “Get Ur Freak On” features orchestral synth-brass—doubled on repeat by wobbly synth lead—playing this melody at 1:40 in the video:
And Holst’s “Mars” from The Planets features a similar melody, stated immediately in the horns, above that memorable march rhythm in five: