I thought it would be fun this month to test out Pandora’s human-powered Music Analysis by diving into our collected data to find some popular songs that have unusual meters.
Most commercial popular music is in 4/4 time, which is just the fancy way of saying each bar has 4 beats. The songs that aren’t built around 4 beat patterns are generally built around 3 beat patterns. That’s pretty much it for the overwhelming majority of what you’ll ever hear on the radio.
But there is, of course, no rule without its exceptions. And in popular music, there are a few very well-known exceptions. The two biggest would be Pink Floyd’s, “Money,” which is built around a 7 beat pattern, and Dave Brubeck’s, “Take 5,” in – you guessed it – a 5 beat pattern.
I’ve decided to leave metal and prog rock off this list because odd meters and time changes are common even among the most popular bands in those genres. But allow me to present to you an absolutely incomplete list of some popular songs that do unusual and unexpected things with meter. Some of which I would bet are you songs you’ve heard many times without even realizing anything was amiss.
This list was compiled by looking at the highest-spinning songs that have been human-tagged by our analysts as containing unusual metric elements.
Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill
This song is often pointed to as a popular song that snuck into our consciousness with an odd meter. It’s very effortlessly in a 7 beat pattern. You might not notice it unless you count along. There’s just a little hitch that gives the song a kind of loping momentum.
Dionne Warwick – I Say A Little Prayer
There’s an extra 2 beats thrown into the verse between bars of 4/4. Then in the chorus there’s an extra 3 beat bar that cycles in. This is a pretty darn tricky track if you try to count it. Burt Bacharach was no slouch.
Alex Warren - Save You a Seat
The verse in the song alternates between bars of 3 and bars of 4, then it evens out to a straight 4/4 in the pre-chorus and chorus.
Lord Huron – The Night We Met
We’ve got alternating bars of 9/8 and 12/8 (or 3 beats and 4 beats). A strange feel.
Supertramp – The Logical Song
“The Logical Song” has an extra 2 beat cycle thrown in between 4 beat bars during the verse, then it switches to straight 4 beats to the bar on the chorus.
Pink Floyd – Have A Cigar
Pink Floyd is known so well for “Money,” but “Have a Cigar,” has such subtle extra half beats and extra or dropped beats throughout that I almost broke my brain trying to figure out what was going on. Try clapping along steadily on the beats starting from the beginning of the song, and by the time the voice enters, you’ll be clapping along on the off beats.
Toadies – Possum Kingdom
This track alternates 7 beats with 8 beats during the verses.
Led Zeppelin – Kashmir
Zeppelin is known for messing around with the beat. “The Ocean,” “Four Sticks” and “The Crunge” are great examples of fun, rocking odd meters, that are in large part responsible for launching many of those prog and metal bands that use them today. But “Kashmir” is a special one. It has big sections in a normal-feeling 4 count, and it has some subtle extra half beats here and there, but the main unusual metric feature is the use of a 3 beat riff in the strings and guitar against a straight 4 beat count in the drums through the main verse sections that make the whole song feel so disorienting.
Charley Pride – Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'
Blink and you’ll miss this. There are 2 extra beats sandwiched between bars of 4 cycling regularly through the chorus. Little extra beats or bars of 2/4, are virtually everywhere in older country music and folk music.
The Byrds – Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)
Like the Charlie Pride track, this song has a consistent pattern of 2 bars of 4 beats followed by one bar of 2 beats on the verse. Then it shifts into regular bars of 4 beats. The Byrds were actively drawing from folk and country traditions, so it’s not surprising to find this here.
Dire Straits – Once Upon a Time in the West
The old pub rockers are shifting between bars of 4 and bars of 3 in what feels like highly unpredictable ways, though, they clearly knew what they were doing, “resolving” to a straight 4 beat jam at the end.
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – I Love Rock and Roll
“I Love Rock and Roll” has what’s called a “drop beat” in the main riff/chorus. Listen to the part where they sing “Come and take your time and dance with me.” The rest of the song is all bars of 4 except on that line, which switches to a bar of 3 beats.
Blondie – Heart Of Glass
Check out the instrumental interlude right around 2 minutes into the song. It alternates 4 beats and three beats, then immediately straightens out into a simpler 4 beat pattern when the voices return. Why?! Just to confuse people on the dance floor?
MGMT – Electric Feel
Electric Feel is fun because you can count it in a lot of ways. There are multiple things articulating the beat differently. You could hear it as a combination of 4 beats and 2 beats, as a 6 beat phrase, or as two 3 beat phrases. The pounding kick drum keeps it together and gives it a kind of 4 on the floor dance feel.
Alright, time to hand the reins over to you, dear readers/listeners.
Who can tell me what’s going on in “Trouble” by Coldplay? This one is subtle.
Now, how would you describe the odd hitch in the rhythm in “Better Than” by Lake Street Drive? It’s not to conform to the shape of the melody, so why did they put it in there? How does it affect the listening experience?
Can you tell what’s happening in the beginning of the Benson Boone track, “Hello Love”? There’s also a meter and tempo (speed) change, but before that happens, there’s something unusual going on.
And for the expert meter counters out there, let’s take it back to the basics with the Beatles’ “Happiness is a Warm Gun.” Good luck with that one, and have fun.
Also – I know some of you are chomping at the bit to fill us in on tracks I missed. Please add them in the comments!!
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