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Three Empirical Studies on the Evolution of Musical Syntax in Popular Music from the 1960s HUBERT LÉVEILLÉ GAUVIN Music Theory Area Department of Music Research Schulich School of Music McGill University Montréal • Québec • Canada July 2015 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Arts. Copyright © 2015 • Hubert Léveillé Gauvin Contents List of Figures v List of Tables vi List of Examples vii Abstract ix Résumé x Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Database-Driven Research on Popular Music • Overview of the Present Research 1 Parsing the Database 7 Introducing the SUPERMAn tool • User Interface • Accessing the SUPERMAn Tool 2 Studies 1 & 2: On Modulation and Harmonic Practices 17 2.1 Hypotheses 18 2.2 Method 19 2.3 Results 20 Study 1: Evaluating Modulation Frequency • Study 2: Evaluating Chord Frequency 2.4 Discussion 23 Investigating Chord Patterns iii 2.5 Conclusion 31 3 Study 3: On Formal Organization 33 3.1 Hypotheses 36 3.2 Method 37 Identifying Functional Structures of Formal Organization 3.3 Results 39 Inter-Rater Agreement • Study 3: On Formal Organization 3.4 Discussion 42 3.5 Conclusion 53 4 Summary and Future Work 55 Summary of Results • Summary of Contributions • Aborted Study on Blues-Based Harmonic Patterns • Future Directions Appendix 63 A Billboard Parser Script 63 B Songs Featured in the 1958-1971 Sub-Corpus 89 C Annotating Instructions for Studies on Formal Organization and Blues-Based Harmonic Patterns 97 Bibliography 103 iv List of Figures Fig. 1.1 Sampling algorithm for the Billboard DataSet (reproduced from 8 Burgoyne et al., 2011, Figure 1) Fig. 1.2 A screenshot of the SUPERMAn tool 11 Fig. 1.3 Examples of regex queries (reproduced from Robbins 1999, p. 299) 11 Fig. 1.4a An excerpt of a transcription as presented originally in the 13 Billboard DataSet. Fig. 1.4b The same transcription, converted to a tonic-neutral format and 13 cleaned of all non-essential information Fig. 2.1 Distribution of single- and multi-tonic songs 20 Fig. 2.2 Detailed distribution of multi-tonic songs 21 Fig. 2.3 Distribution of 31 multi-tonic songs between 1958-1971 24 Fig. 3.1 Inter-rater agreement on formal organization, percentage per year 40 Fig. 3.2 Distribution of songs according to formal organization (1958-71) 40 Fig. 3.3 Distribution of formal organization 41 Fig. 3.4 Formal organization, per year 42 Fig. 4.1 Blues-based harmonic patterns, per year 59 v List of Tables Table 1.1 Distribution of songs in the Billboard DataSet for 1958-1971 9 Table 2.1 Distribution of songs featuring specific chords (in percentages) 22 Table 2.2 Harmonic trigrams ending but not beginning on tonic, in 26 descending order of frequency (reproduced from de Clercq and Temperley, 2011, Table 7) Table 2.3 Harmonic trigrams ending but not beginning on the tonic, and 27 featuring at least one flat-side harmony, in descending order of frequency. Table 4.1 Summary of results 55 vi List of Examples Ex. 2.1 “Make Me Smile” by Chicago, 1970 29 Ex. 2.2 “In My Room” by The Beach Boys, 1963 30 Ex. 3.1 “These Boots Are Made for Walking” by Nancy Sinatra, 1966 44 Ex. 3.2 “Evil” by Howlin’ Wolf, 1954 (reprinted from de Clercq, 2012, 45 p.136, Ex. 4.2.18) Ex. 3.3 “I Don’t Blame You at All” by Smokey Robinson, 1971 47 Ex. 3.4a-c Typical realizations of the AABA reverse-period bridge 50 Ex. 3.5 “I Got You (I Feel Good)” by James Brown, 1965 50 Ex. 3.6 “The Ways of a Woman in Love” by Johnny Cash, 1958 50 Ex. 3.7 “He’s So Fine” by The Chiffons, 1963 52 Ex. 3.8 “Jimmy’s Girl” by Johnny Tillotson, 1961 52 Ex. 4.1 Simple Blues Pattern (0) 60 vii Abstract The goal of this research is to investigate the evolution of musical practices in popular music in the 1960s through a large corpus study in order to identify any consistent changes in harmonic, tonal, and formal syntax. The discussion is twofold. First, I discuss the technical challenges associated with corpus studies, and I introduce the SUPERMan tool, a UNIX script I developed to overcome those challenges. Second, I present the results of three studies based on the Billboard DataSet (Burgoyne et al., 2011; Burgoyne, 2011), a new corpus presenting transcriptions for more than 700 songs. The first study looks at the incidence of multi-tonic songs throughout the decade, the second focuses on the incidence of flat-side harmonies (e.g. III, VI, and VII) over the same period of time, and finally the third investigates formal organization. While no difference was observed in the frequency of multi-tonic songs, the studies showed a significant increase in the incidence of flat-side harmonies during the second half of the decade, accompanied by an equally significant paradigmatic change in formal organization. This project features original academic research intended to contribute to a better understanding of popular music. In Studying Popular Music, Richard Middleton has noted that “the so- called progressive rock of the mid and late 1960s” was “regarded as widely associated with, indeed as the music of, the ‘counterculture,’” yet “how, theoretically, this connection could be said to work was rarely explained” (Middleton, 1990, p. 27). Mapping the evolution of musical tendencies through time will not only allow the community a better understanding of how musical syntax gets transformed through the years, but could also serve as a bridge for future interdisciplinary research involving the social sciences, as urged by Middleton almost a quarter-century ago. ix Résumé Le but de cette recherche est d’examiner les structures sonores de la musique populaire des années 60 par l’entremise d’une large étude empirique ayant pour but d’identifier des changements sur le plan de l’harmonie, de la syntaxe tonale et de la forme. La discussion se fera en deux temps. D’abord, je discuterai des défis techniques liés à l’utilisation de bases de données et présenterai le logiciel SUPERMAn, un script UNIX que j’ai développé pour surmonter ces défis. Par la suite, je présenterai les résultats de trois études basées sur le Billboard DataSet (Burgoyne et al., 2011; Burgoyne, 2011), un nouveau corpus regroupant des transcriptions harmoniques de plus de 700 chansons. La première étude se concentre sur la fréquence de pièces multi-toniques au courant de la décennie, la deuxième traite du taux d’accords dont la fondamentale est abaissée (e.g. III, VI et VII) durant la même période et la troisième analyse l’évolution de l’organisation formelle. Bien qu’aucune différence n’ait été constatée dans l’incidence de pièces multi-toniques, les études montrent une utilisation plus importante d’harmonies dont la fondamentale est abaissée, accompagnée d’un changement tout aussi significatif des paradigmes formels. Ce projet de recherche a pour but de contribuer à une meilleure compréhension de la musique populaire. Dans Studying Popular Music, Richard Middleton proposait que « la soi-disant musique de rock progressif du milieu et de la fin des années 60 » était « largement associée avec, ou même considérée comme étant la musique de, la ‘contreculture’ » bien que « la façon dont ce lien est établi sur le plan musical a rarement démontrée. » (Middleton, 1990, p. 27, traduction libre). Retracer l’évolution des tendances musicales à travers le temps permet une meilleure compréhension de l’évolution de la syntaxe musicale et facilite la recherche interdisciplinaire à travers les sciences sociales, tel que recommandé par Middleton il y à près d’un quart de siècle. x Acknowledgments I would like to thank numerous parties for the help and support with this research project. In no particular order: Nicole Biamonte, co-advisor on this project, for constantly giving me generous feedback and comments, as well as for her endless knowledge of popular music. Jonathan Wild, co-advisor on this project, for his invaluable help with the funding process, the technical aspect of the database, and the research methodology. David Brackett, for agreeing to recommend me to both funding agencies, and for sparking my interest in popular music as an undergraduate student. David Huron, for his amazing workshop on empirical research methods. I don’t think I could have done this research without it. My office mates, Sarah Gates, Toru Momii, Michèle Duguay, Lydia Huang, Ben Duinker, and Rebecca Flore, for making our work space such an inspiring environment. Special thanks to Rebecca for her help with the annotation process. I would also like to thank the many members of the Schulich School of Music and the CIRMMT community that offered useful ideas and suggestions. This research project has been made possible in part by the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture. Finally, a special thank to my wife Vanessa Ayotte for the continuous encouragement and support. I could not have done it without you. xi Introduction The 1960s were a time of great political, sociological, and cultural changes, accompanied by equally important developments in popular culture. Musically, the decade marked history, with the Brill Building, the British Invasion and Beatlemania, just to cite a few cultural phenomena. Many scholars have addressed the shifting musical paradigms of this period, noting that “[r]ock musicians no longer aspire[d] so much to be professionals and craftspeople” but “artists” (Covach, 2006, p. 38) and that the “later 1960s brought a respect for popular music and a popularity for complex artistic experimentation that had not been matched in any previous era” (Wald, 2009, p.