FORM IN POPULAR SONG, 1990-2009 Jeffrey S. Ensign Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2015 APPROVED: Thomas Sovik, Major Professor Donna Emmanuel, Committee Member John Covach, Committee Member Frank Heidlberger, Chair of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology Benjamin Brand, Director of Graduate Studies for the College of Music James Scott, Dean of the College of Music Costas Tsatsoulis, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Ensign, Jeffrey S. Form in Popular Song, 1990-2009. Doctor of Philosophy (Music Theory), December 2015, 285 pp., 31 figures, 127 examples, bibliography, 92 titles. Through an examination of 402 songs that charted in the top 20 of the Billboard year-end charts between the years 1990 and 2009, this dissertation builds upon previous research in form of popular song by addressing the following questions: 1) How might formal sections be identified through melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, and text? 2) How do these sections function and relate to one another and to the song as a whole? 3) How do these sections, and the resulting formal structures, relate to what has been described by previous theorists as normative? 4) What new norms and trends can be observed in popular song forms since 1990? Although many popular songs since 1990 do follow well-established forms, some songwriters and producers change and vary these forms. AAA strophic form, AABA form, Verse-Chorus form, Verse-Chorus with Prechorus and/or Postchorus sections, Verse-Chorus- Bridge form, “Other, with a Chorus” and “Other, without a Chorus” forms are addressed. An increasing number of the songs in each of the above listed forms are based on a repeating harmonic progression or no harmonic progression at all. In such songs, the traditional method of identifying sections and section-functions through harmonic analysis is less useful as an analytical tool, and other musical elements (melody, rhythm, instrumentation, and text) are as important, if not even more so, in determining the form of songs in the sample. Copyright 2015 by Jeffrey S. Ensign ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Paget LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF EXAMPLES ................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2 BACKGROUND ...................................................................................................... 4 History of Research in Popular Music ................................................................................ 5 Research on Form in Popular Music ................................................................................... 8 Justification ....................................................................................................................... 11 The Sample ....................................................................................................................... 13 Analytical Methodology ................................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER 3 FORM IN POPULAR SONG ................................................................................. 18 Identification of Sections .................................................................................................. 20 Determination of Sections ................................................................................................. 23 Song Sections .................................................................................................................... 26 Verse ..................................................................................................................... 27 Chorus ................................................................................................................... 27 Bridge .................................................................................................................... 28 Refrain ................................................................................................................... 29 Prechorus ............................................................................................................... 30 Postchorus ............................................................................................................. 31 Motto/Tattoo ......................................................................................................... 31 Instrumental sections ............................................................................................ 32 iii CHAPTER 4 AAA STROPHIC FORM ...................................................................................... 33 Background ....................................................................................................................... 33 Findings ............................................................................................................................ 35 Examples ........................................................................................................................... 35 CHAPTER 5 AABA FORM ......................................................................................................... 46 Background ....................................................................................................................... 46 Findings ............................................................................................................................ 49 Standard AABA ................................................................................................................ 49 Expanded A and B sections in Standard AABA form ...................................................... 51 Partial Reprises ................................................................................................................. 58 Blends ............................................................................................................................... 60 Deviations ......................................................................................................................... 68 CHAPTER 6 VERSE-CHORUS .................................................................................................. 73 Background ....................................................................................................................... 74 Findings ............................................................................................................................ 78 Simple and Contrasting Two-part Verse-Chorus form ......................................... 80 Tonic Placement in the Verse and the Chorus ...................................................... 82 Simple Verse-Chorus and Chorus-first Songs .................................................................. 89 ToTo ...................................................................................................................... 89 No Chord ............................................................................................................... 92 TTTT ..................................................................................................................... 98 oooo..................................................................................................................... 101 ooTT .................................................................................................................... 102 iv Songs in Super Simple Verse-Chorus Form ................................................................... 104 Songs in Contrasting Verse-Chorus Form ...................................................................... 109 ToTo .................................................................................................................... 109 ooTT .................................................................................................................... 115 Tooo .................................................................................................................... 116 SRDC Verse-Chorus patterns ............................................................................. 118 CHAPTER 7 PRECHORUS AND POSTCHORUS .................................................................. 122 Prechorus Background .................................................................................................... 122 Postchorus Background .................................................................................................. 125 Findings .......................................................................................................................... 127 Prechorus Characteristics and Categories ....................................................................... 133 All-Contrasting Prechorus .................................................................................. 138 Contrasting Prechorus ......................................................................................... 142 Simple Prechorus ................................................................................................ 147 All-Simple Prechorus .......................................................................................... 151 Postchorus Characteristics and Examples ......................................................................