This paper surveys theories of rhythm and meter that have been developed for Western art music and applied to pop-rock music, as well as more recent theories developed specifically for popular music. I also consider several broader temporal issues as they relate to popular music: the relationship between rhythm and meter in music with an explicit…[Read more]

A survey of tonal and harmonic systems in late 20th-century pop/rock that revises the model in Walter Everett, “Making Sense of Rock’s Tonal Systems,” _Music Theory Online_ 10.4 (2004)

The first part of this chapter surveys existing models of texture in popular music, identifies the rhythmic characteristics of the different layers, and offers sample analyses drawn from Anglophone popular music from the mid- to late twentieth century that demonstrate various rhythmic functions. The second part describes typical textural and…[Read more]