Finding the Beat

Entrainment, Rhythmic Play, and Social Meaning in Rock Music

Finding the Beat cover

Finding the Beat

Entrainment, Rhythmic Play, and Social Meaning in Rock Music

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Description

Finding the Beat explores humankind's ability, propensity, and enjoyment in finding the beat in live and recorded experiences of music-making through the lens of entrainment, the human capacity to perceive a beat and to synchronize to it. Anyone who has attended a concert, gone to a club, or watched a sporting event has witnessed and/or participated in tapping, clapping, or dancing along with a piece, song, or chant. It doesn't matter who or where you are in the world-as humans we spend a lot of time taking pleasure in matching our bodily movements with a perceived beat.

Drawing upon diverse examples from the North American and British rock repertoire, Nathan Hesselink demonstrates that listeners are gripped in deep, compelling, and socially meaningful ways when musicians play with or against expectations set up by entrainment. Via musicology, music theory, popular music studies, ethnomusicology, and cognitive neuroscience, he illustrates the creative, aesthetic, and participatory pleasure and wonder afforded by our collective ability to find the beat.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgments
1. Preamble
2. Ambiguity, Rhythm, and Participation in Radiohead's “Pyramid Song”
3. Rhythmic Play, Compositional Intent, and Communication in Rock Music
4. The Backbeat as Expressive Device in Rock Music
5. Entrainment and the Human-Technology Interface, Historical and Technological Considerations
6. Entrainment and the Human-Technology Interface, Sociological and Aesthetic Considerations
7. Radiohead, Oxford, and a Rhythmic Holy Grail
Appendix: Vancouver and Los Angeles Crews
Bibliography
Index

Product details

Published Apr 18 2024
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 196
ISBN 9781501393013
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 45 bw illus
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Nathan Hesselink

Nathan Hesselink is Professor of Global Musicology…

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