LAST EDITED ON Jan-22-16 AT 05:16 PM (EST)
 
So I was driving in my car the other day listening to Fall Out Boy, as one does, and it suddenly occurred to me that there is an amusing convergence of what I can only assume are coincidences surrounding "Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes", the first track on their 2008 album Folie à Deux.

The first, which is probably not in itself a coincidence, is that the song prominently features a bass-and-piano line very reminiscent of the one in "Baba O'Riley". Which, fair enough. The other is that the song's main riff is that same 5-3-5 rhythm that is sort of a Hōkago Tea Time signature, appearing as it does in both "Fuwa Fuwa Time" and "Singing!"

Which retroactively makes the "Baba O'Riley" thing happening in the same song that much more amusing to me. It's as if, seven years before such a thing would even have been possible in the first place, FOB wrote a "UF HTT trying to sound more like the Art of Noise" song. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Hah! That's amusing.

Mind you, I know far too little about music to ever pick up on something like that myself.

------
Fearless creatures, we all learn to fight the Reaper
Can't defeat Her, so instead I'll have to be Her

That is neat.

I understand why you used it (how else could you concisely describe that beat pattern?), but I briefly thought your phrase "5-3-5 rhythm" referred to time signature, which caused some confusion, since thirteen beats to a measure seemed deeply unlikely.

Permit me some music geekery, and I'll explain how "5-3-5" could resemble a time signature. Most common signatures have a natural default for which beats are emphasized: a measure of four puts emphasis on the first and third beat, a measure of six on the first and fourth. But a measure of seven could put emphasis on either the first, third, and fifth beats, or the first, fourth, and sixth. Sometimes, to make it explicit which is desired, a composer or arranger will write in the time signature, instead of "7", "4+3" or "2+2+3" for the first, and "3+4" or "3+2+2" for the second. These are usually read aloud as "two-two-three" and "three-two-two", respectively.

Measures of three also have two variants, though it's never written into the time signature. Polka time goes "oom-pah-pah", treating the second and third beats of the measure identically. In waltz time, on the other hand, the pick-up (the last beat of the measure) is almost as important as the downbeat (the first), to such an extent that it would make sense to notate it as 2+1 rather than 3.

To write a suggestion of the "HTT rhythm" into the time signature, one would use 3+2+3. (6+4+6 would imply emphasis on notes that don't have it.)

>That is neat.
>
>I understand why you used it (how else could you concisely describe
>that beat pattern?), but I briefly thought your phrase "5-3-5 rhythm"
>referred to time signature, which caused some confusion,
>since thirteen beats to a measure seemed deeply unlikely.

I suppose I could've called it a leitmotif, but, well, would that really have clarified the matter for most readers? :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>I suppose I could've called it a leitmotif, but, well, would
>that really have clarified the matter for most readers? :)

Around here? Yes.

>
>>I suppose I could've called it a leitmotif, but, well, would
>>that really have clarified the matter for most readers? :)
>
>
>Around here? Yes.

Fair enough. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.