Abstract
Electronic Dance Music (EDM), a musical genre left relatively unexplored in music theory offers music theorists numerous exciting opportunities for analytical inquiry. This paper focuses on the rhythms and formal structures encountered in three distinct sub-genres of EDM: Drum and Bass/Jungle, Trip-Hop, and Intelligent. Works by Diesel Boy, DJ Dara, DJ Shadow, Goldie, Plaid, and Squarepusher are considered throughout.
Rhythms are analyzed using Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff’s writings on listener intuition, grouping structure, meter, and tactus, Gretchen Horlacher’s writings on cycles and hierarchical structures, and John Roeder’s writings on pulse streams. Also considered are ideas put forth in the writings of Harald Krebs and more recently, Mark Butler. The paper combines all of the above approaches in an attempt to analyze not only the metrically consonant structures that pervade most of EDM, but also the metrically dissonant structures such as those created through the use of displacement dissonance and the layering of out of phase strata.
The rhythmic structures of EDM expand outward to create large-scale form. Traditional forms such as Passacaglia and even Sonata form are sometimes evoked in this music. While the intentions of the composers on producing these forms is doubtful, analyzing the works as such gives us a unique perspective on what is happening in the music. Tracing the form produced throughout entire tracks of EDM shows us how these forms are still being adapted today.
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