Finding the Beat in the Rhythms of Billboard's Hot 100
Seminar by Nicole Vickers, PhD Student
Time: Fri 2024-01-26 15.00 - 16.00
Location: Fantum (Lindstedtsvägen 24, floor 5, room no. 522)
Language: English
Contact:
Abstract
Pop music today is characterised by circular rhythmic patterns and technological production practices that enable more complex individual rhythms as well as multiple layers of rhythms in the repeated rhythmic cycles. These characteristics have evolved alongside technology, and come to dominate the pop music charts. In this presentation, I look at the music in Billboards Year-End Hot 100 Songs lists from 1995-2020, and examine the evolution of instrumentation and rhythmic characteristics in the music. I also look at how the various layers of rhythmic loops create a regular pulse and meter in the music.
This presentation is part of my ongoing work on a PhD dissertation at Stockholm University.
Speaker
Nicole is Canadian and completed a Bachelor of Music at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. She completed a Master of Arts in Musicology at Uppsala University. Nicole is interested in rhythm, meter, and ethnomusicology.