How+to+understand+STYLE

When you listen to an unknown rock song, how do you define the style of the song? Why there are many different rock styles? We don't only say "oh it is rock", we need to know what exactly what we are listening to.

I will list a few examples here to show you how to listen to music.

Roles of Instruments One of the most important thing for us to find out when listening to rock songs is to find out what instruments are used in the song and what do they do for us.

First listen to the song "clocks" by Coldplay. media type="file" key="Clocks.wma"

Can you find out all instruments used in this song?

The first instrument we hear is the electric keyboard. It plays a few roles at the beginning of the song.

1. It states the speed of the song. 2. It offers us the tonality of the song (major) 3. It offers the basic rhythm of the song 4. It is clear that the time is in 4/4 Even with a short introduction on the keyboard, we can get a clear sense about how this song is like, it is not a heavy rock song, it is not a country rock or a blues rock, because

a. the chord progression does not follow traditional 12 bar blues form b. the rhythm of the introduction does not give us an even 4/4 feeling

The first thing draws our attention is the rhythm, listen to the introduction again, try to clap the beats when you are listening to it, can you tell that the time is in 4/4? Can you count how many notes are played in every 4 counts?

Can you tell that every beat is divided into 2 quavers, so you hear __12 34 56 78__, but it does not sound like in 4 at the first time we heard it, why?

Now listen to the introduction again, this time pay attention on the strong beats (quavers) and then clap on strong beats only.

Rhythm The accents are placed on the 1st, 4th and 7th note, so it looks like this now ** 1 ** 2 3 ** 4 ** 5 6 ** 7 ** 8

This is a typical punk rhythm, one of punk rock's feature is the uneven accents, unlike the classical rock music.

Now read the rhythm for few times, clap it and tap the accented beats with your left foot while clapping the 8 counts.


 * Next instrument is the drum kit.**

Listen carefully, can you hear that the bass drum is playing all non accented beats, while the snare drum plays accented beats.

This is another way we can figure out rhythm feature of this song, which helps us to define the style of this song.

Apart from the drums and keyboard, what other instrument do you hear?

__In main stream Rock there are normally two guitars, one leading guitar and one rhythm guitar.__ __The leading guitar plays riff and solo while rhythm guitar plays chords along with the solo guitar.__ In this song, there is only one guitar, which plays only chords and barely can be heard, the major instruments are keyboard, drums, bass and singer.

Now lets look at the lyrics, what does the song mean?
 * Lyrics **

//Lights go out and I can’t be saved// //Tides that I tried to swim against// //Brought me down upon my knees// //Oh I beg, I beg and plead//

//Singin’, come out if things aren’t said// //Shoot an apple off my head// //And a, trouble that can’t be named// //Tigers waitin’ to be tamed//

//Singing, yooooooooooooo ohhhhhh// //Yoooooooooooo ohhhhhh//

//Confusion never stops// //Closing walls and ticking clocks// //Gonna, come back and take you home// //I could not stop that you now know//

//Singin’, come out upon my seas// //Curse missed opportunities// //Am I, a part of the cure// //Or am I part of the disease//

Obviously, this song is about personal depression and confusion, you don't see anger and anti-social attitude, which normally exist in main stream rock.

Combine with the rhythm and instruments, we can clearly define that this song is a typical Punk rock or Alternative Rock.

Here is a new question, when Punk rock was invented and what is Punk rock? Is punk rock a major rock genre in the rock music history? How many famous Punk Rock bands are there today?

This is for you to find out