Struktur og performativitet: mikrorytmikk i afroamerikansk populærmusikk

Abstract

Rhythm and groove are at the heart of many African-American musical traditions. In these traditions, the design of micro-level groove features, such as the timing, timbre and shape of rhythmic events, is highly significant for the experienced quality of the music. In this lecture, I propose a framework for analysing structural and microrhythmic relationships in groove-based music. The starting point is that rhythm comprises an interaction between, on the one hand, sounding rhythmic events, and, on the other, non-sounding reference structures, or the schemes used by the performer/listener in the act of structuring the rhythmic events. I apply this framework to selected soul and funk tunes from the 1960s, as well as to contemporary computer-based R&B and hip-hop tracks. A core theme of my discussion is that rhythm involves a play with changing structural expectations: new patterns and expectations are generated as rhythm unfolds in time. Consequently, musical structure is a dynamic and emergent aspect which evolves from preceding rhythmic events, both in a phenomenological and a historical sense.