Scott Hanenberg

Grooves in irregular meters have been a defining feature of progressive rock and metal since the inception of these genres. In this paper, I explore grooves with large irregular cycles, ranging from ten to over sixty beats or pulses. I theorize a typology of additive successions suited to the analysis of such cycles, classifying patterns as either punctuated or split. Punctuated grooves arise when an established meter is interrupted at regular intervals by isolated measures in another meter. Split grooves comprise cycles with two or more subsections of approximately (but not exactly) balanced lengths. These approaches to metric patterning suggest strategies for listening through cycles with large temporal spans—spans at which our ability to entrain is attenuated (London 2010).

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Within punctuated cycles, the interrupting change of meter occurs at the end of the repeating cycle. Scott Murphy’s (2016) terms for Platonic-Trochaic successions describe these cycles well: a run (a stable repeating pattern) precedes a comma (an interruption that punctuates that pattern). A heavy eleven-beat groove in Tool’s “Right in Two” demonstrates a relatively simple punctuated structure, in which a run of three groups of three is punctuated by a two-beat comma (i.e., 3,3,3,2). In the clearest split patterns, subsections are differentiated by a change in pulse grouping. A seventeen- pulse cycle in Hail the Sun’s “Eight-Ball, Coroner’s Pocket” exemplifies this type through its (2,2,2,2)(3,3,3) subdivision. More challenging are split patterns in which the delineation of subsections rests on cues in vocal phrasing or motivic cells.

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While most of the patterns I analyze are well described as punctuated or split, some cases are ambiguous. Complex examples by King Crimson, Dream Theater, and others, show how my typology describes the scaffolding of listeners’ metric intuitions. My inquiry thus provides needed clarity concerning an idiosyncratic and often murky aspect of progressive genres.