VII. Popular Music
Texture in Pop Music
Megan Lavengood
Key Takeaways
- A functional layer is a way of grouping instruments together according to the role the instruments play within the larger texture.
- Some functional layers in pop songs include:
- The explicit beat layer, which (as the name suggests) clearly articulates the meter and pulse levels within the song. Most percussion is part of this layer.
- The functional bass layer, which provides a harmonic foundation for the track. Bass-register instruments likely belong to in this layer.
- The harmonic filler layer, which thickens the texture and provides more harmonic context to the song. This layer typically comprises keyboards, synthesizers, and guitars, and varies widely depending on genre.
- The melodic layer, which is typically performed by the voice and other melodic instruments. The melodic layer is notable for involving high timbral flexibility, as well as instruments that are bright relative to the surrounding texture.
- The novelty layer, which works in opposition to the melodic layer through call-and-response gestures or interjections. This layer often uses instruments whose timbral features resist blending with the rest of the ensemble.
Especially since the advent of sequencers and digital audio workstations, an ever-increasing majority of popular music is conceptualized and written in layers. This layered approach to composition is an important structural feature of pop music, deserving of close analytical attention. Allan Moore (2012) observes that traditional terms for describing texture (homophony, heterophony, polyphony, monophony) were developed to describe classical music, and do not offer much insight when applied to pop music.[1] He developed the concept of functional layers as a more powerful tool for describing pop textures. Functional layers may be equivalent to a single instrument, or a group of instruments may constitute a single functional layer.
Moore (2012) identifies four functional layers common in pop music:
- The explicit beat layer
- The functional bass layer
- The harmonic filler layer
- The melodic layer
Lavengood (2020) adds a fifth layer:
- The novelty layer
While identifying these layers may not seem like a complex task, analyzing the way they are constituted is one way of breaking down a song to understand it better. Analyzing functional layers may furthermore illuminate common practices in the song associated with specific genres and/or cultures.
The concepts in this chapter will be illustrated with the song “3 on E” by Vulfpeck (2020). A list of the instruments that constitute each functional layer is given in
, and the use of the instruments throughout the song is diagrammed in a layer graph in . Colors assigned to the instruments reflect their functional layer.
| Functional Layer | Instruments |
|---|---|
| Novelty (yellow) | Ocarina |
| Melody (red) | Vocals, brassy FM synth |
| Harmonic filler (green) | Guitars, high sine synth |
| Functional bass (blue) | Bass |
| Explicit beat (purple) | Drum kit, auxiliary percussion |
Explicit Beat Layer
This layer “articulates an explicit pattern of beats” (Moore 2012, 20). It is also a key component to the song’s groove, as it establishes and maintains the song’s meter and characteristic rhythms. Instruments in this layer are often unpitched percussion instruments; in much pop music, the drum kit is the instrument that primarily articulates the explicit beat layer, though of course other percussion may be added. The rhythms performed in the explicit beat layer also tend to be regular and repetitive, since so much pop music is meant to be danced to. The explicit beat layer thus provides a foundation for the rest of the track, which is more flexible in this regard.
These fundamental properties of the explicit beat layer render it particularly easy to recognize in pop songs. In “3 on E,” the explicit beat layer is present throughout almost the entire track and is played by the drum kit. In the final chorus (2:20), additional auxiliary percussion in the form is added to the explicit beat layer. above shows the explicit beat layer with purple colors.
Functional Bass Layer
Like the explicit beat layer, the functional bass layer is an important component of the song’s groove, and forms part of the foundation of a track. Note that in above, the functional bass (shown in blue) is present throughout almost the entire song, like the explicit beat layer. Unlike the explicit beat layer, the functional bass layer also serves an important registral and tonal role: to provide the bass frequency and define the harmonic context of a song. In the vast majority of pop songs, the functional bass layer fills these two roles at once by playing the chord roots on beat 1 of each chord change ( ).
Melodic layer
The principal melodic line(s) of a song form the melodic layer. Of course, the voice is the most typical instrument in the melodic layer, and requires the least theorizing. When other, non-vocal instruments belong to the melodic layer, it is because they carry the melodic line, either alongside or instead of the voice. In above, the vocals are a paradigmatic example of the melodic layer (shown in red), and occasionally a brassy FM synth joins the vocals in the melodic layer. As with this brassy synth, instruments in the melodic layer tend to have brighter timbres than those of instruments in other parts of the texture, and moreover, may have a high degree of timbral flexibility that mimics similar changes in the singing voice. Moore also points out that the instrumentation of the melodic layer is a strong indicator of the genre the song belongs to.
Harmonic filler layer
Moore says that the harmonic filler layer “fill[s] the ‘registral’ space between the bass and [melodic] layers” (2012, 21). While harmonic filler layers may indeed include mid-range instruments, the presence of scare quotes in Moore’s definition indicates that this is about conceptual registral space, rather than strict frequency-based register. Guitars, keyboards, and synthesizers are most common in the harmonic filler layer (as in “3 on E,” as shown in above), but this can vary greatly depending on genre—choirs, orchestras, and horn sections could also be appropriate.[2]
Novelty layer
The novelty layer functions in opposition to the melodic layer, and is characterized by call-and-response or interjectory gestures and unusual timbres. It is the least essential of all the functional layers discussed in this chapter, and may not be present in every song. Non-standard rock instruments (that is, instruments beyond guitars, drums, and keyboards) and attention-grabbing synthesizer sounds often are used to create a novelty layer.[3] The ocarinas in the second verse of “3 on E” (0:59) fulfill both the gestural and timbral parameters of this definition, creating a paradigmatic (albeit minimally present) novelty layer (shown in blue in above). Other examples with prominent novelty layers are the saxophone in “Talk Dirty” by Jason Derulo (2013, 0:39) or the tin whistle in “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion (1997, 0:00).
Questions to ask while analyzing
As always with music analysis, applying labels is only the beginning of creating a compelling analysis. Below are some ideas for questions to ask yourself to develop your labelling of functional layers into an interpretation of the song based on texture:
- What instruments make up each layer?
- When do layers enter and exit, and how does that relate to the form?
- Are any functional layers missing altogether? What is the effect of omitting that layer from the song?
- What intertextual associations are implied by the instrumentation of the novelty layer?
- How do the rhythmic profiles of the layers differ?
- Do any instruments participate in multiple functional layers? What is the effect of their change of role?
- How do any of the answers to the questions above relate to genre or cultural context?
- Lavengood, Megan L. 2020. “The Cultural Significance of Timbre Analysis: A Case Study in 1980s Pop Music, Texture, and Narrative.” Music Theory Online 26 (3). https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.26.3.3.
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Lavengood, Megan L. 2021. “Timbre, Rhythm, and Texture within Music Theory’s White Racial Frame.” In The Oxford Handbook of Electronic Dance Music, edited by Luis-Manuel Garcia and Robin James. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190093723.013.17.
- Moore, Allan F. 2012. Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
- splitter.fm is a website that lets users explore “stems” of popular songs by muting and soloing different layers of a song in a DAW-like visual presentation.
- Auralayer is a free web app for creating visualizations of texture and instrumentation.
- Identifying functional layers (.pdf, .docx). Asks students to access “Going Somewhere” by Akaban on splitter.fm and assign each of the song’s stems to a functional layer.
- Visualizing texture analysis (.pdf, .docx). Asks students to use Auralayer to map out the instrumentation and texture of “bad guy” by Billie Eilish (2019).
- Moore notes in particular that the ubiquity of the explicit beat layer is something that distinguishes pop music from classical music (2012, 20). This is part of what makes traditional terms inapt for describing pop music. By contrast, the functional bass layer is one that could be recognized as easily in classical music as it is in pop music. ↵
- Moore (2012, 21) also notes that some genres might not use a harmonic filler layer at all, and gives metal as an example of such a genre. ↵
- Non-western or folk instruments ("world" instruments) are often relegated to the novelty layer, to sometimes problematic effect, as described in Lavengood (2020). ↵
An instrument or group of instruments that perform a specific role within a pop song texture. These roles are:
• the explicit beat layer
• the functional bass layer
• the melodic layer
• the harmonic filler layer
• the novelty layer
A type of functional layer within pop music that clearly articulates the meter and pulse levels within the song. Most percussion is part of this layer.
A layer within a pop song texture that provides a harmonic foundation for the track. Bass-register instruments likely belong to in this layer.
A functional layer within a pop song that thickens the texture and provides more harmonic context to the song. This layer typically comprises keyboards, synthesizers, and guitars, and varies widely depending on genre.
A functional layer within a pop song texture that is typically performed by the voice and other melodic instruments. The melodic layer is notable for involving high timbral flexibility, as well as instruments that are bright relative to the surrounding texture.
A functional layer within a pop song texture that works in opposition with the melodic layer through call-and-response gestures or interjections. This layer often uses instruments whose timbral features resist blending with the rest of the ensemble.
A musical texture consisting of one melodic part (usually the topmost) and other subordinate accompanying parts. This includes chorale texture and melody-and-accompaniment texture.
A musical texture with multiple simultaneous variants on a single melodic line.
A musical texture with multiple independent melodic voices, distinguished from one another through different rhythms and/or intervallic profiles. Also known as counterpoint. Polyphony may occur in many styles but is commonly associated with contrapuntal genres like fugues and canons.
A musical texture with a single, unaccompanied melodic line.
A complex and multidimensional phenomenon of popular music that in part is made up of a song's rhythmic profile, tempo, meter, percussion, and bass line. Groove also encompasses more ineffable aspects of music, such as the performer's or listener's sense of embodying a regular musical pattern and/or their concentration.
Percussion instruments that do not produce a definite pitch; for example, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, maracas, and so on.
While unpitched percussion can still be "tuned" and can be described as having a higher or lower sound, unpitched percussion is acoustically noisy, and does not create discrete frequency bands that allow for easy perception of a fundamental pitch. Compare them against pitched percussion, such as timpani, xylophone, or gamelan.
Unpitched percussion instruments that are not the drum kit (in pop music) or the snare, bass drum, cymbals, or timpani (in classical music). Examples include tambourine, triangle, castanets, or claves, although there are too many auxiliary percussion instruments to list.
A timbral quality that indicates relatively prominent high-end frequencies. For example, a snare drum has a brighter timbre than a bass drum.
A band of frequencies meant to capture melodic instruments; about 500–5000 Hz.
Acoustically, how often a sound wave repeats; the pitch of a sound.
A music production term for a single instrumental track or group of tracks that are mixed together into a single digital file. A stem is an intermediate level of mixing, between each individual instrument's track and the final composite mix.