Comment by zxv | Hacker News Reader

Comment by zxv | Hacker News Reader

Great article. It's wonderful to see rhythm celebrated for how it makes us feel.

The Guardian had an article a few days ago on an emerging emphasis of bridge rather than chorus, and the role of repetition, in recent blockbuster hits by Ariana Grande, Iggy Azalia, Nicki Minaj and others.

The article has a great quote from the founder of Motown:

         "Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!” Berry Gordy once joked, understanding that this is what listeners truly gather around.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/dec/22/2014-...

This is a weird article. What is referred to as the bridge is the pre-chorus, a common element in pop music. Bridges are also common, but generally only happen once in a song (I can't think of any exceptions) and are typically a 'journey' to somewhere else before coming back to the original theme. An example of a bridge is about 2.5 minutes into John Mayer's Find Another You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QcaHBTfGU8&t=2m38s.

Amusingly, a lot of the tunes that are familiar as jazz standards, e.g., "Take the A Train," have a short AABA form, that the musicians refer to as the "bridge." But I suspect that jazzers abuse music terminology.

The bridge is where you find out who really knows the tunes.

Would you consider the Beatles' "I'm Looking Through You" to be a counterexample? Its bridge is performed twice.

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