The rhythm of popular music

Abstract

Starting from the results of a survey regarding youth's musical preferences, I noticed that the rhythmic dimension is what persuades the listeners to repeatedly listen to a current piece. Overlapping this observation with a brief analysis of pop songs in the current charts, I would like to emphasize, through this article, the supremacy of the rhythmic component in today's popular music, to the detriment of melody, harmony, and a textual message. As noted by Marc Tarrant, Adrian North, and David Hargreaves in 2000 research, the gesture of listening to music is "emotional satisfaction" and "satisfaction of social needs". Satisfaction of social needs is closely related to the musical movement and dance, generated by the rhythm of the current music. Regarding satisfaction of emotional needs, we have to formulate the following question: is the rhythm preponderance in the constructive-musical preferences, in the current music, a mirror of the souls of today's youth? If so, what does it symbolize? As musical professors and music pedagogues, I think it is our duty to observe the musical preferences of young people in order to have a realistic picture of artistic needs for sustained intervention in the field of musical education.