Thursday, April 30, 2020

Neatly Near Self-Similarity in Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger"

A pop quiz about 80s pop: Below is a transcription of music played by guitar of the first part of the instrumental opening of "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor, written for Rocky III, the fourth highest-grossing movie of 1982. Two contiguous measures are not correct, particularly in the timing of events. Which two measures? (If you think you know 80s pop well, answer before listening to the beginning of the video below.) My answer is below the video in both text and notation.



The three-chord (I-VII-I) motive in what I am notating as measure 20 is shifted later by two eighth notes (or two of the intro's shortest durational units played as repeated Cs, however they are notated), breaking the clear pattern established beforehand. (According to songfacts.com, Jim Peterik, one of the song's creators, was matching these motives to visuals from the movie; he "started slashing those chords to the punches we saw on the screen." I suppose one way to gain the upper hand in a boxing match is to surprise an opponent by breaking a pattern.) This shifted rhythm results in another, but much shorter, example of the kind of "end synchrony" I recognized toward the end of Yes's "Our Song": starting a series of 3-durations (in this case, dotted quarters) after the beginning of a pure-duple span (in this case, a 4/4 measure) can set up the synchronization of an onset in this series with the end of this span. This lends the downbeat of m. 21 and its tonic harmony a substantial phenomenal accent.


This phenomenal accent comes three-fourths of the way through the big sixteen-measure section in measures 9 through 24. Self-similarly, the recurring, non-shifted three-chord motive also articulates the moment three-fourths of the way through its measure. The sixteen-measure section would achieve more self-similarity with the three-chord motive if there was also a substantial phenomenal accent three-eighths of the way through the sixteen-measure section. Three-eighths of the way through measures 9 through 24 is the downbeat of measure 15. The onset of the first of two big sustained chords at the end of measure 14 is near this downbeat, but not quite. Moreover, the chord is a VI, resulting in long-range I-VI-I progression, which is not quite I-VII-I. However, as shown below (click for detail), each of these two states of nearness—one in time-space, one in pitch-space—neatly differ from their exact self-similar counterparts by exactly two of the smallest units in those respective spaces used earlier in the song: the semitone (G-Ab in measure 22) and the eighth notes of the omnipresent pedal point.


For those looking for more self-similarity in this song, consider how the analysis above compares to the rhythm and hypermetric location for "It's the..." and the big downbeat that starts the chorus.

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