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 bas