One fine October day, the Pixies graced this beautiful green earth with a new album. The Night the Zombies Came was just okay, but that’s okay. It conserves their signature sounds while weaving in themes of horror and dark mysticism, so it was a fun album to play around Halloween. Yet, there has been a general drift towards the smooth and melodic, rather than the jagged and rough, in their latest works. This hasn’t ignited the same excitement in me as their 90s work has, but it was still creative. My dear friend, Julia, noted she liked the song “Hyponotized” because of the meter change. After a re-listen, I immediately thought, “Hold on. How freaking clever.” And let me tell you why, if you wish to entertain my thoughts.

The song is intended to be “psychedelic experience” written around guitarist Joe Santiago’s experience with misophonia, or the fear of crunching and other loud noises. He wrote about this fear, and the sensory hijacking and powerlessness that accompanies it, with an obscurity that resulted in a song about a suffocating hypnosis. The narrator of the song is hexed, aware he has lost control of his mental and physical faculties but incapable of escape.

Now for the good stuff on time signatures. The song begins with a 4/4 time signature carried by these loud, abrasive drums reminiscent of Pixies’ Surfer Rosa-era drum sound (Thank you, Steve Albini). This forms an even, balanced rhythm you can nod your head to (and I know you do). With Black Francis’ gutteral voice complemented by the high, airy background vocals of bassist Emma Richardson, the narrator's desperate plead for liberation feels like a strange fever dream. At the end of each verse, they keep asking, “Is anybody out there?" that loses hope with each delivery, reinforcing the repetitiveness and predictability of the 4/4 time signature. It almost feels like they are going in circles.

As soon as the chorus hits and the narrator begs for help in "clearing the clouds" from his eyes, the time signature changes to a 3/4. There are two reasons why I think this is such a clever little detail. A 3/4 time signature emphasizes every first beat of each measure, making it sound like dreamy sway reminiscent of waltz music. It's easy to get lost in, and a lot of famous songs described as “hypnotic” use a 3/4 time signature, so of course this would be a perfect meter to use for a song about hypnosis. Even more, the band uses this time signature only for the chorus, forcing the narrator (and listener themselves) to snap in and out of a hypnotic state with each transition. The chorus is also the most lyrically repetitive part of a song, so using this hypnotic-sounding time signature to deliver such repetitive lyrics magnifies the dreamlike state the narrator is trapped in.  

There are other Pixies songs that use meter in a more unconventional way, but “Hypnotized” is such a fun exercise in creative storytelling. Santiago could have been incredibly literal with his lyrics describing misophonia, but specificity only goes so far in articulating how one actually feels with this fear. So, he conveyed these feelings with a cinematic tale on hypnosis carried by intentional time signature changes. This demonstrates how artists can manipulate music to transmit more than sound but a physical feeling that engulfs you in the song and amplifies the meaning further. In this case, the band used an even 4/4 time signature to hook the listener to the rhythm from the outset, grounding them in consistency and monotony, and suddenly transitioning to a hypnotic 3/4 to snap the listener into a surreal state, evoking the feeling of sensory paralysis. This ultimately makes the listener an active participant of the song.

The last thing I’ll say about time signatures, dear five readers, is that you don’t know how to read them to be creative with them. An example a group who falls into this category is this small band called the Beatles. I remembered that they did some weird things with time signatures on several songs, so when I recently looked into this, I learned that they DIDN’T know how to read or write sheet music. They had an implicit understanding of meter and other foundational music theory, sure, but they were doing pretty advanced things according to real musicians and not myself. For as long as they had been together creating some of the most well-known songs in music history, these four guys were doing what literally felt right.

Relying on their innate understanding of meter over standard technical knowledge unbound them from the traditional “rules” of songwriting. Leading with feeling over formula, they had the freedom to mess with several song components, especially time signatures, to transmit whatever feeling they had individually and, more challengingly, in relation to one another. From my observation, most western pop artists go into songwriting knowing they’ll use a 4/4time signature. It’s straightforward to play and easy for the listener to catch onto – it’s even, like a good walking song, a head bobbing song, an earworm. This isn’t bad, but it definitely puts the artist in a box, not to mention the meter itself feels predictable. The Beatles, by contrast, went into songwriting without a template to build their concept around. Rather, they started with a concept and molded the sounds and lyrics around it.

It was validating to know you can be innovative in afield whether or not you know the technical how to’s. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stop learning its ins and outs since they’ll help stretch your creativity to another level (Paul McCartney learned sheet music after The Beatles), but you probably don’t need them when the Feeling is there. You just need to be resourceful, and be a little weird with it. Importantly, you’re likely not going to have a completely original idea (all four Beatles members notably had musical influences from all around the world), but you can still evolve it to a more personal and consequently more interesting state of existing in the world. I realize this is the basis of creativity, but it’s sometimes hard to remember at a time when re-creation for the sake of efficiency is more highly valued or commended. I also tend to dedicate a lot of time to learning and perfecting methods and skills when pursuing a professional or creative goal, but this has often hindered me from actually putting my new knowledge into practice or taking it further. Instead of being what I thought were blind spots, maybe some of the gaps in knowledge will provide the space for me to be curious, embed a piece of my individuality, and stretch my creativity. In sum, follow the Feeling and you could be the next Paul McCartney.