The Author Is Both Dead And Alive, or The Vox "Videotape" Aftermath

A week later, I am a madman.

This madman rambling video is a companion to my madman blog entry - https://warrenmusic.xyz/2017/08/11/a-week-later-i-am-a-madman/

Note to everyone: I meant "half notes" (at 154.78 BPM) when I said eighth notes at 8:20. Sorry I was worked up and said eighth notes.

Link to the Vox video that this is a follow-up to - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_IHotHxIl8

Link to my cover, but with the beat from "Bodysnatchers" superimposed over it to help you hear the syncopation (listen from the timestamp on for max effect) - https://soundcloud.com/warrenlain/videotape-cover-superimposed-bodysnatchers-beat/s-SLCNO

"Death of the Author" argument - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_the_Author

Link to an example of Jonny using Hidden Syncopation on “Idioteque” for the BBC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7WCdYFqz5g

This link shared by a dissenting commenter on the Vox video actually supports my view... lol. But I'm glad he shared it anyway, because not only did it validate what I was saying in a new way, it also helped me process what the experience of hearing an example of Hidden Syncopation is like for the first time listener to a song that utilizes it. That process is something like this:

1) You hear something which suggests a downbeat to you. Maybe you start bobbing your head or clapping.
2) Then you hear something new which sounds fine, it just adds context.
3) At a certain point, your hearing experiences some disorientation when context is added. A “new” downbeat has presented itself, and your ears struggle for a moment in confusion as they re-orient to the (same) timing relationships, but relationships that now sound totally different.
4) Your ears settle into the new downbeat, and you either realize Jonny did something amazing or you just felt disoriented momentarily, but are still rocking to the beat.

The reason the Hidden Syncopation (I keep capitalizing this because in my view it isn’t talked about enough) in “Videotape” is SO HARD to hear is because of the following:

Points 3 and 4 above never happen for some people. Without points 3 and 4 you never even hear it that way. Phil’s simple backbeat pattern (same as “Bodysnatchers” beat) in 2006 was been transcribed by a PhD student for me. His transcription indicated he heard the backbeat as… well… not a backbeat. What the band (I argue) hears as eighths, he heard as sixteenths, with snare hits emphasizing the “a” of 1 and so on, and so forth. It blew my mind that a PhD student of music also didn’t perceive it. “Am I crazy? Is this guy right? Did my original research and subsequent argument amount to mental gymnastics and absurdity—WAIT HOLD ON FOR A SECOND.”

Then I remembered.

I HEARD IT THE WAY HE DID FOR FOUR OR FIVE YEARS.

Read the full entry here - https://warrenmusic.xyz/2017/08/11/a-week-later-i-am-a-madman/

To me, “Videotape” is a masterpiece that is beautiful no matter how your ears hear it. And every way of hearing it is correct. I just think more people need to know how the band hearts it and the fact that musicians and non-musicians alike have discovered it too, either independently (possibly because they already listen to songs where this technique is employed? who knows, I asked them if they heard the 2006 version and they said no, they just heard the syncopation very quickly and they don’t know why), or with the help of an internet forum or video essay like this one.

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