To quote an interesting insight from youtube comments as to why the melody feels so different:
stefanxgc said:
Alright. This song has been stuck in my head since it came out, largely because of the relatively experimental opening. What makes it especially interesting is the metrical dissonance used from the beginning until the chorus starts. In short, there are competing meters until it's relatively stable at ~1:25. Though it begins with 4 bars of an unproblematic 4/4 four-on-the-floor kick, the next four bars add a counter-rhythm that plays against (though is still within) the framework of common time. But the rhythm of Marine's singing doesn't adhere to this structure. Not only are the phrases irregular (I count her opening as 11+9+8+(5+1) against the four-on-the-floor kick, for instance), they're also syncopated (off the beat [not unusual in pop songs, but this is moreso than is common]), as well as frequently elided-overlapping--so there isn't a rhythmic cadence that clearly ends on a strong beat on a consistent measure until about 1:01 which I hear as a repeated 3-4-1- on 交代だ (the repeated "koutai da"). But this is shown to be "wrong" when "Please Mr. Silence" (プリーズ、ミスターサイレンス) comes in (1:11) as a pickup 3-4&-1 with Silence falling on beat 1 and starting the "true" measure (but which contradicts my perceived 3-4-1 of koutai da). But the point of the opening of this song is literally to disorient the listener so that there isn't a consistent and obvious meter. I.e., there are layered meters which make it difficult to say if there's a "right" answer. That's what makes this song so hypnotizing! There are even sections of the opening that adhere to some sense of 4/4 for a bit, but they're inevitably disrupted. Anyways, if you want to bob your head along, this is the counting structure I came up with for the beginning: (intro) 8+8, 8+8, (Marine comes in:) 11+9+8+(5+1), 3+4+4+4+5+(8+3), (lots of normal 4s!) 4+4+4+4+4+4+8, 3+4+6+4+7+(4+3), etc. Parentheses indicate elisions where (to my ear) the end of one section overlaps with the start of another. Might be some typos, and again, a lot of it isn't exact based on the kick, but this should help you internalize it if you're interested in this.
|
