[3] Defining a phrase in terms of the breath seems intuitively correct for popular music: it is, after all, the voice that most
often defines the melody in a pop song, and the melody that most often defines a phrase. However, such a definition has its
limitations. The taking of breath is often manipulated by the performer for musical effect, and may also be influenced by the
performer’s degree of vocal training. Such a definition also omits the role of instruments such as lead guitar in creating
phrases, particularly in solo sections; and omits the consideration of exclusively instrumental songs, rare in the popular music
repertoire but still existing in sufficient numbers to warrant consideration. Most problematic, however, is that definitions that
rely exclusively on the breath as phrase determinant ignore all the other musical features that can combine to create a phrase,
musical features that are equally important in defining musical structure.
[4] One of the most important of these neglected elements is a sense of directed motion. In common-practice art music,
directed motion is essential to phrase structure, as William Rothstein has famously advocated. In his Phrase Rhythm in Tonal
Music, he defines a phrase as “among other things, a directed motion in time from one tonal entity to another; these entities
may be harmonies, melodic tones (in any voice or voices), or some combination of the two. If there is no tonal motion, there is no
phrase” (Rothstein 1989, 5).
[5] Rothstein’s strong emphasis on tonal motion may not be entirely suitable for popular music, where cyclic harmonic
progressions, expanded harmonic vocabularies, and groove-based structures often result in a very different harmonic
idiom.
(3)
But his definition still holds potential for the analysis of phrase rhythm in popular music, as is evident from a more
recent consideration of phrase in popular music. In Walter Everett’s The Foundations of Rock, Everett names the cadence as the
goal of the phrase, and indeed, the feature that defines and classifies the phrase itself (Everett 2009a, 135).
[6] However, tonality is not the only musical element that can create a sensation of goal-directed motion. Closure can be
created in the lyrics, with the end of a grammatical clause, phrase, or sentence; or with the use of a word that is important in
the overall rhyme scheme. Harmonic progressions establish goals through the use of conventional functional progressions,
but also with their repetition as part of grooves that define basic formal units for the song. Rhythmically, a long duration
following several short ones creates a sense of a goal or resting point, as does an actual rest itself. Finally, melodic contours
that present a sense of departure and return (especially the arch shape) also create directed motion.
(4)
Thus, I define a phrase
in popular music as a musical unit with goal-directed motion towards a clear conclusion, created through the manipulation of
text, harmony, rhythm, and melodic contour.
[7] With an adequate definition of phrase, not only does it become possible to describe typical phrase types (open, closed,
etc.), but larger considerations of phrase rhythm and song structure are also clarified and deepened. Phrase rhythm in
popular music, as Jocelyn Neal (2002) points out, is based on the structure of the phrases themselves, as well as the
interaction of phrases with the hypermeter of the music and the poetic structure of the text (29). Song structure, on the other
hand, concerns itself with the overall formal layout of a song, from macro- to micro-level.
(5)
This can include the way
motives are combined into phrases, the arrangement of phrases into larger groups (for example, using an antecedent-
consequent structure), and larger-scale issues of form and function.
[8] This paper will test the effectiveness of my definition of phrase and begin to explore larger analytical issues of phrase
rhythm and song structure through a case study of the music of Sarah McLachlan. While other authors have discussed
McLachlan’s unique contributions to popular music in terms of her harmonic vocabulary and feminist stance (see Koozin
2008 and Burns 2005), in this instance I am interested in McLachlan’s music for its similarities to other artists. Like countless
other popular musicians (particularly those in the pop singer-songwriter tradition of which McLachlan is a part), McLachlan’s
music features a vocal melody foregrounded against a relatively unchanging instrumental backdrop. What might be derided
as a simplistic texture instead brings a necessary clarity to the exploration of the relationship between vocal melody and
instrumental accompaniment, and to the consideration of the numerous musical elements that create phrases themselves.
I. “Drawn to the Rhythm”
[9] Example 1 shows the verse of McLachlan’s “Drawn to the Rhythm,” diagramming the basic phrase structure. In this and