Methods for pitch analysis in contemporary popular music: highlighting pitch uncertainty in Primaal's commercial works

TL;DR

This paper explores how Hyper Music manipulates pitch in commercial music to create expressive effects, emphasizing pitch uncertainty as a contrast to Western classical norms, and introduces analytical methods for this genre.

Contribution

It presents novel methods for analyzing pitch manipulation in contemporary popular music, focusing on pitch uncertainty and its psychoacoustic effects.

Findings

Pitch uncertainty captures listener attention.

Techniques include boosting upper partials and inharmonicity.

Methods differ from Western classical pitch organization.

Abstract

We identify characteristic features of how pitch is manipulated for expressive purposes by Hyper Music, a mainstream commercial music company specialising in advertisement music for global corporations. The study shows that the use and organisation of pitch in the company's `Primaal' brand differs from Western classical music. Through interviews with producers and in-depth analysis of their work, we reveal that their methods centre on a conscious aim to construct a musical discourse based on pitch uncertainty, contrasting with the clear transmission of well-defined pitches in Western classical traditions. According to the Primaal producers, who acknowledge the influence of artists such as Kanye West and Daft Punk and use widely available technology, pitch uncertainty captures the listener's attention. We provide analyses of musical excerpts demonstrating their approach, alongside descriptions of the tools and methods employed to achieve their expressive goals. These goals and methods are placed in a broader historical context, contrasting with fundamental principles of pitch organisation in Western music. Techniques used by Hyper Music to introduce and control pitch uncertainty include boosting upper partials, expressive use of inharmonicity, continuous pitch distributions around 'poles' tied to specific 'modes', and continuously evolving pitch. We examine these techniques from a psychoacoustic perspective, and conduct listening tests corroborating some of the observations. The ultimate goal of the study is to introduce a set of methods suited to the analysis of pitch in contemporary popular music.