Cadences in Electronic Music & EDM

[shockenkleid]

hey, hope everyone is surviving Corona lock down. I was just wondering if anyone knew how cadences are treated in electronic music. is it the same approach as classical music or is it applied differently? For instance, in EDM a song doesn't usually end after 8 or 16 bars, more so it just continues. Are cadences even relevant to the genre??

[Stamped Records]

It's a complex question.

There are a few different types of chord progressions.

Static, which is often used in verses and in the "flat" portion of an EDM or dance music track. This type of progression rocks back and forward between two chords before the second chord eventually gives way to an "opening" in the music. Something like, I, IV repeated a few times and then the IV might lead to a V (starting the chorus).

The other two types of chord progressions (that I know of) are chord progressions that start on I, or, end on I. So I, IV, V is the first kind, and IV, V, I is the second kind.

So far that's all cadences but music uses substitute chords (iii for I, ii for IV and so on) and the way to understand it in a more simple way is to convert it to it's simplest form. So in a way, although true theorisists will probabaly disagree with me, everything is cadence as long as it's not atonal and it doesn't just use substitutes of the I chord (vi or iii).

I found this a really good resource for some good chord theory.

[jancivil]

cadence does not necessarily mean resolve on a I. V-vi may be what is known as a deceptive or incomplete cadence; a cadence may land on V, a half-cadence it's called.

"everything is cadence as long as it's not atonal" yeah, no, that is pretty disagreeable.

[KBSoundSmith]

hey, hope everyone is surviving Corona lock down. I was just wondering if anyone knew how cadences are treated in electronic music. is it the same approach as classical music or is it applied differently? For instance, in EDM a song doesn't usually end after 8 or 16 bars, more so it just continues. Are cadences even relevant to the genre??

I'd like to propose a more kinesthetic means for you to understand cadence, so that you don't get bogged down by the stylistic norms of any particular genre of music.

When you are speaking, or singing, etc, what do you do every few words? You stop briefly and take a breath. Depending upon the structure of the thought you are expressing, you will vary how long of a pause you take, as well as vary the degree of finality.

• Sentences can be short.
• Sentences can be a bit longer, with a comma separating sections of the total structure.
• Sentences can sometimes be significantly and unnecessarily longer, with a comma separating sections of the total structure (and perhaps a parenthesis -- or hyphens -- interrupting and extending the overall length of the structure).
• Sentences can also sometimes be significantly, unnecessarily, and incomprehensively longer, with a comma separating sections of the total structure (and perhaps a parenthesis -- or hyphens -- interrupting and extending the overall length of the structure...sometimes with the addition of the Internet colloquial usage of ellipsis or, stylistically, introducing further structural elaborations by the addition of a word or words set within commas).

An so on.

The point here is that ultimately a thought, regardless of length, is marked by breathing patterns in order to delineate structure and points of emphasis. In language, the markers for breath are things such as commas, periods, question marks, etc.

So, my suggestion here is that instead of trying to think exclusively in terms of traditional harmonic patterns, instead ask yourself "Where is the music 'breathing' and a new thought (or related thought) being expressed, and what musical elements are being used (and how) to create that sensation?"

[jancivil]

The term cadence in the OP is the specific case of an harmonic cadence in western music, but lacking the modifier 'harmonic'. So as far as thinking about music as language it may be thought of in the more general sense of cadence. 'the rhythmic flow of events'.

[Shabdahbriah]

^^^ that ^^^

[jancivil]

for once I was succinct, isn't it

[Stamped Records]

cadence does not necessarily mean resolve on a I. V-vi may be what is known as a deceptive or incomplete cadence; a cadence may land on V, a half-cadence it's called.

"everything is cadence as long as it's not atonal" yeah, no, that is pretty disagreeable.

I covered that under substitutes.

[jancivil]

you're trying to make a definition so vague as to meaning it vanishes as a definition.
the heart of the words definite, definition, is finite. to define something is to limit it to a useful meaning.
if everything is a cadence, nothing is. this is truly basic in discourse.

[shawshawraw]

I covered that under substitutes.

Honestly speaking, if you really are putting V-I and V-vi in the same basket, you're missing way too much fun in music

[jancivil]

I guess this should be explained or clarified for the general readership, the waters were made muddy and opaque now.
(which is a stone drag, regresses and bogs down the discourse)

The original goalpost/the term, is harmonic cadence. A cadence in this aspect signals a break in the musical sentence, going with KB's analogy, whether it's a semicolon [eg., V to vi] or a period [eg., V to I].
Different to this is a vamp, let's just say I to IV, I to IV, I to IV some more, I to IV some more again & we keep going.
There is no period, there is no semicolon, there is no comma, even, there are just these two objects kind of statically like a pendulum back and forth; the point is not harmonic function, the point is to give a ground over which we act, usu. melodically.

There is no cadence. It doesn't do the thing. In terms of the meaning of the word essentially, or in terms of the musical definition in the original enquiry.

There is no language that will make that a cadence. Now, if at some point in time we for example hang on IV for longer than our regular duration, we can talk about cadence in the general sense. An harmonic cadence has not occurred.

[shawshawraw]

I appreciate it, Jan!!

[Stamped Records]

I covered that under substitutes.

Honestly speaking, if you really are putting V-I and V-vi in the same basket, you're missing way too much fun in music

I ain't, I just try to make my answers relevant and understandable to the op.

[TribeOfHǫfuð]

Rhythmic cadences notwithstanding, cadences are something I particularly associate to choral harmonization, where their function is to end a period and signify a new beginning, pause or a final end. There are various cadences according to styles and modes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadence

I see no reason but to call everything else in modern music chord progressions (except "turnarounds", which is the preferred term in Jazz) though there can be favored ways of ending or verse in Rock and Pop too, cadences, if you insist, but hardly that formalized. Just leave such old terms to museums like me and go chord progression instead.

[fmr]

Rhythmic cadences notwithstanding, cadences are something I particularly associate to choral harmonization, where their function is to end a period and signify a new beginning, pause or a final end. There are various cadences according to styles and modes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadence

I see no reason but to call everything else in modern music chord progressions (except "turnarounds", which is the preferred term in Jazz) though there can be favored ways of ending or verse in Rock and Pop too, cadences, if you insist, but hardly that formalized. Just leave such old terms to museums like me and go chord progression instead.

Calling a cadence "formalized" is funny. And since ANYTHING can be a chord progression, we will end in a mud where anything means everything and nothing at the same time.

You'd be surprised at how "formalized" your "modern music" (whatever that means) is, if you care to analyze it with some knowledge.