Over and Over : Exploring Repetition in Popular Music

From the Tin Pan Alley 32-bar form, through the cyclical forms of modal jazz, to the more recent accumulation of digital layers, beats, and breaks in Electronic Dance Music, repetition as both an aesthetic disposition and a formal property has stimulated a diverse range of genres and techniques. From the angles of musicology, psychology, sociology, and science and technology, Over and Over reassesses the complexity connected to notions of repetition in a variety of musical genres.

The first edited volume on repetition in 20th- and 21st-century popular music, Over and Over explores the wide-ranging forms and use of repetition—from large repetitive structures to micro repetitions—in relation to both specific and large-scale issues and contexts. The book brings together a selection of original texts by leading authors in a field that is, as yet, little explored. Aimed at both specialists and neophytes, it sheds important new light on one of the fundamental phenomena of music of our times.

 

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“What is repetition in music? A stutter. What is repetition in music? A technique. What is repetition in music? A changing same. What is repetition in music? A form, a necessity. What is repetition in music? A place to lose yourself, the world. What? What is – what is – repetition in music? Read over Over and Over, over and over, to find out.”
Benjamin Piekut, Associate Professor of Music, Cornell University, USA
 
“Scholars, students, and musical practitioners will welcome this fine collection, which brings together both luminaries and exciting newer voices to investigate repetition in popular music. Offering insights from a broad range of disciplines and methodologies, Over and Over will serve as an indispensable guide to understanding one of the most debated and misunderstood aspects of the art.”
Mark Katz, Professor of Music, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
 
“A concise, provocative, and engaging collection of essays exploring one of the most pleasurable (and most maligned) characteristics of music. From stutters to loops, and compositional forms to cutting and pasting, the authors cover a range of approaches and perspectives to enrich our understanding of musical repetition.”
Matt Brennan, Chancellor’s Fellow of Music, University of Edinburgh, UK
 
“A critically important work of outstanding collective scholarship . . . Very highly recommended for college and university library Musicology collections.”
The Midwest Book Review
 
“[Richard] Middleton’s core assertion—that repetition is productive and creative, that it adds meaning and is worthy of analysis—guides a dizzying array of responses from the contributors.”
The Wire
 
“The various contributors present convincing readings of their chosen areas of focus . . . On the whole this is a useful and much needed addition to the literature.”
Popular Music
 
“An important musicological collection that addresses repetition head-on . . . The editors are to be commended for opening (perhaps reopening) the debate on repetition, directing attention to this matter most intricate and integral to so much music.”
Rivista di Analisi e Teoria Musicale