Reaction to the meanspeed music conjecture has come in three basic forms, with readers/listeners opining that the hypothesis is:
a) an irrelevance because music tempo is simply that, it “is what it is” as they say in the vernacular of our time, yet predictive correlations of tempo to emotion is the stuff of castles in the air, pies in the sky, and the day a black person is elected president of the United States;
b) an interesting concept, yet not endorsed by enough people with authoritative enough voices to make you check the hypothesis as a *maybe*;
c) a tool you can use to turn your old music into a new musical tool of sound greenery, in that you have found that being able to control your personal velocity, or, synonymously, your preferred speed, or put simply, your mental rhythm, of that day or even that moment, which is violently easy*now that you phone provides you with any of 100s of free metronome applications which work in a silent mode and now vibrating mode (well, some Japanese phones have this option, and soon the iPhone will follow) , allowing you to play the music in your head, set your own attitude.
Meanspeed-Carlton Summary based on the Newman scale, shown below -
trials averaged=12
beats per trial=338
rhythm=4/4 time, quarter note getting the beat
mean time per trial=134.5 seconds
mean speed/median velocity/average tempo=150.8 beats per minute
average beat=398 milliseconds per beat
From the industry’s standard–The Rolling Stone, a short accounting for the composition of and the [non]-reasoning of how the song came about. Did the attitude, which does not go over well Steve Wilkos – “yeah, yeah yeah” start a tone of speaking that continues now, usually Yeah yeah yeah as interchangeable with “Whatever!”, most importantly pronounced with a disdainfully arrogant if hollow, accent on the second syllable “whaaaat-eeeeeeeeeehhhhhhVER!”–as if to say: I create my own truth, get out of my face, in a mocking sing song manner.
Written by: John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Produced by: George Martin
Released: Sept. ’63 on Swan
Charts: 15 weeks
Top spot: No. 1
Like “Help!” this song kicks off with the chorus at Martin’s suggestion. George Harrison dreamed up the spot-on harmonies; Martin found them “corny,” but the band overruled him. When McCartney’s father heard the song, he said, “Son, there are enough Americanisms around. Couldn’t you sing, ‘Yes, yes, yes,’ just for once?” McCartney said, “You don’t understand, Dad. It wouldn’t work.”" The full article can be located at
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6595909/she_loves_you.
Ian Andrew Schneider
November 16, 2008
updated 2/28/06this is a revision of an article published by the meanspeed music company, July 3, 2007
