The Age Old Question: A Podcast for Music Fans · Rich Price and Clint Bierman

What Is The Greatest Song Outside of 4/4 Time?

August 7, 2023·47 min·3 clips

John Carpenter wrote and directed Halloween, then scored it in five-four to make it feel uneasy.

Rich Price opens with Miles Davis and the idea that time sits at the center of music. Clint Beerman joins him in framing the episode around meter, not just tempo. They sketch the basic shape of 4/4 for listeners who may not know the terminology. The point is straightforward. Most popular music lives there because it is easy to play, easy to dance to, and easy to recognize. From that base, they move into the appeal of songs that do not land where the ear expects. The tone stays casual and curious. They bring in smart people to help push the answer past personal taste alone. One of the clearest examples is John Carpenter's *Halloween* theme. The hosts talk about how its odd meter helps build dread. They also point to the minor sixths and the relentless 16th-note pulse as part of the same uneasy effect. The arrangement and the meter work together. That makes the music feel suspenseful even before the picture does much of anything. The conversation briefly widens into a larger point about how music changes what we feel when we watch a scene. That leads to a comparison with another film-music discussion they have had before. Another major pick is "When Your Mind's Made Up" by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from the *Once* soundtrack. They describe it as a song in five that does not sound odd just for the sake of sounding odd. Instead, it swells with beauty while keeping its off-balance pulse. Hansard's vocal performance keeps climbing and adds to the emotional force. The hosts keep circling back to the tension between technical structure and plain emotional pull. Their arguments are quick, supportive, and sometimes a little sideways in the best way. The episode keeps moving through banter, examples, and small discoveries. By the end, it feels less like a lecture on rhythm and more like a live conversation about why some songs stick because they refuse to sit still.

As heard by us

A lively odd-meter discussion that keeps the theory tied to how the songs land.

Odd time signatures are the hook, but the real draw is how Rich Price and Clint Beerman make meter feel usable instead of academic. The discussion starts from 4/4 as a familiar anchor, then moves into songs that feel unsettled or unexpectedly beautiful, with John Carpenter's…

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Why you'd press play

You want the odd-meter debate without losing the conversation.

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