Melody

Like melody in general, rock melody is understood to have a hierarchical “grouping structure,” with sub-phrases combining into phrases and then into larger units. A fundamental issue in rock melody is the alignment of melodic groups with meter; while “beginning-accented” groups are the norm, “end-accented” patterns and more irregular patterns also occur. Patterns of repetition—pitch and rhythmic repetition, as well as rhyme—are also important aspects of rock melody. Rock melody sometimes shows independence from the underlying harmony, a phenomenon known as “melodic-harmonic divorce.” Of particular interest is the use of the 3 and flat-3 scale degrees, which are sometimes used in rock melodies in close proximity; related to this is the issue of “blue notes,” notes which fall between the cracks of conventional chromatic-scale categories.