2 A different approach entails recognizing a pitch’s salience, as distinguished by factors such as repetition, metric position, and formal position: what Charles Smith (1986) calls presentational tonality. 1 Similarly, centric orientation can be based on an overall diatonic collection’s intervallic content using a method Richmond Browne (1981) calls position finding. For example, one can attend in time to dominant-tonic relationships established through functional harmony and root movement of fifths. When listening to pop-rock music, a listener can employ several different strategies in order to identify a centric pitch class that represents their perception of the music. Keywords and Phrases: popular music, rock music, centricity, tonality, perception Suggested Citation Introduction Allowing for a “thick” interpretation of a pop-rock song’s pitch center not only celebrates pop-rock’s oft-cited tonal complexity, but also the overlooked complexity of the listening subject. I use a variety of listening strategies and analytical methods in order to demonstrate and justify multiple centric interpretations that emerge when a listener compares a single instrument’s projected center with others in pop-rock songs. Adapting Robert Bailey’s term “double-tonic complex,” I refer to songs that exhibit multivalent centers as “multi-centric complexes.” Through several examples I demonstrate how different instruments-such as lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, or bass-can present their own, sometimes competing, centers. In this article, I explore the availability of multiple pitch centers in pop-rock songs that emerge from the application of what John Covach has called “positional listening.” I demonstrate how different methods of listening and analysis have a drastic effect on our interpretation of a song’s pitch center.
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