Ben Folds Five Three Six

In the introduction to Dr. Nathaniel Adam’s 2011 dissertation on Radiohead’s OK Computer, he defines what he calls a “musical signature,” using an example from Ben Folds’ melodies:

Some musicians, composers or performers have a specific musical signature, like a theme, gesture, or technique; for example, there is a certain vocal gesture used by singer-songwriter Ben Folds (most notably on his early records with Ben Folds Five) that tends to occur at the ends of phrases (scale degree 5 falls to 3, and then leaps up to 6). It may seem like a coincidence, […] but in Ben Folds Five’s cover of the Buggles’ classic “Video Killed The Radio Star” […] Folds interpolates the 5–3–6 gesture at the end of a phrase that, in the original version, was simply a repeated dominant tone.

It’s a controlled experiment. You take a song without Ben Folds, then add Ben Folds to it, and measure the difference. What emerges will be a distilled element of Ben-Folds-ness.

Here’s what The Buggles sing in Video Killed The Radio Star:

Transcription of the line "and you remember, the jingles used to go."

And now Ben’s version:

Transcription of the line "and you remember, the jingles used to go."

Originals

Dr. Adam does not specify which of Ben Folds’ original songs contain this gesture. Here are the ones I’ve found so far.

Kate:

Transcription of the line "gather round and sing the guitar."

Fair:

Transcription of the line "and he stumbled through the yard."

Julianne:

Transcription of the line "bein' awake never felt like this before."

Where’s Summer B.?:

Transcription of the line "hey Summer, where ya been?"

Video:

Transcription of the line "I remember when misery thrilled me much more."

Eddie Walker:

Transcription of the line "they pick you up and you keep falling down."

If you define the signature a little more broadly, there are more examples. For one: in Mitchell Lane, Ben sings the same interval pattern (descending minor third, ascending perfect fourth), but starting on the tonic instead of the dominant.

Transcription of the line "habit isn't bliss."

Harmony

There’s no single harmonic context where this pattern always appears, and it functions differently in different songs.

  • In Fair and Eddie Walker, the 5-3-6 is sung across a boundary between two chords, such that 5 is a chord tone in the first, and 6 is a chord tone in the second.
  • In Kate and Video, it’s sung over the ii chord, so when it lands on 6, it doubles the fifth of the chord.
  • In Video Killed The Radio Star (V), Julianne (V), and Mitchell Lane (I), the first note in the sequence is the root of the chord, and the last note is its ninth.
  • In Where’s Summer B.?, 5 and 6 are also both chord tones, but over a single chord: IV with 5 in the bass. It’s also cleverly located on the seam of a switch from the key of E minor to E major, so that final 6 becomes the new 1.

So while it’s possible to rationalize its appearance in any given case, it seems like Ben reaches for this melody in a variety of unrelated situations.

Why

Why does Ben Folds do this? Do any of his predecessors or contemporaries use this sequence? Do any post-Folds singers do it in imitation of him? These are open questions which may someday be answered.


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One response to “Ben Folds Five Three Six”

  1. VLB Avatar
    VLB

    It also appears to be 5-5-3-6 in all those examples. I will never not hear this now when listening to Ben!