When one thinks of rock, the sound that likely comes to mind consists of loud distorted guitars, incredibly large drum sets, and a singer who is impossible to understand without google. Math, on the other hand, is pretty cut and dry. It’s the study of numbers, relationship, structure, and change. Math and rock likely seem to be on completely separate spectrums of thought, but if you reach far enough, you might find they have more in common than you think. For example, drumming is just creating a rhythmic pattern and maintaining it throughout a song, changing it to create different tones, but not affecting the tempo enough to ruin anything. The way that standard tuning works on a guitar is in intervals of 5. With alternate tunings, you can even change the relationship between the strings to create an entire new way to play. With a desire to make these rhythmic and melodic patterns as complex (but digestible) as possible, a subgenre of rock, math rock, was conceptualized.
Math rock, however, was never really conceived. It was more happened upon by experimenters in the rock scene. Bands in the 90s such as Slint, Drive Like Jehu and Cap’n Jazz are credited for initiating the math rock movement. A lot of fundamental methods commonly adopted by many people were polarized in those bands. However, the genre would not be recognized by most people until some newer 2010’s bands would begin to incorporate some more mainstream musical concepts, whether they be lyrically or tonally. Some bands credited for bringing Math Rock back into the spotlight are TTNT, sports., and Mom Jeans. One band, however, American Football has proved the most effective at popularizing Math Rock. Although they were active in the 90s, it wasn’t until 2014 until their 1999 self-titled album finally took off. They were so popular that many other bands named themselves to parody them, such as Chinese Football and Modern Baseball. The cover of American Football’s first album even became something of an underground meme for connoisseurs of the rock scene. What all these bands were doing differently than the older 90s bands is experimenting not only with the methods of making sound, but also the overall tone itself. By trying to add in emo themes, prog rock themes, and perhaps even some techno themes, these bands could easily relate to a new audience. Due to math rock’s experimental nature, the history of math rock isn’t linear at all. What can be definitely said is that math rock started in the 90s, was tweaked on throughout the years, and had a resurgence into the 2010’s.
While the history of math rock is vague and hard to follow, the sound that math rock produces is distinct from virtually any genre. Most every math rock song will have 2 things in common: there’s an interesting tuning/method of playing the guitar, and an abstract rhythm/ time signature. Of the two, I believe that the guitar is more interesting. Math Rock bands have very creative ways of getting new sounds out of the guitar. The most common style of guitar playing is tapping, which is a finger-style where instead of plucking or strumming the strings of the guitar, you tap at certain frets along the neck to create a melody. Some genres use this finger-style here and there, but in Math Rock, it is prominent in nearly every song. The control on each string allows for a very rapid, but concise series of notes. This style has gone as far back as the 19th century and was used in jazz pretty predominantly as well. Tapping, however, is only one half of what makes the sound of guitars in Math Rock unique. The other half, is of course, the tuning. Rock in general, or any genre that uses guitar is very loyal to standard tuning. It’s generally believed that standard tuning can do anything if you are a skilled enough guitar player. Sonic Youth had some Math Rock sounding bits, but all their songs were in standard! Because of this, some people attribute alternate tunings to a lack of skill. However, I don’t believe that is true. With a medium like music, there’s no way to tell what sticks without doing a little bit of experimentation. If standard tuning was the only way to play guitar, there wouldn’t be as much freedom to tune as there is on every guitar. Although it’s pretty hard to recognize when an alternate tuning is used in a song, it most likely affects the way these artists write. Instead of thinking within the lines of standard tuning, they can likely create whole new tunings to fit a certain song’s vibe. This genre has one more very important factor that works in tandem with the guitar’s alternate tuning/tapping finger-style combo: it’s speed.
The very nature of math rock is experimenting with every nook and cranny of what other music would consider standard or good sounding. One of those things is speed. Usually, a song’s speed is a dead giveaway to what genre it belongs to, however math rock tries its best to not be defined by a single speed. In a math rock song, it’s time signature may be ⅞, 11/8, or 13/8, and change throughout. It’s this rhythmic complexity that helps define the genre. The time signature isn’t the only thing that affects a song’s speed though. Another huge faster is the style of drumming. Drums in Math Rock songs vary wildly, but when they’re used, they’re usually pretty fast and complex. What matters most in this genre is how well the guitar and the drums work together. When the drumming is complex, then the guitar has to match in complexity as well.
In all honesty, Math Rock isn’t as complex as I, or some others, make it out to be. The entire goal of math rock is to make a very intricate sounding song. Math rock isn’t comparable to an orchestral song with a single composer managing dozens of instruments. It has more to do with playing around with one assigned instrument until something sticks. There is certainly something admirable about taking creativity past the levels of the norm by altering the very medium they’re expected to bend to. Standard tuning could probably easily mimic the math rock sound, and just using 4/4 time wouldn’t affect the tempo that much. However, this whole new style of rock wouldn’t have been discovered hadn’t it been for creative people trying to push the envelope for music.