Solving James Brown's Rhythmic Puzzle Correctly (A Response To Adam Neely)

[@12tone]

Get 20% off Hooktheory's interactive books and a lifetime subscription to Hookpad: www.hooktheory.com/12tone Some additional thoughts/corrections: 1) Fight me, Adam! 2) To be fair to Adam, he does give some indication in his video that he's considering elements beyond meter. He talks about volume near the beginning, and at the very end, as part of his strong-strong-strong reading, he mentions that "feel" is the highest pitch. So, like, he knows all this. He's just assigning a lot more weight to metric stress than I would, which is steering him in a direction that doesn't resonate with me. That's all. 3) That said, while it's certainly possible to read the quote I pulled at the beginning as separating out "metric stress" from a broader category of "musical stress" in order to allow for these other components, the context of the rest of the video makes that interpretation hard for me to justify. It seems very clear to me that his argument rests on the idea that meter is the primary driver of musical stress overall, to the point where the two can be at least roughly conflated. Otherwise, it's hard to see how this would be a clash between linguistic and musical stress in the first place. Just wanted to clear that up before anyone accused me of misrepresenting him. (Which I'm sure people will do anyway, but hey, at least I tried.) 4) I tried to keep my examples at least vaguely stylistically appropriate (except for the Prelude In C, where stylistic differences were the point) but I did have to go with the Green Day one because I needed something that didn't have syncopation in order to avoid falling under that explanation, and it's very hard to find funk/soul songs that both do this very particular vocal thing of creating an accent on an off-beat _and_ don't have any relevant syncopation. I knew Boulevard did it 'cause I analyzed the song previously, so I went with that. 5) Another potential factor here, which Adam does mention, is the melisma: Brown sings both "feel" and "good" in such a way that each syllable contains multiple notes, which also adds emphasis through motion. Adam discusses this as a metric component, since some of the secondary notes do land on beats, but I think it's probably more relevant from a melodic perspective. 6) On the pick-up thing, one could argue that, while the listener doesn't yet know the line is starting on beat 3, James Brown certainly does, and that may influence the way he sings it. And that's certainly true, but if that's the explanation we're going with, then including the metric position in our analysis feels like double-dipping. If he's singing it like it's an accented syllable, that should show up in his vocal delivery, either in pitch, dynamics, or some other sort of emphasis, and I don't hear that. Maybe you do. Again, all of this is made up. 7) One thing that I saw a lot of (mostly non-vocalist) theorists in Adam's twitter thread doing was arguing, as Adam does, that each of the syllables is accented but _in a different way,_ and I cannot stress enough how much that is not what prosody is. Prosody, as I mentioned, is a poetry thing that we borrow to talk about lyrics and, thus, vocal delivery. It is intrinsically tied to the words and how they are spoken, and it relies not on any single parameter, but on the amalgamation of parameters we collectively perceive as vocal accent, including volume, duration, and pitch. (Also, potentially, meter, if we're in a poetic tradition where consistent meters are a thing.) It's entirely reasonable to say that all three notes have some claim to some form of stress, but at that point you're no longer doing prosody. I didn't want to get into this too much in the video 'cause it seemed mean, but it was bugging me so I had to put it somewhere.

[@j.epstein7723]

@@kylej.d. lol

[@j.epstein7723]

@@kylej.d. good news

[@nickdaino8024]

maybe I'm totally out of context, but to my ears "feel" is clearly an anacrusis, therefore the accent is on the upbeat, it precedes the measure, and then you have another accent on "good", the first downbeat(new measure, new accent, the phrase "I feel good" kinda glues two measures ). my two cents, not so sure, but I think it is plausible

[@Copyright_Infringement]

As a linguist, I have a slightly unconventional question: _Do you speak Spanish?_ I promise this is related to the video. IDK if you'll actually see this, but I figure responding to the top comment is my best bet of getting an answer. I fully acknowledge that this is not my area of expertise (received some jazz training, just a hobby), but with respect to Boulevard of Broken Dreams, I find it exceedingly strange to say that the Eb gets the musical accent, when the C is right there next to it, accompanied by a strum of the guitar _and_ higher than the rest of the bar (save for Eb). It's how it sounds to me, at least. I know this was just one example of multiple, but this take baffled me enough that I had to go back and check that I understood you correctly. Similarly, for Neely's shifted-meter example: I find it strange that beat 3 of the second phrase can be interpreted as sounding weak, when it sounds to my ears as a "strong-strong-weak" sequence. Then, I noticed that the Grimaud example ended on a high note, and I got an ideä in my head: The common thread is that it seems as though you're privileging hightones as automatically having more stress than anything afterward that has a lower tone, even if the following syllable is also higher-pitched than usual. This is a feature of many pitch-accent stress systems, such as the stress systems found in Spanish, Japanese, or Greek (although there are exceptions). That's why I'm interested in whether you speak such a language, since it could point to how the languages we speak can influence how we perceive music. I could also be barking up the wrong tree, though. Regardless, great video, thanks for making it.

[@realraven2000]

6:28 listen to Glenn Gould's version. he plays the first high note staccato, the repetition tenuto.

[@AdamNeely]

Great video! I don’t really disagree with anything you say here - but of course here are some thoughts. 1. It bears emphasizing that there are many kinds of accent, and I was mainly concerned with metric. There’s also agogic (length of note) and dynamic (volume). I can’t say I’ve ever read anything talking about pitch height as a music form of musical stress, although I can definitely hear it that way. I imagine this might be a useful area to dive down at some point, because I do know linguists use pitch information to determine stress, but I don’t know of any music theorists. 2. I’m not sure if I really have an…”argument” in my video, per se. The whole thing started because I was writing a script for another video and I needed an example, and couldn’t figure out how I heard I Got You. I, well honestly, still don’t know how. I can hear it any number of different ways, and I’m not super convinced with any of them. The video was me going through a few of the options, and me getting mildly annoyed at all of them, ending on an option that doesn’t feel amazingly true, but at least funny. I definitely can hear your WSS hearing, but I’m so used to feeling the “rebound” off downbeats as strong that it’s hard for me to feel “I” as particularly weak. Maybe it’s a bass player thing? Dunno. 3. Being able to change how you feel a rhythm as it relates to an underlying meter is a useful skill in improvising. That’s why this question is interesting to me, because you can practice hearing it in many different ways. Listening to music is an active process, and actively changing the stress pattern in your own head is a great way of demonstrating that I think. 4. One thing that I only briefly mentioned in my video that you didn’t here was the fact that there are definitely more than 3 syllables. “Feel” is broken into two notes - G# and A, and good is sung mellismatically. I can definitely be made to hear the second syllable of feel as stronger than the first. I broke things into “linguistic” and “musical” stress because nobody would break “feel” into multiple stresses in the English prosody. Because we’re conditioned to think of it as one “unit,” that carries over to the musical analysis, but the acoustical signature tells a different story. The question is, does it matter? Maybe, maybe not, since we’re conditioned by the language that we speak to hear it one way, but if I was to play the melody on my bass, I’d hear feel as two syllables to more accurately map the melody onto my instrument. 5. I actually would love to do a “do-over” with my video at some point, because I kinda hit upon the broader thesis I wanted to get into way too late in the process. The main point is that the metric analysis put forth by Leonard B Meyer, and later Fred Lehrdahl with the Generative Theory of Tonal Music is amazingly useful for understanding rhythmic structure in the the common practice, but is absolutely terrible at dealing with syncopation. The paper that I highlighted in my video attempts to square that circle, but I think it fails for the exact reason you said - it’s attempting to make the music fit the theory instead of the other way around, by in some way correcting for the syncopation. I said it produced an analysis which felt “unmusical” to me, and 100% stand by that. The author of that paper was…uh…not happy with me for saying that. Anyway I think syncopation - at least in the way its done in popular music derived from the Afrodiaspora - just doesn’t work with the GTTM, and that bares more exploration.

[@bentleymusic03]

The sexual tension between you two is off the charts

[@RafaelAAMerlo]

Here at UFRJ our Graduate "Group of Rhythm Studies" we read some authors (including those of point 5) and had a great time with your video, Adam, among other things to see you raising so many questions we had in our conversations with that texts. I feel 12Tone kinda of "choose" one answer, but I in specific agree with what you said there and here (specially because of the other similar melodic lines in that song), and that raising the question (about this and what we do about music in general) is the point of insight that brings growth and deeper conscience about "solved" and unthought trivialities. Thank you =)

[@odd4231]

@@bentleymusic03 you’re not wrong

[@CORRDiesel]

Damn, I wish I could have energy to convey such serious disputes on the internet

[@user-uz7gb7gb4v]

Coming from the world of linguistics, I would like to just note that generative theory in general is quite useful in analysing many (linguistic, in my case) phenomena, but there are a lot of things that it doesn't capture, especially outside of the Eurocentric context, so it seems quite appropriate to me that you find it useful in understand structures in common practice but not, for example, music derived from the practices of the Afrodiaspora.

[@tempo2932]

James Brown: "I FEEEL GOOOD" Musicians: Damn, that's deep. let's analyze this.

[@PeterCamberwick]

Me: Where's my cringe hat?

[@tempo2932]

@@PeterCamberwick it's inside of you

[@VinceWhitacre]

Seriously, guys, it's ok. You can both be wrong. 💖

[@lamontmerrick]

indiana jones just blasts the guy with the knife right? no need for finessing shit.

[@corwin32]

This may be something of a violation of the exercise, but I hear “Feel” as the strongest point. Part of the reason for this is that I can’t hear the line by itself, and the further you got into “I Got You”, the more emphasis and flourishes Brown puts on “Feel”. I think the entire song answers the question from the beginning.

[@akareject]

This was my interpretation as well. Having watched both videos, I was frustrated that neither video analysis spent much time comparing the opening phrase to the rest of the song. James Brown doesn't say "I feel good" once. That phrase is repeated many times as "I feel good" or "I feel nice". Throughout the rest of the song, the emphasis is more distinguishable on "feel". The sense, as the listener, is that James wants you to "feel" what he is feeling as well. Good, nice, doesn't matter, as long as you "feel" what he is singing. I wish this area of analysis had been explored further, because I believe it would have been more fruitful. That being said, both videos are extremely well done and I enjoyed the thought exercise greatly.

[@ilcasdy5]

I heard it this way too. He trails off on good and it makes it feel very unaccented. Almost like he’s backing away from the microphone in that moment.

[@AlexandMaggie07]

Yes! And to that, I toast: We're all individuals from all over the place with experiences and biases amassed differently - as 12tone said. Great videos and a great way to spark discourse.

[@dinospumoni5611]

Yeah omitting the rest of the song is just an oversight from both videos. He repeats it a LOT.

[@crud118]

I completely agree

[@JoshuaPagan]

Optometrist: How's your eye doing? One eyed caveman: "Eye feel good."

[@doombird7977]

[unironic slow clap]

[@ahobimo732]

I absolutely love the fact that Adam and 12 Tone have now published nearly an hour of intense music theory analysis and debate, which has been viewed by thousands of people, and it's all based on a single line of a song that contains only three words and and is about 2 seconds long. This is why the internet is the greatest thing our species in has ever produced.

[@Nghilifa]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@lamontmerrick]

you think we didnt used to do this in cafes face to face over endless espressos and crackers?

[@ahobimo732]

@@lamontmerrick True, but the internet has made it into a legitimate profession. We've taken it to whole 'nother level.

[@losangelesnefastvs]

The shout at the beginning is the most stressed part of that intro. With James Brown, "the 1" is always the most important beat. It's like his thing.

[@drunkenfarmerjohn42]

Yeah. James Brown is a weird one to look at syncopation and accent on because of this. Both interpretations treat the shout as separate, but for Brown, it's the fundamental start. When you watch him live, you can even see him react when the band gets off. On the Album Live at the Apollo, there's a section of a song where he takes the band to task for it, even. You can't tell, because he treats it as part of the performance, so it sounds like he's preaching to the audience. But it's really for the band.

[@sierravanriel6906]

Yeah I hear it as WOAH, i feel good

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

In my specific dialect of Danish, in addition to an increase in intensity, we stress a syllable by lowering the pitch of the syllable itself and then heightening the pitch of the following syllable. So when Adam's video came out, I had the strangest experience: I had listened to I Got You way before I learned to speak English, so back then I would always sing and hear it as a dactyl; with stress on the first syllable. But since then, I must not have listened to it a lot, because when Adam played the clip, my immediate reaction was that it must have been a different recording, but no. My perspective had, simply by learning English, where stress is typically done in the exact opposite way to my native dialect, shifted the sentence from stressing that James Brown felt good to it just being a default statement without much emphasis (in which case there's usually more stress on the subject complement (good) in copula sentences). Just thought I'd share that weird experience.

[@marcotedesco8954]

That's so interesting!

[@noriakijayasekara7936]

@@marcotedesco8954 duidui

[@akmadsen]

Copenhagen dialect? There's more going on than just altering pitch. There's also dynamics/volume, and 'stød', which is a fairly unique feature (typologically speaking) for marking stress.

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

@@akmadsen Copenhagen dialect, yes. For the simple idea I was trying to convey, my comment was complex enough as is, so I narrowed in on the most likely reason for my switch in perception. However, I did address dynamics by mentioning "intensity", and my impression is that stød is only relevant to a discussion about stress perception insofar as it is mandatory in the material (like in imperatives). Yes, it can only appear in syllables that have phonological (secondary stress in a compound word) or actual stress, but I wouldn't say that it's necessary for stress perception since the reason it's even lexically relevant is the fact that there are non-occurrences.

[@skrowmedia]

I have a background in linguistics and have always had a particular fascination with transference phenomena between L1 and L2 (and further L2+). A similar experience I can share is, as a fan of hip hop, I used to listen to French rap before becoming fluent in French and I had always thought French rappers had "wack flow" - which is to say, their prosody poorly fit the rhythmic structure of the beat. Two things have happened over the last ten years or so: I can recognize where I was mistakenly applying English prosodic expectations to French lyrics, and, conversely, the influence of American rap music on hip hop around the world is such that some French rappers actually structure their lyrics in a fashion that more closely resembles English prosody. It bothers me that there isn't more cooperation between music theorists and linguists in scholarly pursuits given the obvious intersection between language and music.

[@toblexson5020]

Why only Strong and Weak? Why not Strong, Weak and Medium notes? I hear that "I" is weak, "feel" is strong, and "good" is somewhere in the middle, a "medium" note. If you think about how different ways of emphasis can add up, then it makes sense that you can get more than two results, meaning that there's a spectrum of strength.

[@blazerboy233]

The notion of "stress" in linguistics is a relative concept. It is a point in a word that is "prominent". How exactly that is realized is subject to great variation. So, there is a broader "sentence-level" prosody, relative to which these points of words are changed to add prominence (which can include raising/lowering pitch, amplitude, etc)

[@BonnibelLecter]

This is how I heard it as well, thank you. "Feel"'s indisputably the strongest part (to my ears) but "good" is also much stronger than "I." From a meaning perspective, I also think Adam's interpretation of emphasizing "feel" as being opposed to "Look" or "Being" was off. I don't hear Brown responding to something someone else said, I hear him emphasizing his experience of a feeling, since the song is about, you know, getting the girl.

[@TheGerkuman]

12-Tone's comment with further thoughts argues that if you go for anything other than a relitavistic strong-weak comparison it stops being prosody.

[@woulg]

@@TheGerkuman isn't prosody just the linguistic stress thing? I agree with op, musically there seems to be many different levels of stress and splitting it in two seems limiting. I also hear it as weak strong medium and I would add that the first syllable of feel is slightly weaker than the second (kinda like a ghost note on a kick drum?), but "good" also feels like the punctuation of the phrase. I think I also think of stress as where it might be nice to put a kick drum when writing a drum part. In my head I think of this as upward vs downward stress, the second syllable of "feel" is upward stress and "good" is downward stress. I guess it's kind of weird but using this upward/downward thing has helped me a lot when writing and thinking about music.

[@Whatismusic123]

I find I to be strong, feel to be medium, the first half of good to be weak, but the latter, when it falls on the beat, to be medium

[@matthewvreeke9872]

Could you please do an analysis of Kashmir by Led Zeppelin? It’s one of my favorites and it seems like it would have a lot to analyze.

[@TylerLandis]

Wow, we definitely hear things different. To say the high note in that Green Day passage is the most stressed syllable seems just flatout incorrect to my ear. What makes that high note interesting is the lack of attention drawn to it, "Lone" and "road" are the stressed syllables. You can hear Billie hit those syllables hard, and the fact that the transitional note is a high jump is what makes adds color to the passage, but he doesn't hit is nearly as hard as the notes around it, and it's not an important syllable lyrically either. Also you say "good" is both a strong stressed syllable, and that it trails off. I don't think a note that trails off and is kind of thrown away vocally is one of the strongest notes in the passage, I would argue it's even less stressed than "I". The "I" is a ramp up to "feel" and then "good" is thrown way. I haven't seen Adam's video, I don't know if that's how he heard it, but these are some baffling takes to me.

[@egegul6343]

I honestly agree too, both with the Green Day example and the rest, I’d argue it’s a strong-strong-weak pattern with an emphasis on the first syllable of “feel”

[@TheSquareOnes]

I heard "lone" and "road" as the accents as well, although I'd disagree that "ly" doesn't draw attention. I think part of what makes "road" such a strong accent is that "ly" actually creates a lot of tension by putting a noticeable high point on an off-beat, it generates a lot of energy with a rhythmic anticipation that releases into the natural backbeat. Definitely interesting how many ways there are to hear something though, really stresses just how subjective music is even at the surface level before getting into interpretations of meaning.

[@renerpho]

Agreed. I tried to listen to the Green Day line multiple times, and I can not get my ears to hear any emphasis on the high note whatsoever.

[@FinnbarrGoesFast]

Yeah that I disagreed hard with all of the stress examples, especially the green day one. Interesting to see something I took for granted perceived so differently

[@hitismeduh]

Yeah, that part of the video really threw me!! When he asked which part was stressed I pretty confidently answered “road” and then he was like “it’s the LY in lonely, right???”

[@diegoparra6918]

Did u know that adam neely plays bass? Gross. I can't trust that guy

[@hisham_hm]

What's really baffling is that the captions for the 12tone intro say "(tick, tick, tick, tick, tock)", when the last beat is the higher one in tone. I hear it as "(tock, tock, tock, tock, tick)". Draw me as a confused elephant too! :)

[@masterofdesaster5367]

that intro always confuses me

[@benfurst4501]

Maybe the binary nature of being either weak or strong breaks down in this scenario, and they're all "strong" in different ways (be it higher, more volume, longer, metric placement, ornamentation, etc.)

[@duncanrobertson6472]

YES. "I" has some growl (timbral stress), "feel" is high and long, and "good" has a stronger articulation (it's also the conclusion to the phrase). It's pointless to argue which one is universally more "stressed" because that depends on what kind of stress you value higher.

[@mihailmilev9909]

@@duncanrobertson6472 they are all stressed in different dimentions

[@MLHunt]

That's how I hear it too

[@wolfetteplays8894]

Strong accents exist, you know, and so do volume indicators

[@jakesmith9379]

Can't wait for Adam to comment "Great Video! Here are a few additional thoughts." and 12tone to pin the comment

[@jkid1134]

I FEel GOod. With a blank syllable after the I, it's essentially stretched all the way out to three trochees. I could go either way on whether it's it's a long GOod or a short GOOD, but "feel" is not one syllable here.

[@renerpho]

It's interesting that the number of syllables in FEEL could be a point of contention. Did you see 12tone's response to Adam's comment? Adam is more or less in line with your analysis, while 12tone argues (in point #4) that there are definitely not more than 3 syllables in the phrase: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZOudqSbbMuhpbs&lc=Ugz2LJ8_dtvOyL41g9B4AaABAg.9W47wzTvQbw9W8mGbH45fB

[@jkid1134]

@@renerpho Thanks for pointing me toward this! Adam disagrees with me about which syllable of feel is stressed, but frankly it feels like he's down the rabbit hole at this point. I think without much fussing, the part at the end of the word, with the schwa, is the unstressed part. I agree with 12tone that just because there are multiple notes there are not necessarily multiple syllables, but to my ear there are even multiple vowels in this delivery of feel.

[@MiloMcCarthyMusic]

I disagree, it’s more like “I feEl GOod”

[@jenova2239]

Linguistic emphasis in music is SO IMPORTANT. Growing up bilingual and wanting to hear Japanese versions of English songs and English versions of Japanese songs, it would always feel weird when there were emphasis on the wrong syllables. So brush it off as a separate thing from musical emphasis feels like (I dare say) a very western way to think about it.

[@ramblinevilmushroom]

In my ears, the "I feel good" is mirroring the structure of the "OWWW~!" as if it were one sound. We dont argue about what part of the "OW" is the stressed part because its one word, but we get confused about the "i feel good" because its 3 words, but to me its like hes singing it as one word so it doesnt sound like "i feel good." to me it sounds like "iefilgud".

[@jvaranx]

I hear the emphasis on "I" because he has a growl in his voice when he sings it, which is something people do when they try to emphasize a word. But I also get the other arguments. I think the disagreement comes down to how you define "emphasis". Timbre of his voice? Pitch? Rhythm? It's up to what each individual focuses on.

[@ClikcerProductions]

I hear the emphasis so strongly on the "I" because of the level of distortion he puts on it

[@wiesorix]

Interesting, the only thing I know for sure is that I don't hear stress on the "I". Guess this really is about different perspectives and different people hearing different things

[@KaiOwensDrums]

Yes, I agree, when there is definitely some form of timbral accent that needs to be accounted for

[@DF-we4pt]

I agree

[@miketate3445]

It literally sounds like this throat kicked on an overdrive pedal for "I". How can anybody hear the accent anywhere else?

[@kearnsguitars2236]

Adam didn't take a position in his video. He was giving justification for why people hear it differently.

[@Erickchicas]

wrong

[@heaththedrummer666]

@@Erickchicas wrong

[@ClikcerProductions]

For me the timbre supersedes everything else and I can only hear the "I" being emphasised. He puts a great amount of distortion on the I and then drops to a smoother tone for "feel good". I don't know about you but if I'm practically screaming one word and saying the others normally I'm emphasising the word I'm screaming, and to me that trumps any melodic or rhythmic stress when it comes to how I hear the language

[@johnrichardson3297]

Clicker Productions I argue for the emphasis on sensuality on good, feel thereafter/secondly. Octave variation…

[@codahighland]

I hear the point you're making but I interpret the sound differently. That's not a scream. That's a lead-in that hasn't reached full support yet. I'm not sure it technically is vocal fry but it's at least similar to it. It's growly because it's not emphasized ENOUGH, or at least that's how I perceive it.

[@hisham_hm]

12tone is really bringing on the nostalgia for the old days of KZbin and the Response Video feature (remember that??)

[@shinydino]

Remember to rate, comment, and subscribe!

[@Hundeputzmunter]

I simply love the idea that so much analysis and debate can come from how someone sang three words

[@markop.1994]

Idk how much this counts but when i try to sing "i feel good" like james brown its seems "I" has the most power. Like, "I" is an explosion "feel" is its tail and "good" is the conclusion and down beat. Second time around he says it different like "i FEEEEL good" which i would agree that "feel" is the accent

[@Whatismusic123]

I think "I" is emphasized the most, "feel" feels like a passing tone to "good" which at first is weak, but when it lands on the first beat of the next bar, it becomes strong.

[@alexanderpurkis3508]

2 minutes in and I find myself agreeing (in terms of feeling emphasis), since I also found Neely’s video a bit baffling. I thought about how I’d phrase the phrase (haha) on bass and I’d definitely almost ghost the “I”, bend the string and highly emphasize the “feel” and slide softlyish into “good”. But the fight isn’t over yet... Minutes later: And I especially agree about high note emphasis - especially since I use quite a a lot of perpetualish motion stuff in my own composition and I usually use the highest notes as a sort of emphasis, which is a great tool when playing with polymeters and such.

[@SAHanson]

For me it's always weak-strong-weak. I can't help but hear the "good" as a falling off which makes it sound like it's being thrown away. It also adds to the arc where the the first half of the chorus is about feeling and the second half is about what you're feeling (I don't think anyone would argue about the emphasis on the "So good" lines)

[@humicroav215]

100% the way I hear it, too. This song is about feeling. It's not a song about Mr. Brown alone ("I got you") and it's not a song about feeling good alone ("I feel nice"). The song is about his positive feelings due to a (presumably) romantic interest. Even the lines that don't include the word "feel" are referring back to feelings. "I knew that I would [feel good]"

[@zak3744]

Haha, I have always heard it the exact opposite! Strong-weak-strong. I've always liked the turnaround of emphasis in the subsequent repetition of the line where he stretches out the word "feel" even more (so that time it's weak-strong-weak to my ear). It sounds to me like he's going back and picking up the bit of the sentence he didn't focus on first time around, like a little clever little bait-and-switch surprise almost. *I* fe-el *go-ood* I knew that I would I *fe-ee-eel* good ... How or why those bits feel emphasised I'd have to leave to music theorists, but that's what it sounds like to me!

[@Whatismusic123]

I feel good as rising, because the latter half of it falls on the first beat of the next bar

[@gcewing]

To my ears, the linguistic stress is on "good". Although "feel" is held for longer, that just serves to build dramatic tension to further emphasise the "good". This also aligns with the metric stress, since "good" is (at least mostly) on the first beat of the second bar. At least that's the way I hear it -- I hadn't even noticed the syncopation until I saw it written down.

[@steve7745]

Arguably though, as a composer here, the end of a phrase/cadence is always naturally stronger as a moment of musical resolution. In terms of functionality within the idiom of R&B, derived from early jazz tropes, the rhythm of eighth, quarter, eight/any syncopated rhythm with a long note on an offbeat creates a stressed syllable, so I would hear it as " i / FEEL / GOod" (lowercase being unstressed, uppercase being stressed). But I do think that 12tone makes a really good point about the subjectivity of all this discussion, especially seeing how most of my argument comes from contextualization through a jazz theory lens

[@danielpirone8028]

Please pin Adam’s comment!

[@PEBelarus]

Just to put my two cents in, I teach English to Russian speakers and one of the basic nuances is the difference in syntax and the differences in culture that ensue. In English, most of the grammar falls on the verb, the verb's relationship to the subject and how actions connect to our present situation. Russian puts the brunt of the grammar on nouns and their relationships to one another and as a result have a spatially different understanding of the world. English grammar pushes people towards responsibility to move forward in life and Russian language teaches stasis and responsibility to other people. In this song, Mr Brown is speaking a specific style of English and representing himself as a proud black man answering a question about himself. He could have said "I am good" or "I am well, thank you for asking" to comment on his health or he might have talked about his business or life advancement, "I am doing well". But speaking as a black man, any "standard" answer would probably be about the miseries of perpetual systemic slavery, economic and otherwise and this is not what is interesting. To me, the clear answer is that the important word is feel. The verb "feel" describes the physical sensations and pleasures of the moment and this is the thing that moves Mr Brown. He is talking about trying to physically hold on to a very pleasurable sensation as long as he can. "I feeel good". He's got his friend with him and life doesn't suck for the moment and keeping this feeling going and squeezing every last ounce of juice out of what he's got is all that matters to the godfather of soul.

[@defenestrated23]

This squares with the next like, "I feeeeeel nice", where there is zero ambiguity where the emphasis is. The verse is also very blues-influenced, with an AA'B pattern, you say something, you repeat it with emphasis, then you say another thing related to the first pair. Actually that's interesting. The song is kind of *anti*-blues. Blues uses the template "I got/feel blue, . I feel blue

[@TimothyYshurakhuno]

That's very interesting but kinda sophistic and stupid ;) Russians don't much into that stasis or relations stuff. (im russian btw) That's not rare in speech that accents on a verb. And it's easier to achieve because you can rearrange the order of words as you like to put accents in right way for each case. I don't think that grammar teaches people. People adjust grammar for their needs. (and i don't think that James Brown feel slavery and think about it 100% his time but that's a different hard story im not into that stuff)

[@PEBelarus]

@@TimothyYshurakhuno Спасибо Тимоти. Вы можете позвонить мне в любое время, чтобы получить помощь с грамматикой и синтаксисом английского языка

[@TimothyYshurakhuno]

@@PEBelarus как мило, мне точно было бы полезно)

[@rmdodsonbills]

For whatever it's worth, I feel like you always open my ears to new ways to think about music, rather than tell me I'm wrong for how I've interpreted things before. It's one of the things I like about this channel. Also, I chuckled out loud at "he was cool with it; I hope he still is." That kind of dry, wry observations is another thing I like about this channel.

[@Packbat]

Is "feel" only one syllable in this? I read it as two syllables, with a schwa in there ahead of the L. Also, I agreed with the two-accent analysis - the first syllable of "feel" as the bigger accent and the "good" as the smaller.

[@garrettlittle4819]

I would pay a LOT of money to see MMA bouts with music KZbinrs

[@tanyanguyen3704]

Hahahhahha

[@austinfloyd2365]

Maybe a weird take, but for me, I sorta hear "feel" as two syllables (strong then weak, fee-uhl). My reasoning: I perceive the volume on the first half of the word to be much stronger/louder than the second half of the word. My overall perception of the (4 syllable) phrase: strong strong weak strong.

[@Cloiss_]

idk if you've seen Adam's video but he does go over the analysis of "feel" as 2 syllables

[@klikkolee]

I feel the emphasis on "I" and "feel", with "feel" being much stronger. "good" feels notably de-emphasized -- less emphasis than a word that merely isn't emphasized. A long note duration can make something feel more or less emphasized to me depending on the other aspects of the delivery. "Feel" is delivered in a way where the length enhances the other forms of emphasis, while "good" is delivered in a way where the length enhances the de-emphasizing aspects of the delivery, such as it trailing off and being much lower in pitch than "feel". A short duration can also enhance emphasis for some forms of emphasis -- such as in the word "I". The "I" is delivered faily harshly, and that combined with the short duration and fairly high pitch gives it a punchy percussive feel, like a snare drum. If you were to strip away all of the aspects of the delivery except those that would normally be notated in sheet music, then the emphasis would certainly feel like it is on "feel" and "good", but the other aspects of the delivery easily countermand that for me. It's worth noting that the more I watch your channel, the more I realize how different my experience of music is, at least by western standards (and I've always lived in a western country). I almost never feel an "underlying" or "implied" meter -- I usually only feel what is actually played. I feel rhythm as patterns of long and short, not as offsets of divisions. I feel a song as frequently changing its tempo by simple fractions -- multiply tempo by 2, then by 1/2, then by 3/4, then by 3/2, etc., despite it being a song that no person would notate as having tempo modulation.

[@MilesTippett]

I hear "I" feel "GOOD" With the emphasis on I and Good.... If you changed it to a four count, it would be ONE two three FOUR. Counting in this way feels the same to me.

[@RichSProducer]

I feel like this debate would make James Brown physically violent. He, in fact, would not feel good. 😅

[@hoikdini9263]

In Green Day's 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams', I just interpret the high note as setting up a cadence for "road" (vii-V), especially since '-ly' is not a stressed syllable in the word "lonely" [ ˈlōn-lē ], with "road" also getting emphasis in the duration of the note.

[@SimGunther]

The scream is the strong stress note and the shock that wakes up the audience to wonder; therefore creating a question for the audience "how you feeling?" without saying a word. "I" would be the medium stress that establishes an initial conflict since it kind of feels like he's still recovering from the scream. Finally, "feel"/"good" are both strong stress for the punchline of how he's doing after that shock in the first note.

[@violacola]

Maybe it's just me not having a background in music theory and not thinking about this in terms of music but instead in the same way I think about poetry, but this doesn't feel ambiguous to me at all. All three syllabals are stressed.

[@FinetalPies]

I hear the stress on "I" and the first half of "good" I've seen other people say that Good trailing off made them feel like it was de-emphasized, but to me the fact that good is being almost broken into two syllables made it jump out at me even more.

[@JustLilGecko]

Same. The distortion on "rrrrr-I" and the explosive sound of the hard g in Goo-ood (two syllables, first one stressed) makes sense to my ears too

[@shawnwhelan5689]

Absolutely. While high notes often do create their own emphasis, it sounds to my ear that he's deliberately emphasising the syllables either side of it (unlike when he later sings "I FEEEEEL good"). Strong-weak-strong. Meaning "I don't know about you, but *I* feel *good*."

[@dergitarrenlehrer952]

In my opinion and feeling, the anticipated beat 1, like on the word „good“, automatically strengthenes the accent. So I hear: i feel GOOD:-)

[@wiesorix]

Does James Brown even know whether he feels good, he FEELS good, HE feels good, he feels GOOD, HE FEELS good, he FEELS GOOD, HE feels GOOD or HE FEELS GOOD?

[@OscarMSmithMusic]

A very well reasoned discussion, I enjoyed this a lot!

[@duncanthompson957]

Pointless to leave a comment at this late stage, but I don't think you can divorce the lyrics from the beat and the melody. Taking the beat of I Got You (I Feel Good), it's a funk beat, which emphasises the ONE. Take for example the bass line from Billy Jean: DUM-dun-dun-dun, DUM-dun-dun-dun, DUM-dun-dun-dun, DUM-dun-dun-dun. And then consider the melodic "feel" of I Got You (I Feel Good). It has a blues feel (I woke up this morning, My black dog had died). Whereas Aretha Franklin's Chain of Fools has a soul feel (uplifiting, yeah, yeah, yeah, praise the Lord!) with soul's roots being in Spirituals (uplifting songs understandably 'complaining about'/lamenting being in slavery). So, consider the first line of Chain of Fools: "Chain, chain, chain...". It's melodically uplifting. Its subject matter isn't. Or lets consider the first line of Abba's Waterloo. "Waterloo!" It's all upbeat and cheerful. It's only when that song reaches its chorus that it all sounds doom laden... And then back to the plucky cheerful verses... James Brown's line "I feel good," is tinged with a blues feel. Does he really feel good? That's why it's difficult to find the emphasis lyrically, metrically, linguistically... because he wants there to be no specific emphasis, otherwise there would be no bluesy doubt. And it you don't think there is any doubt, why does he say "should" rather than "do"?!?! "I feel good, like you know that I do, yeah," versus "I feel good... like you know that I should, now..." Now? Does he *now*? No. He should, but he doesn't. Think about the Beatles She Loves You, in terms of its melodic feel. "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah!" Now compare that with I Got You sung with the same upbeat melodic feel: "I feel good, yeah, yeah..." Okay the line certainty diminishes on the second "yeah", but if sung like an upbeat Beatles song, the lyrics "I feel good, yeah..." sound happy and certain. Whereas, yup, James Brown's "I feel good..." is an immediate let down on "good". This is because the song questions whether he is deluded feeling good! (subtly, subtextually, unconsciously) Also it questions whether he should! SO from an ACTOR'S perspective -- which considers words in CONTEXT -- the emphasis is on the underlying (SUBTEXTUAL) meaning: the doubtful or questionable "good". The performance, in context, creates the true meaning. Is this happy James Brown just putting on a front? I reckon so, because he doesn't sing "good" he sings "go-ood" on a two note downwards motion. And thus, going back to the full context of (1) the funk beat: ONE-two-three-four, syncopated or not -- and (2) the blues feel to the lyrics, the *feel* (blues: oh woe is me) is contradicting or in contrast to the textual meaning ("my feelings are positive") conveyed by the lyrics -- they being the statement: . And that's how you create subtext! The subtext is always contextually, tonally, whatever IN CONTRAST AND CONTRADICTORY OF the text. Text, subtext. So... James Brown uses the funk emphasis on the words GOOD and SHOULD because that is what the song is about. Much in the way that in the famous Hamlet speech, the emphasis is on "to BE, or NOT to be," because he is thinking about committing suicide, so it's all about being: to *BE* and *NOT* being. So, in short: the emphasis, MUSICALLY, and thus lyrically (not dramatically, not narratively, not linguistically, but lyrically) the emphasis is DEFINITELY on GOOD! The funk beat tells us. The contradiction -- between (A) the blues feel and (B) the statement about his feelings -- tells us! Which is why both these videos shoot themselves in the foot by playing the lyric without the musical context. It can't be done. It won't provide the answer!!! {please vote this up, if you feel it has some merit, so that maybe one day it will be seen! }

[@SJ-oi7tk]

The "I Feel Good" phrase is pretty ambiguous stresswise, incorporating many elements of "emphasis" - punch, length, pitch, word choice - delivered and heard flexibly. And I'm guessing that's on purpose.

[@SudaNIm103]

REPOSTING MY COMMENTS FROM ADAM’S VIDEO: I’m not familiar with the correct semantics but To me it feels like two things are happening with respect to the emphasis of each word simultaneously that are seemingly in opposition to one another. I will refer to them as effect “A” and effect “B”. With each word the it’s as if effect A is modulated as “Short, Long, Short” while effect B gets modulated as “Big, Small, Big” and in a way offset each other; Ultimately the emphasis comes across as homogeneous yet still feels dynamic. At least that’s my impression. Though I think a secondary factor is the intensity of the “WHOAW!” at the beginning of the verse I feel it’s so “Big” by comparison my brains “emphasis resolution” is sorta temporarily diminished when listening to the to the rest of the following lyrics.

[@c0d3m0nky]

You need a Playlist of 'Fight me Adam Neely' videos Also, you need to make more 'Fight me Adam Neely' videos Sincerely, A 12Tone and Adam Neely fan

[@johnrichardson3297]

12tone could there also be an argument inherent with sampling from higher pitches to resample after post sampling down octave’s (/each time?)((Higher Harmony counts)) Ergo, watching some of Ricky Tinez works.

[@SavageGreywolf]

NEEERD FIIIIGHT I'm only kidding. I still need to watch Adam's video, maybe I should do that one first, but.

[@jamesdennis8290]

A: "HI! How ya doin'?" Mr JB: "I feel good!" As in normal conversation, Just an opening turn with normal intonation contour, no contrastive stress; but the instant before he responds he examines his heart and realizes what he expresses, thus the high pitch on "I". "[You know?] I feel good". That "I" has to have the upbeat, or whatever you music theorists call it. "good" has falling pitch, which indicates that that is the new information focus, but "feel" and "good" are pretty much equally and normally stressed, and there is no other stress difference (loudness, pitch or duration) other than the normal that would indicate a contrast. As in normal conversation, "feel" and "good" then get their own beats. But in general, I should think that what the jazz singers call "phrasing" and the matching of the prosody of the lyric to the melody would be a problem of great interest to anybody who has listened to different versions of the same song by different singers.

[@paullebon323]

It could be any of the words depending how you hear it. I can make myself hear it different ways.

[@AmandaKaymusic]

4'30" 13 month old baby Brought me an unexpected laugh after a long midsummer day. Thank you Cory. Aways appreciated.

[@DoctorLazertron]

You lost me at boulevard of broken dreams - he’s saying LONEly not loneLY. It would sound like the emPHAsis is on the wrong sylLAble if the high note was where the stress was.

[@musamusashi]

The shout which falls on the one of the pickup bar and (secondly) the drums hit on the two is where the accents actually are. It's the same pattern the drums, bass and, to a lesser degree, the other instruments follow and it's a staple of JB's music and of Funk altogether. Check out the Godfather himself or many of his great alumni as Bootsty Collins or Fred Weasley explanation of the concept that was later further emphasised by P-Funk's "everything is on the One".

[@shineyourlight2875]

Yehushua is King and is coming soon. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is hand. John 3:16 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him Matthew 3:2 Love You🤍

[@SIQN-]

I let out an audible cackle when you said Adam was wrong. That said, I’m glad to see this discussion happening. For me, the emphasis is on “good” with an occasional ALSO emphasis on “feel”… but, “good” would be the “important” word to my ear, and reasoning why goes to the line right after… “I knew that I would”. He feels GOOD and knew that he would.

[@SIQN-]

Someone mentioned “nice” in the comments… and I still stick with the last word of the phrase “I feel ____” because the next line always rhymes with it (good/would - nice/spice), and to me… that signifies the importance of that word in the phrase. Again… it’s all subjective, but I feel that those are the important words in those phrases.

[@drunkshinx]

I think this is a very interesting question because all the notes have different ways in which they are strong and weak. The "I" has metric stress but not note length or pitch stress. The "feel" has note length and pitch stress but not metric stress and the "good" has note length but not metric or pitch stress. Personally I hear the "I" as weak, the "feel" as strong and the "good" as somewhere in between

[@pentalarclikesit822]

I also hear the stress on "feel" and then less so on "good." But to me, it feels almost like a resolution in pitch rather than key. Since feel is sung louder, with more growl, and at a higher note, it gets the stress from the "tension" that then releases with "good" being back at "home" with the other notes. I think it's even more clear that way in other parts of the song, especially in one of the later ones (after "My love can't do me no harm") where he *really* grinds into that "feel". To me, though, you have to include the scream as part of the line as well. If you asked 100 people on the street to sing that opening, 99 of them are likely to do it as "Wah! . . . I feel good." Extending the rest in the vocals where the drum hit is, because that is the what causes the stress and drama in the line.

[@robertoriggio117]

One thing that seems to be lost here is that the D at the end of the phrase occurs before the downbeat, which is silent. :) Here’s something else I’d love to hear music theorists argue about: Is the song “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac in Lydian on F or Aeolian on A? I hear it as Aeolian on A, which makes the whole song rather remarkable because it only goes to the A minor chord in the guitar solo bridge. The rest of the song is F to G. But, to me, F does not feel like “home.” It feels like it’s creating expectation, but never getting to where it’s going, never finding “home,” which actually suits the sentiment of the lyrics quite well.

[@ZipplyZane]

I just feel like one aspect is being left out. And it's the one aspect that that is left out. "Feel" sounds louder than the other two words. Only "feel" both starts and ends at full intensity. "Good" trails off, and "I" has some build up and is a lower pitch that he sings slightly quieter. I also note a lack of something that I feel is essential in the analysis: the fact that this phrase repeats and has variations. It seems to me that you kinda need to compare them. No one hears that first phrase in isolation. We hear it as the first of many times the same thing occurs. In fact, that's where I hear the accent on "good." That's the one lyric that changes. When he later sings, "I feel nice!" the lyric change draws your attention. And I think that retroactively adds emphasis to the word "good." What I hear is a weak "I", a primary stress on "feel," and a secondary stress in "good." And the fact that there are two levels of stress in English (including English poetry/prosody) is the third thing I think you missed.

[@ZipplyZane]

I also note that neither of you quite notate it the way I would. I think Adam has it right that "feel" is two syllables on two different notes. However, I think "good" is a single note with a fall at the end. If I would notate the ending pitch at all, it would be with a little grace note to show where the fall ends, rather than as if "good" had two distinct notes. And if I did use two notes, I'd still have the F go across the bar. The D is only barely touched--hence why I hear it as a fall. It's the same fall I would do by accident in choir when I first started. I naturally would fall to that tonic (or occasionally dominant) if the phrase seemed to end early.

[@tomchristie3199]

'Feel' is the accented note imo. He sings slightly softer on 'good' plus the notes descend, and 'I' is the same note as 'feel' but staccato hence feels less emphasised too. Also why not use contextual information from later in the song - the second 'I feel good' in the verse has 'feel' stretched even longer - and then later he extends the word 'feel' even more on the transition from the bridge back to the verse (it lasts for about a whole bar then!) Both Adam and 12tone fail to consider the song in its entirety. Why focus in on only the first acapella instance of a phrase which actually appears like 30 more times throughout the rest of the song? It's also super arbitrary anyway - the statement 'I feel good' is so obvious in its meaning - any variation in emphasis makes very little difference to the sentiment.

[@MrDavidBHarris]

yeah, could not hear it like Adam, seemed to be way to academic, with expectations of emphasis, not actually hearing the music as it was performed. Syncopated funk is all about anticipations and delays, purposely moving emphasis off expected hits. I think "feel" is the most stressed, based on pitch and length . "Good " sis distinctly falling off, both in pitch and in volume.

[@teamcyeborg]

*I FE*el *GO*od Though really all of them except the very last one sound basically equally stressed

[@ramanspeedballof930]

"Adam isn't wrong but also Adam is wrong" That's KZbin for you all

[@amnongravenmur9024]

Omg why are you punching down on the tiny, obscure KZbinr Adam Neely.

[@bro-rubro]

for me it's both "i feel" like he's saying "i feel" very strongly, as he is always feeling something, and it resolves in "good" as a good answer. today, and now, HE'S FEELING good. i think if he said "i feel bad" in the same way it would be the same interpretation: "he is always feeling" but now it is *this*. i don't feel that he's saying "i feel" with weak stress because it's the focus when "good" is the result. if the stress was on "good" i think it would even open the interpretation to "i can feel things well". "I FEEL good" (he feels = good) versus "i FEEL GOOD" (i can touch things and feel (sense) them very well) and "i feel GOOD" (same as above OR one interpretation like "he can feel THE good") this 3 last interpretations are really exagerated, please don't attempt this at home don't read my comment i'm dumb

[@jonathanguthrie9368]

That's the emphasis pattern that I hear, although I'm not sure that's how I would interpret what it means the same way.

[@radgiraffe5519]

"He probably did that to avoid an unnecessarily long tangent" Oh boy here we go again...

[@stephenmccarthy1795]

Early on Adam did say that in spoken English, pitch is one way to emphasize a word. But then he never went back to that point when discussing melodies. I was baffled by this. He demonstrated that the three words were equally loud, but then missed the point that a higher pitch could compensate for that, making‘feel’ sound louder.

[@ajuister]

How do you request a video on this channel? I’d love 12tone to break down some Tool

[@BrokenMonocle]

In terms of gut feeling, the strong syllable is either that "WAAA!" at the very beginning, or they're all strong.

[@luisporto98]

I finished this video and came back because I just couldn't believe you drew Duolingo when saying "taking lessons" at 6:40

[@SunroseStudios]

our interpretation is that all the syllables of the opening line could be interpreted as "strong" syllables", but "feel" (we were hearing it as "been", oops) and "good" are the strongest

[@jacobgutierrez864]

Love your perspective on theory analysis as simply a different perspective and not “The Truth”

[@sebastiancardenasholik]

I feel wrong.... I thought that I wouldn't I feel fool I knew that I would...

[@ehrichweiss]

It just hit me that it's likely "feel good" that's emphasized because it's followed by "I knew that I would". Knew that you would what now? Feel good. Look at it as a Jeopardy question. "James Brown does this in his song "I Got You"" "What is "Feel good", Alex?"

[@kristijanpete4473]

the physics drawings today... the Feynman diagrams? the equations? i love you

[@armstrong.r]

The sheer variety of perceptions in this comment section is evidence to your point that there is no correct way to hear things.

[@btat16]

I hear it as 5 notes “I fe-el go-od” with the strong accent on the “-el” and a weaker one on “-od”

[@thomasarth2458]

I actually hear a stress on "I" because of the glottal stop that comes before pronouncing that word. Then, although "feel" goes up to a high note it feels to me like there's a lift there, less stress. Then I feel stress again on the landing on "good."

[@XuQifei]

12tone I think you completely missed the point of Adam's video. Honestly most of the criticisms here were just misunderstanding of the original video.

[@mr.z9609]

One way of creating emphasis on metrically weak beats that you didn't address here is the idea of taking away an accent from a strong beat and giving it to a weak beat. Think of Smooth Criminal. We THINK the syncopation comes from the strong note on the + of 4. But in fact, it comes from the omission of any note on the following 1. If you keep the + of 4, but repeat the same note on 1, the syncopation effect has essentially been neutralized. MJ's drummer omits beat 1 in every other bar for the whole song. That's no coincidence. It's because if he played it, it would ruin the effect. I'll say it again. Syncopation is created when an accent is taken away from a strong part of the beat and given to a weak part of the beat.

[@billyshakespeare1696]

When he says “I feel nice, like sugar & spice,” feel sounds like several syllables at one point in the song. That right there tells you which words he’s playing with.

[@JeremyNasmith]

Only if you listen to "I feel good" in isolation is there any uncertainty at all in my opinion. The second phrase clearly has its accent on "... would" of "I knew that I would", the highest note in the melody, held for the longest, and falling on the same point as "...good" in phrase one, the "and" of the final beat 4.....But it's not the "and" of beat 4, it's the "and" Before beat one of the next bar, a "stab", accenting beat one by anticipating the downbeat. This "stab" pattern of accenting by anticipating happens a bunch more times, until finally emphasizing the "....You" of "I got You", the title of the song. I feel GOOD, cuz I got YOU. You make me feel how? Good.

[@marinaa.8192]

funnily enough, from my experience and background as a non-native english speaker/musician, i perceive that line as being divided into "micro-syllables" (if that makes any sense?????). to me, it sounds like James Brown sings "I FEel GOod", emphasizing "I", "FE" and "GO" as individual phonemes rather than the single-syllable words themselves. maybe it's the way i perceive language, idk if this makes sense to anyone else.

[@DrStabkill]

I think it helps to think of I-feel as a single word then it’s really just two parts and it’s easier justify the I as the accent when it’s combined with the feel. Trying to choose between the two doesn’t make sense to me musically or otherwise

[@dogbiscuituk]

Stress isn't binary. Wake me up when you get to that.

[@peabnuts123]

My gut feeling agrees with WSS and I committed to it at the start of Adam’s and your video. However I can totally hear SSS if i imagine myself “playing” it in a musical context, considering the “WOW!” and the drum hit, it really can sound like a lot of emphasis on the “I”. My personal conclusion would probably be that as a song it’s probably SSS but as a standalone piece of vocals void of all context it’s WSS. The context-free interpretation carries more weight than usual because, as suggested in this video, the beginning is ALMOST void of it.

[@elliottie3592]

i wrote a song. your feedback will mean a lot🥰

[@iurigrang]

One thing that I can’t get my head around in both videos is that both of you agree there’s no dynamic accent in “i feel good”, Adam points to the waves, and they seem around equally “tall”, but come on. And I just can’t shake the feeling that “good” is sang with a lot less “woomth” than the others, the reason it doesn’t sound softer is compression (both vocal compression and compression the production effect). It has less vocal distortion, it sounds airier, it has more vibrato, but not the controlled “I am so powerful” vibrato, rather an uncontrolled, weak vibrato, so in the end James used pretty much all dynamic resources that he had that were not volume to deemphasize good. I definitely tend to hear things overall similar to the way you describe in this video, I hear a “total musical accent” on “Feel” as well as “Good”, but I definitely hear a “dynamic accent” on “I” and “Feel” a lot more than I head on “Good”, it’s just not enough to overide the rest of the things you said.

[@stephenspackman5573]

Thanks! I was a bit baffled by Adam's video, too. From my own perspective (which I suppose leans more to the linguistic than the musical), what happens is that the phrase sets up for stress on “feel” but then recovers to stress on “good” by performing a specific “tune” (this one characterised by pitch scoop and extended tail). And… I immediately need to explain that by “tune” here I mean not a musical phenomenon _per se_ but the (at least in English, though perhaps less in standard-educated-White-American English than many other varieties) very common and much under-regarded linguistic one of the lexicalised suprasegmental side-channel-the thing that lets you refer to a funny sketch or an in joke, or that lets you evoke a celebrity impression, without actually repeating any of the words. It's an important thing!

[@IchEsseKonsolen]

When you used the gravitational wave interferometer as a drawing for "I just don't see it", I thought alright that's pretty cheeky. But when you drew a Feynman diagram for "all the different possibilities" I knew for sure you're a huge nerd! And I love it.

[@timhall7771]

Thank you! I had struggled with Adam's analysis - not least for the point about it being a pick-up - so I found this helpful. And totally understand that there's no right or wrong, just different perspectives!

[@mateusbez2669]

You kids, just can’t stop fighting.

[@agcummings11]

Pausing at 1:37, hear “feel” as the strong syllable

[@emmettmeehan3331]

I think one of the reasons for the Green Day example showing stress on “ly” is because people tend to push high notes, especially when there’s a leap. It’s something that classical or music theater vocalists have to work at, to maintain dynamic control over a wide melodic range (choirs too). Billy Joe is a long-time vocalist, but he doesn’t have the most controlled voice. That doesn’t mean bad (I like it), but that can result in more of a dynamic accent than was intended. That doesn’t mean artistic intent reigns supreme, but I think it’s an important detail when considering stress.

[@shiningarmor2838]

I always heard “I feel good!” as one single interjection.

[@gabrielhicks8043]

Before watching, I think "feel" is the only strong word here. Just because he holds it the longest and because the phrase peaks in pitch at "feel" and then valleys down to "good". It sounds like he's saying "i FEEL good" to me rather than "I feel good" or "i feel GOOD"