A Few After 'Eights'

Given the atypical composition of yesterday’s ‘Challenge 69’ instalment (which I hope helped whet your appetite for the gradual unravelling of the ‘mystery’ during the second half of the story) there are, accordingly, no songs or artists referenced, providing none of the usual raw material for a chapter soundtrack.

While I suspect many of you may be cheering that news, there are, conversely, a few readers who I know, from their feedback, are devotees of the book’s playlists. So to avoid them needing to suffer any withdrawal symptoms …

… I tried out a Google search on, “the best middle eights in pop music,” which prompted a surprisingly high number of returns. From those sites, I have chosen eight of the songs (it just had to be done!) which they championed as being ‘classics’ of the form.

The resultant playlist comes in at a very compact, and extremely listenable, twenty-nine minutes.

It won’t come as a major shock that I have always been a bit (over) occupied with how the ‘perfect pop song’ is structured, and (while never quite sure who first decided that it should be this way, or why!) find it fascinating how so many ‘popular’ songs follow a similar, pre-determined pattern, as laid out below:

Whether you refer to the musical joker in this pack as a ‘middle eight’ or a ‘bridge’ (as Taylor Robinson, whoever he may be, has termed it), the same basic questions remain. Why is it there? What purpose does it serve? If this is never the part of a song you find yourself humming, or singing along to, then what does it add?

The descriptor I used to head up yesterday’s ‘teaser’ chapter, as it felt perfect for the way the section deliberately disrupts the normal story flow, was that the ‘middle eight’ is, “intended to break up the simple verse/chorus structure and introduce an element of surprise,” and I guess that same argument applies in song …

… where an uninterrupted repetition of the same verse/chorus structure, however catchy, might sound less compelling without throwing something different into the mix to vary the flow.

Our mysterious ‘middle eight’, it seems to me, is perpetually fated to be ‘the bit you don’t remember’, while simultaneously, and ironically, becoming the catalyst for the whole song ending up more memorable!

So take another listen to the eight examples above (or another pop song of your choice), marvel at how they simply wouldn’t be the same without their enigmatic ‘breaks’, and then please join me in raising a glass to the pop songs’ much misunderstood, often overlooked, best friend …

… “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the ‘middle eight’.”

PS. Normal ‘C69’ service will be resumed with the release of ‘Track 12’ on February 25th.