Panic! at the Disco, “Impossible Year”

Phrase and Hypermeter in “Impossible Year” by Panic! at the Disco

by Emma Morini | March 16, 2021

The concept of phrase and phrasing is often talked about by musicians. Singers train to breathe in ideal places to avoid breaking up a phrase, pianists shape their melodies to move the phrase forward, and string players utilize bowings as one of their tools for creating smooth phrases. Similar examples apply to all instruments. In terms of vocal music, however, many think of phrases as being defined in terms of the taking of breath. In her article, “Sarah Setting the Terms: Defining Phrase in Popular Music” though, Robin Attas challenges this definition and argues that it has limitations. Such limitations include the fact that “the taking of breath is often manipulated by the performer for musical effect, and may also be influenced by the performer’s degree of vocal training.” Furthermore, she states that this definition actually ignores all other elements that are central to creating a phrase, such as a sense of directed motion, which can be created through tonality, harmonic progressions, rhythm, and melodic contours. Attas also mentions the role of hypermeter, the structure of the phrases, and the poetic structure of the text in establishing phrase rhythm in popular music. Furthermore, she examines song structure in popular song, which is concerned with the overall layout of a song. Overall, Attas’ article tests the effectiveness of this definition of phrase, exploring the role of song structure, phrase, and hypermeter in popular music.

Robin Attas’ definition of a phrase, “a musical unit with goal-oriented motion towards a clear conclusion, created through the manipulation of text, harmony, rhythm, and melodic contour”, certainly seems more accurate, and it holds for a much wider variety of genres and instruments than a definition based on breath alone. The validity of this definition can be seen in many examples of today’s popular music, such as ”Impossible Year” by Panic! at the Disco.

Touching on Attas’ exploration of song structure, this song is a very unique example in that it does not follow the regular verse-chorus song structure seen so much today. In fact, it is almost solely made up of verses. Verse continually comes after verse, the only distinguishing factor between them – excluding some small, negligible changes in rhythm – being their key. Each verse modulates at the beginning of its first phrase. Through this harmonic motion, the song moves through the cycle of fifths, beginning in F major, then moving to B-flat major, then to E-flat major, and finally settling there until the end of the song. This can be seen in Figures 1, 2, and 3 below.

The first change the listener finally hears in the structure comes after the third verse, where Brendon Urie deviates into a sort of bridge, followed by an instrumental interlude which follows the same structure as the previously sung verses, and finally moves into some brief fragmentation before the song ends with a lingering chord.

The structure of this song, while unusual, is most likely very intentional. The lyrics speak of an “impossible year” – a year so difficult and fraught with obstacles that it seems like it may never end. This is reflected in the structure, including the harmonic structure, of the song. The first reason for this is that the constant repetition of the same verse form, albeit with different lyrics, creates a sort of monotony in the song, the same way a difficult and unpleasant year may seem monotonous and never-ending. This never-ending feeling caused by the text and rhythmic structure is reflected in the harmonic structure and is the second reason why the meaning of the song is reflected in its form. The modulations through the cycle of fifths keep the song from being stagnant, giving it that goal-oriented motion that Attas illustrates in her article. This motion, however, never actually reaches its goal. Each verse seems like it is moving towards some sort of climax, harmonic or structural, but the song suddenly ‘resets’ when the next verse is simply repeated in a different key. This structure keeps the listener engaged and feeling like the song is moving forward, but the lack of a climax and the ‘resetting’ at the end of each verse make it feel like the music will continue on infinitely. This is also due to the nature of the cycle of fifths, which the song thoroughly utilizes. One could keep cycling through it infinitely, never arriving at a conclusive landing point. By moving through the keys in this fashion, the song maintains this cyclic feeling, emanating once again the feeling of an impossible year that seems as if it will never come to an end. Furthermore, this feeling is exacerbated by the fact that the song never truly reaches a conclusive cadence or climax. Even when the singer breaks off into the bridge, followed by the instrumental interlude, there is no such cathartic moment. This section is then followed by some fragments reiterating the earlier lyrics in the verses, and the song – while it ends on a final chord – sounds like it simply trails off as the chord lingers and distorts over time, as heard in the recording.

It is also relevant to point out the role of dynamics in creating the goal-oriented motion throughout this song. As the harmonies modulate, the dynamics also increase in intensity. This, in combination with the modulations, builds mounting tension in the music that drives it forward and creates an expectation of an arrival which, as mentioned earlier, never comes. Also, when the singer comes back in after the instrumental interlude, the dynamics are soft, making the singer seem defeated, barely attempting to struggle against the tide. It also emphasizes the lingering quality of the music once the song concludes as this soft dynamic directly follows an intense, loud section of brass-led melody. This fragmentation and sudden change in dynamics can be seen in Figure 4.

Here one can truly tell that the phrase structure, and the singer, has broken down. There is no more harmonic progression through the cycle of fifths, no new lyrics as the singer just repeats what was said earlier, and no more full phrases. The song is over and the singer’s energy has been spent.

Another aspect of “Impossible Year” that defines the phrase rhythm and structure is the hypermeter. One can start to analyze the hypermeter of the song by looking at the structure of the verses. Each verse starts with a two sixteenth-note pickup and is made up of a four-bar phrase followed by a five-bar phrase. This fifth bar in the second half of each verse creates irregularity and rhythmic interest in the hypermeter of the song, which is easily analyzed by counting each of the aforementioned bars as a hyperbeat. So, each verse is made up of nine hyperbeats: a four-hyperbeat phrase followed by a five-hyperbeat phrase. The second phrase in a verse, to be precise, does not take up the entire fifth hyperbeat. Instead, it bleeds into it, and the next phrase, while it ‘officially’ begins in the next bar or hyperbeat, has its pickup at the end of this same bar. This irregularity of the extra bar, diverging from the typical evenness of phrases, is made regular in this song as it occurs without fail.

Also, the measure preceding each fifth measure (or hyperbeat) in the second phrase of each verse, is in 2/4 time, in contrast to the 4/4 time that the rest of the song is in. This gives a sense of rushing to finish the end of the phrase in order to have some space, or breathing room, in between the end of the current phrase and the beginning of the next. An example of this can be seen in Figure 5 below, which displays the first verse of the song. Here, each hyperbeat is illustrated by a blue box, with the number inside the box representing the hyper beat number in its hypermeasure. The orange box highlights the 2/4 bar, while the green box highlights the fifth hyperbeat. Furthermore, the phrases are illustrated by the yellow brackets above the measures.

Here is a condensed representation of the phrasing in the first verse:

Phrase 1

There's no sunshine

This impossible year

Only black days and sky gray

And clouds full of fear

~~~~~

Phrase 2

And storms full of sorrow

That won't disappear

Just typhoons and monsoons

This impossible year

Moreover, the hypermeter for the section of the song shown in the above example can be illustrated by a diagram in the style of the examples in Attas’ article, as seen in Figure 6 (see the article for an explanation of the notation).

Through this notation it is apparent that some forward motion which shapes the phrases is also created through the rhyming scheme in the text. In each phrase, there are two main rhyming words, such as “year” and “fear” in the example above, as well as internal rhymes, such as ”typhoons” and “monsoons” in the second phrase of the first verse. The internal rhymes occur very quickly, speeding up the rhyming pace and accelerating the forward motion of the phrase. The outer rhymes, however, serve to anchor the two phrases together. This is because the second outer rhyme in the first phrase of a verse also rhymes with the second outer rhyme of the second phrase in that same verse. This gives each verse in the song a sense of cohesiveness, and it adds to the song’s goal-oriented motion and phrasing structure by making the listener expect another rhyme in the second half of the verse to match the one in the first half. The rhyme scheme also never changes in the verses, adding to the monotony of their structure but also building tension and expectation when a break from this scheme does not occur. An illustration of this rhyme scheme as seen in the first verse is below in Figure 7. The outer rhymes within each phrase are coloured orange, the inner rhymes are coloured green, and the outer rhymes corresponding between phrases are underlined and bolded.

As seen through this analysis, Robin Attas’ definition of phrase certainly holds for the analysis of Panic! at the Disco’s “Impossible Year”. This definition serves a better purpose here than a breath- based definition as the phrases have relatively large pauses, and therefore breaths, in the middle of them. The sections before and after these pauses are clearly connected, but if one were to analyze this song with the definition of phrase in terms of breathing, it would not make much sense. Using goal-oriented motion created by the harmonic movement, melodic shaping, dynamics, and hypermeter in the song, however, creates a much stronger sense of phrasing throughout the musical piece and it depicts its overarching structure more accurately. While the song does not have a definitive ending and the phrases never sound conclusive, meaning that the goal-oriented motion never truly reaches its goal, this does not take away from its effectiveness or phrase structure. The song has a constant force driving it forward, created through harmony, melodic contour, text, and dynamics. This, as mentioned earlier, serves to highlight the meaning of the song’s lyrics, and it does so very effectively. Therefore, the goal-oriented motion of the phrases clearly defines them as such, creating phrases that successfully convey the singer’s message.