History Main / UncommonTime

* PinkFloyd's ''Money'' alternates between 3/4 and 4/4 bars much of the time (and throws in a 5/4 bar for a good measure).

* "Modern Man" from [[ArcadeFire Arcade Fire's]] "The Suburbs" has something screwy going on, it's just hard to tell exactly what.

** "Lateralus", the title track from the same album, is another example. The bridge has the drum parts played in 5/8 while everything else is in 6/8.
** The main riff of "Vicarious" is also in 5/4.

* {{Vienna Teng}}'s ''Harbor'', which is in 5/8 when it's not in 6/8, 3+ 3+ 2/8 (which is sounds the same as but is technically ''not'' 8/8) or 7/8.

* Many, ''many'' progressive rock bands do uncommon time signatures; the best examples this troper can recall are "Siberian Khatru" by {{Yes}} (13/8, for most of it) and "Tarkus" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (10/8 for at least two of the segments).

* ''FinalFantasyVIII'' used 5/4 time for its normal combat music.
** Additionally, the chocobo theme from FinalFantasyVII was in 5/4, swung.

* Coldplay's song "Glass of Water" is written in 7/4 time.

** Not to be outdone, the main chocobo theme in ''FinalFantasyVII'' was primarily in 5/4 ''in swing'' (which is basically equivalent to 15/8).

NOTE: A pattern of several different time signatures (such as 3 bars of 4/4 and one of 2/4) are not usually combined and called by the combined time (such as 14/4 in the example given). Such things are silly in actual music theory, where it's simpler to just have to different time signatures. Combining them has no purpose other than confusing any musician who tries to play it. So although unique combinations of time signatures are UncommonTime, don't try to combine them into something like 28/4. It's just silly.

* {{Vienna Teng}}'s ''Harbor'', which is in 5/8 when it's not in 6/8, 3+ 3+ 2/8 (which is ''not'' 8/8) or 7/8.

* The Mahavishnu Orchestra's "Birds of Fire" off the album of the same name is in 18/8.
* The standard pattern of the NineInchNails song "March of the Pigs" is three bars of 7/8 followed by bar of 4/4 time -- effectively a 29/8 time signature, if you were to condense the pattern into one measure.

* A very common verse pattern in country music is essentially 14/4 time: i.e, each line is two 4/4 bars, a 2/4 bar and another 4/4 bar. Randy Travis' "If I Didn't Have You" is a good example.
** Similarly, Outkast's "Hey Ya" uses a mix of 4/4 and 2/4 to achieve 14/4 time (three 4/4 bars, a 2/4 bar, and two more 4/4 bars, spread over two lines.)

* The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2jdMqH9j0M Nippius level]] of ''JazzJackrabbit'' has... I'm honestly not entirely sure what time signature it is, because it's a {{MOD}} file, but however it breaks down, it adds up to 14/4.

* Polyrhythm by Music/{{Perfume}}. The bridge has 5:8 and 6:8 (vocal parts) over 4:4 (the drumbeat), then to 3:2 after the vocal 'hiccups'; the low synth has a 7:6 polyrhythm. It was such a radical song for what is essentially an [[IdolSinger Idol Group]] that the company initially requested that the bridge be cut altogether. The song's composer (and RecordProducer) Yasutaka Nakata saw that the song was allowed to stand as is (although a radio edit version was made in concession), and it became Perfume's first top ten hit.

** Not to be outdone, the main chocobo theme in ''FinalFantasyVII'' was primarily in 5/4 ''with a swing'' (which is basically equivalent to 15/8).

** Not to be outdone, the main chocobo theme in ''FinalFantasyVII'' had constantly changing meter, but was primarily in 5/4 ''with a swing'' (which is basically equivalent to 15/8).

* ''FinalFantasyVIII' used 5/4 time for its normal combat music.

* L's Theme from [[DeathNote]] is in 27/16 time.

* {{Meshuggah}}, much like Tool (who they have toured with) love this trope. They tend to do go into BeyondTheImpossible with it, with the drummer playing 4/4 and 23/16 simultaneously, while the guitars go along in 17/16.
** Which song would this be?
*** Possibly "New Millennium Cyanide Christ".

In music, the most encountered time signature is 4/4, boring old CommonTime. There's also 2/4 and 2/2, "cut time," which aren't too much different - all the bars still divide evenly into two. You can start mixing the twos up with threes and get 3/4, 3/2, 6/8, 9/8 and such, which don't have the same rhythms as CommonTime, but songs in these meters can still be written in 4/4 with use of triplets.