Call me a nerd, but...

I was just listening to the Broadway cast recording of Jason Robert Brown's new musical 13. The gimmick behind the musical is that it's a show about 13-year olds. Thirteen 13-year-olds, to be exact. But the score is fun and fresh, the kids are talented, and it's been in permanent rotation on my iPod since the day it was released on iTunes.

So today as I was commuting to work, I was listening to the show's peppy, yet rhythmically quirky title song. Actually the quirkiness is only in the chorus. Anyway, as I was listening I made a delightful discovery about those quirky rhythms. Care to guess? Here's the song...pay special attention to the time signature during the chorus:

CLICK HERE TO LEGALLY DOWNLOAD THE TITLE SONG FROM www.13themusical.com! Or for kicks, go explore the website. They've got five songs from the show streaming at http://www.13themusical.com/music/.

Before you keep reading, make sure you've listened to the song. Do it! I'll listen with you.

la la la dum de dum dum la la deedle deedle doooo dum ditty la la la la woah woah ba dee ba dah...

Wasn't that fun? Anyway, did you get it? Those oddly structured measures are grouped into a group of six beats, followed by a group of seven. Six plus seven equals...you got it, thirteen! To make matters even more exciting, start counting when the pattern begins and when you get to the number 13, the kids all sing "Thirteen!" Yeah, it's gimmicky and only the die-hard theatre nerds are gonna pick up on it, but I think it's brilliant. Very few people out there are gonna be as giddy about this as me, and that's fine. But I'm certain that Jason Robert Brown wrote that passage with the nerds in mind. So now I've got the song stuck in my head...and that's not necessarily a bad thing for now.