Microscopic, the fourth track featured on Box Five's Exercises in Modern Pop EP, was yet another of Mary's zany musical experiments. While the song can be enjoyed as a silly pop song without any knowledge of its history or the numbers behind it, she thought you might like to read about it anyhow, in this special we call "Mathroscopic". So, let the games begin!:

Back in 2003, Mary was visiting a friend and listening to some music when some very strange sounds started coming out of the stereo speakers: an off-kilter, odd-metered tune that stopped, then started, the stopped again; switching time signatures and changing keys like there was no tomorrow. It was very disorienting.

"What is this?" Mary asked, half in disgust. It was completely alien to the organized, structured classical music and britrock she was used to.

"It's math rock," the friend replied.

The term stuck with her, and weeks later Mary decided to go online and do some research. Typing "math rock" into a search engine, she came across a number of informative sites, most of which defined math rock as a genre which uses complicated and constantly changing rhythms (often modelled after famous mathematical entities such as the Fibonacci sequence) and dissonant chord progressions to create music that's almost intentionally undigestable upon first listen. As jrawk, webmaster of MathRock.Com, so succintly put it when describing the motives behind one of his early musical projects, Jal Lure:

"In part, we were demanding our audience be attentative. There would be no relaxing, no simply enjoying, dancing to the beat...if you didn't pay attention, you got lost."

Interesting theory, but isn't the purpose of all music is that it's to be enjoyed?

Mary got to thinking, and had an idea -- wouldn't it be fun to try and write a "math rock" song that incorporated sophisticated mathematical principles and a hidden number system...but, on the surface, simply appeared to be a fun, dancy, easy-to-listen-to pop song?

The wheels started turning, and not long after, Microscopic was born. Mary has no idea if she was successful in her experiment, but she sure had fun trying! <3

Anyhoo, if you'd like to take a peek at the math behind Microscopic, here is your chance. Mary has created the following outline, explaining her tactics in detail:

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A Mathematical Breakdown of MICROSCOPIC

I. The song is composed of exactly 200 beats; meaning that theoretically the song can be couted in either 5/4 time [link] or 4/4 (also know as "common") time [link].

II. It is easiest, however, to count the song with the beats divided up into a set specific groups, shown here [link]. Notice that nearly all of the groups contain 5 beats each, with the exception of:
    A. A series of 5 groups composed of 4 beats each [link]
    B.A group of 6 beats [link], a group of 3 beats [link], a group of 9 beats [link], and a group of 7 beats [link] which, when added together, result in a sum of 25 which
        1.has a square route of 5
        2. can also be expressed as either 5² or 5x5
    C. thus:
    (6+3+9+7=25=5²=5x5)

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If you have any comments (positive or negative) on Mary's little math rock experiment, feel free to drop her a line -- she'd love to hear from you! <3

That's the end. :o)