The History of Math Rock and Anime: From Miles Davis to Given

A few years ago, I was put on to Given, a boys love series about a group of musicians who form a band while navigating the complexities of love and loss.

I was hooked on the storyline and in awe of Given’s music. Though the genre of the titular band is never stated, I immediately picked up on some math rock influences during their first on-screen jam session.

If you’re the type to never skip an anime opening, then chances are you’ve probably heard (and enjoyed) math rock at least once. For example, Japanese singer-songwriter Eve’s math rock-infused track, “KaiKai Kitan”, serves as the opening theme for the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen.

The series’ second season also features “Where Our Blue Is” by Tatsuya Kitani, a much more upfront math rock jam with some pop flair. Notice the irregular starting and stopping of the songs’ instruments to make way for a quick guitar or bass riff to peak through.

Romantic comedy anime High Score Girl has probably one of the most quintessential math rock openings with “New Stranger” by alternative idol girl group Sora Tob Sakana. Again, notice those syncopated rhythms that are broken up by complex guitar and bass riffs.

Not all math rock songs are fast-paced with whiplash drum beats. Kyoto-based math rock band JYOCHO contributed their softer, more melodic track “A Parallel Universe” to the “Junji Ito Collection” anime series.

I could go on and on, but you get the point: though math rock is a very niche subgenre, it’s surprisingly prominent in a lot of Japanese anime.

So what is math rock, where did it come from, and how did it find its way to Japan and anime? Let’s dive in!

What is math rock?

Math rock is a style of alternative/indie rock that is known for including complex, atypical rhythms that abruptly start and stop as well as odd time signatures, counterpoint and extended chords.

If you’re not sure what some of these things mean, I’ll give you a brief breakdown (I used to play clarinet and jazz guitar and still remember a little music theory).

Since we touched on the irregular starting and stopping in the above examples, I’ll explain counterpoint, extended chords, and odd time signatures.

Counterpoint

Counterpoint is what happens when two or more lines of music are in harmony with one another but maintain independent rhythms and melody. An example can be heard in the song “Supermassive Black Hole” by Muse.

About 60 seconds into the song, two sets of lyrics are sung on top of each other to form the chorus:

• “Oh, you set my soul on fire.”
• “Glaciers melting in the dead of night, and the superstars sucked into the supermassive.”

The first line is crooned slowly with almost every syllable drawn out, while the second line is much more syncopated, with every few syllables punctuated by percussion. Yet, despite the completely different melodies and rhythms — the lines come together to form a single harmonious and catchy chorus.

Instrumentally, an example of this in math rock would be the song “Cat Fantastic” by the band TTNG. In the performance below, the 3-piece band weaves different melodies and rhythms together to create a wall of sound. If you listen closely, each instrument is almost in its own song — yet they still fit perfectly together.

Extended chords

This is a little trickier to explain, so bear with me.

You probably know that a music chord is a set of two or more notes played simultaneously.

All you need to know is that traditional chords are made up of three notes (a triad), but extended chords usually have four or more notes that are stacked on top of the initial triad. What results is another layer of sound that adds complexity and color to the song.

For example, extended chords can be heard throughout Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” The extended chords give the song a bit of a “dreamy” and jazzy vibe.

An example of extended chords in math rock can be heard in the song “Cyniculture” by the band Stage Kids. Notice the use of counterpoint over extended chords and how the song has slight jazz influences.

Odd Time Signatures

In music, a time signature indicates how many beats are in a measure and which note counts as a single beat. Most pop songs have a time signature of 4/4, meaning there are four beats in a single measure and a quarter note counts as one beat. This time signature makes the beat of pop songs easy to grasp and “catchy” for listeners.

In math rock, however, you’ll hear time signatures like 3/2 or 11/8. These time signatures give math rock its signature strange and discombobulated sound.

Delta Sleep’s “After Dark” alternates between a few different odd time signatures through the track.

Where did Math Rock come from?

Like all of rock music, math rock’s roots can be traced back to Black American music—specifically jazz, in this case. On March 30, 1970, critically acclaimed jazz musician and composer Miles Davis released Bitches Brew, an album in which he experimented with instruments such as electric piano and guitar, thus departing from traditional jazz stylings at the time.

The album is widely regarded as an origin of jazz fusion and a major influence on experimental and crossover rock artists. Soon, the 1970s saw many rock bands incorporate Bitches Brew’s jazz and polyrhythmic elements in their own music.

Artists that gained traction during that time were progressive and experimental European bands like King Crimson, NEU!, and Can. Like Miles Davis, these artists refused to be confined by genres and instead melded elements of various music together, creating complex and unpredictable tracks.

Specifically, the albums Red and Discipline by King Crimson are considered major influences and the early inklings of math rock. And yes, that’s a JoJo’s reference.

If artists like Miles Davis and King Crimson are the root of math rock’s spontaneous, genre-defying nature, than the 80s and 90s saw bands like Black Flag and Slint give it its bite.

California punk band Black Flag is widely considered one of the first hardcore punk bands and a pioneer of post-hardcore, which are two subgenres that are practically siblings to math rock.

The band’s second studio album, My War, contains polyrhythmic tracks that are considered major influences on artists that would later be categorized as math rock. That influence carried over into the 90s, where bands like Slint put the final piece together and helped solidify math rock as a legitimate subgenre.

The Kentucky-based band’s second and final album, Spiderland, was released in 1991 and is known for its irregular song structure, idiosyncratic sounds, clashing pitches that still somehow work together, and atypical rhythms.

On the album, Slint’s vocalist, Brian McMahan, alternates between shouting, spoken word, and singing, often juxtaposing the rhythm and flow of the instruments.

The band had already broken up by the time the album was released, so there was no tour and hardly any promotion for Spiderland. Thus, the album only sold a few thousand copies, but it would still end up in the ears of bands like Polvo, June of 44, and Rodan — all of whom would be considered math rock in later years.

As those artists gained more traction on college radio, math rock’s sound eventually spread all over, becoming heavily concentrated in and associated with the midwestern emo rock scene. To this day, it’s common to hear math rock influences in post-2000s bands like Foxing, Hot Mulligan, TTNG, The Fall of Troy, Dance Gavin Dance, A Lot Like Birds, La Dispute, and more.

So, basically, think of jazz as math-rock’s grandfather, avant garde genres like jazz fusion and progressive rock as math rock’s parents, then hardcore punk, post-hardcore, emo, and post-rock as its slightly older siblings whose homes it’ll often crash in.

How did Math Rock get to Japan?

Alright, back to anime. So how the hell did math rock find its way to Japan?

Well, the island country already had a deep history with American jazz dating back to the 1910s due to transpacific ocean liners featuring Filipino musicians. These musicians were heavily influenced by American music since the Philippines was an American colony at the time.

Fast forward a few decades and Miles Davis cultivated a pretty strong fanbase in Japan, even traveling to the country for the first time in 1964.

So, it makes sense that Japan would also get swept up in the resulting jazz fusion explosion and subsequent popularity of experimental and progressive rock. This led to the founding of one of the pioneers of progressive rock in Japan, Bi Kyo Ran, in 1973 . The band was deeply influenced by King Crimson, having started as a King Crimson tribute band.

Bands like Bi Kyo Ran pushed the boundaries of rock music in Japan, warming up the country for the arrival of arguably the most influential band in Japanese math rock — Ruins.

Formed in 1985, Ruins is a musical duo known for blending jazz fusion, progressive, noise rock, and more into its eclectic sound. Compared to the band’s American and European counterparts at the time, Ruins’ approach to avant garde rock was more brash and unpredictable, even going as far as singing in a made-up language.

In the 80s and 90s, Ruins’ early heavy releases were huge influences on Japanese experimental rock icons Boredomes and Zeni Geva.

By the early 2000s, Ruins’ sound, while still experimental and “mathy”, became more melodic—placing the band on the forefront of Japan’s more popular progressive- and post-hardcore-infused math rock scene.

During that time, artists like Toe (my personal favorite) emerged onto the scene with ethereal tracks like “All I Understand is That I Don’t Understand”.

And the ball never stopped rolling as more artists like Lite, Tricot, and The Cabs emerged in the 2000s and 2010s.

Today, math rock has waned in popularity in the U.S. and Europe, though its influences can still be heard in other subgenres of rock, especially emo. However, math rock still maintains a huge presence in Japan with many math rock or adjacent artists climbing Japanese music charts.

Naturally, the subgenre found its way to anime like Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academia in the same way popular genres like rock and RnB found their way into American television shows like The Proud Family and Malcom in the Middle.

The fun thing about learning the connection between anime and math rock is that you can’t unhear it. After reading this post, you’ll likely notice even more anime series with math rock theme songs. And, if you enjoy what you hear, you may want to find other math rock artists to jam out to.

Fortunately, I made a playlist you can preview here if you’re curious.