How do you personally treat form?

[Kopachris]

I'm fairly new to electronic music, mostly coming from classical (studied quite a bit of music theory). I often catch myself thinking of things in terms of classical form, where formal boundaries are implied by the harmony, even when I'm not working with classical music. From studying more popular music, I've noticed that formal boundaries are often implied by thematic material and intensity: build, unbuild, and rebuild. How do you all treat form?

[SpyPie]

Form is treated delicately in all forms of music, or else it would just be noise. No matter how complex and confusing or agressive it is. It applies to all forms of music. The form was kept in the creators head in the form of 'audible image' and 'emotion'

[ChromaticChaosPony]

Overused dubstep formula:
1. Hook of the song
2. Bass drop
3. Hook of the song again, with little or no change from the first one.
4. Bass drop, exactly the same as the previous bass drop, with no deviation from the first one.
5. Outro, based on the hook of the song.

I just described every Skrillex song right there. This doesn't apply to all dubstep artists, just some of the mainstream and/or lazy ones.

[natsukashi]

I chop it up and mess with it like everything else. Almost. Kinda. I dunno it just flows.

[prettiestPony]

This is an interesting question, and one that I haven't really resolved properly for myself. I studied classical theory too, so I'm kinda inclined to incorporate ideas therefrom. I don't typically think about composition in terms of, "Okay this is a sonata", "That's a rondo", or anything like that; but I do think about the recurrence and manipulation of motifs and thematic material generally.

Is your question mostly about how we demarcate sections within a piece, or, perhaps I should say, how we make one section distinct and recognizable from another?

You're right to a certain extent that popular/mainstream music, along with most of the electronic music world, doesn't typically use harmony to mark the end or beginning of a new section. In particular, it's pretty rare to see any changes of key or tonal center. Proper modulation is rare in non-classical and non-jazz music; usually what you get, if anything, is that good ol' "let's repeat the chorus with everything transposed up a step at the end of the song!" strategy.

In extreme cases, which are actually pretty common, you'll see the same chord progression through the entire friggin' song, perhaps with some variation for a "bridge" 3/4ths the way through. Indeed, forget "progressions"; some funk, hip hop, and electronic tracks will basically stay on the same chord for the whole three to five minutes. Again, maybe except for a bridge of sorts.

However, all that being said, I think harmonic changes do often mark sections in pop/mainstream music, just perhaps less "formally" than in classical music. It's probably most common to get different chord progressions which repeat within each section. (For example, a verse that goes "A D E D -- A D E D -- A D E D -- A D E D", and a chorus that goes "A E F#m D -- A E F#m D".) The listener feels the new section, harmonically speaking, when there's a change in that repeated pattern. Sometimes there may be slight variation at the end to smooth the transition into the next section. (The example verse from before might actually go, "A D E D -- A D E D -- A D E D -- A D E E" [SURPRISE we stayed on E instead of going back to D!].)

Changes in "harmonic rhythm" are also very common. E.g., if there are four chord changes per measure during the verse, there might be only two per measure during the chorus. Or vice versa.

Hmm, not sure if that's helping or if it just sounds like I'm lecturing you patronizingly. :/ If you like, I can write up some more thoughts about the non-harmonic devices that pop/electronic music uses to demarcate sections when I get some time later.