BLUElightCory
Member
Most music with some kind of rhythmic pulse has an underlying pattern of stresses that the melody and harmony are aligned with. What we're doing here is counting how many "beats" it takes for that pattern of stresses to repeat itself.
This is actually a really good way to describe meter. As part of my job I often find myself attempting to explain meter to people who don't have musical backgrounds and this is a better explanation than I've been using. Found on GAF of all places.