[Flint]

I'd be glad to discuss my understanding of syncopation. First of all, syncopation is a term I haven't used in years, as it's a general term used to describe a more specific set of techniques I employ (as a drummer). But it does present an interesting question.

The short answer is: syncopation creates musical interest, by generating small instances of tension between the notes.

You asked why it works, and the answer to that is: because it sounds good. Completely subjective, I know, but that's "why" any art "works" - it is deemed by the listener/viewer/experiencer to have aesthetically pleasing qualities. Naturally, I will address how syncopation works.

Most syncopation in popular music is achieved through beat displacement. The beat being the underlying structure upon which notes are placed.

Playing "on top" of the beat is metronomic (technically perfect) time. A musician who plays "on top" of the beat can "bury the click" - the click track being an electronic metronome used in the recording studio to synchronyze the various parts of a composition. If all of the notes produced by one instrument are "on top" of the beat, there is no syncopation in the pattern. However, if other instruments are displacing beats, there can be syncopation between the instruments.

A common beat displacement is to play "behind" the beat. Motown drummers (and those whom they influenced, such as the late John Bonham of Led Zeppelin) played the backbeat of the snare "behind" the beat, that is to say, they slightly delayed striking the snare. This is how you establish a "groove" - with these displacements. Back to the subjective quality of aesthetics, the listener expects to hear a certain beat placement, but you delay the gratification, creating that small pocket of tension, or musical interest. This is especially effective when other instruments are playing "on top" of, or in some other orientation to, the beat.

Enough of that. A more advanced technique for syncopation is polyrhythm. That is to say, more than one time signature is superimposed within a pattern. For example: within the same space that one pattern strikes out eight notes, another strikes six. Obviously, the notes aren't going to be happening at the same time. That's polyrhythm. Heard more often in jazz, see: the late Elvin Jones, legendary Coltrane drummer. Drummers pride themselves on creating polyrhythm between different limbs, thus establishing syncopation between different parts of their own body!

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I'll leave it at that. If anyone displays the slightest interest in any of this, I could go on for days.