West Side Story - America (1080p HD)
Why Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange recommends it
Music Stack Exchange commenters link it as a clear, well-known example of hemiola and alternating 6/8 and 3/4 meter when explaining time signatures and accent placement.
Recommended by 0 people across 0 different months, 2019 to 2021.
What it is
A clip of the song 'America' from the 1961 film West Side Story, taken from the 50th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray. The number is famous for its Latin-flavoured rhythm that alternates between 6/8 and 3/4 time.
What people said
Cites dbmag9 · 2019-11 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “Do time signatures make sense?”
My favourite illustration of this (although not worth a separate answer) is 'America' from West Side Story. The bars of the main theme alternate 6/8 and 3/4 with very clear distinction between two beats and three beats. I believe the original score was notated as 6/8+3/4 at the start. [this video]
Cites chasly - supports Monica · 2020-08 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “Where the accent should be when the beat is made up of different notes”
Still, for someone who is learning about the phenomenon, it is perhaps not so familiar as to the rest of us! America - [this video]
Cites musicamante · 2021-03 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “How to differentiate between time signatures x/y and mx/ny?”
@Ninad not in an absolute empiric way: there's only a certain amount of certainty, which depends on the complexity of the music, not to count signature changes within the piece itself or the composer/arranger wanting to create "instability" for artistic purposes. For example, "America" from West Side Story [this video] could be written in 6/8 as well as 3/4, but it actually is an alternation of both. Or the piano intro to "When it rains" by Brad Mehldau [LINK] (from 0:52): is it in 6/8 or 12/8? Or is it 3/4? Go on and you'll find out that...