http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CommonMeter

When songs are sung or verse is read,

It's often hard to miss

A rhythm that sticks in your head

(The one that sounds like this).

One line has four iambic feet.note An "iambic foot" is just a beat containing an unstressed syllable and then a stressed one: "de-DUM."

The next has only three.

And then the pattern will repeat

And rhyme, as you can see.

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This meter, as its name implies,

Is commoner than bread.

Internal rhymes are used sometimes,

And some rhymes are stilt-ED.

Since common meter texts abound,

Tune-swapping is a breeze.

You'll see examples float around,

Including these and these .

Why swap the tunes? To breathe new use

Into some faded verse,

Or just for fun, as an excuse

To joke, or mock, or worse.

In short, you'll surely have to own

That nothing could be sweeter

Than that poetic rhythm known

As Common (Ballad) Meter.

The terms "Common Meter" and "Ballad Meter" are often used interchangeably; technically, the difference is that in Ballad Meter the first and third lines don't have to rhyme. If you put two Common Meter stanzas together, you get one stanza of Common Meter Double; in hymnbooks and similar places, these terms are often abbreviated CM and CMD, respectively.

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Please note that "Common Meter" means a specific poetic meter (the one used in the poem above), not two songs that have a meter in common. You're thinking of a different trope, To the Tune of. That said, singing one song to the tune of another because they're both in Common Meter is itself a popular game, as the poem above implies, so there's a whole section here of instances when Common-Meter tunes have been swapped.

Also, no need to confuse this trope with Common Time. A tune can scan to Common Meter, be in Common Time, neither, or both.

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Examples

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Songs in Common Meter

Songs in Common Meter Double

Common Meter Tune-Swapping