What beat is this beat?
January 30, 2009 1:45 PM
Please help me identify this simple rhythm, its origin, and all its instances.
Does this beat sound familiar to anyone? What would you call it?
Anyway, I like it a lot. I think I'll use it for one of my RPM challenge songs.
posted by abc123xyzinfinity (7 comments total)
1 user marked this as a favorite
Does this beat sound familiar to anyone? What would you call it?
B = boom (bass), C = cha (snare) 1 / / / 2 / / / 3 / / / 4 / / / 1 B C B C B C B C BIt sounds vaguely African to me, with the "four on the floor" bass. But for some reason it also reminds me of reggaeton, although I don't really listen to a lot of that music.
Anyway, I like it a lot. I think I'll use it for one of my RPM challenge songs.
Versions of this rhythm with varied instrumentation have been circulating all around the Americas since the mid-19th century. It is the Habanera, and can be felt either as a straight 4/4, or as 3+3+2 (counted 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2). It is named the Habanera because the dance craze at the time spread out from Cuba, combining straight European march or polka with elements of a West African rhythmic sensibility--an additive asymmetrical timeline (3+3+2, or 3+5). It is a step towards music that is structured in clave, like mambo, salsa, or the rock n' roll bo diddley beat.
All its instances is a tall order, but here are a few, if you consider just the rhythm, not necessarily the bass drum/snare version:
Early Jazz great Jelly Roll Morton called it 'the Spanish tinge,' in the 1920s, referring not to Spain, but the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.
Bizet's Carmen
Argentine Tango
In Brazil: maxixe, choro, early samba (until the 1930s), baião, forró, coco
reggaeton
and it's a common variation within rock as well.
posted by umbú at 9:25 PM on January 30, 2009 [5 favorites]
All its instances is a tall order, but here are a few, if you consider just the rhythm, not necessarily the bass drum/snare version:
Early Jazz great Jelly Roll Morton called it 'the Spanish tinge,' in the 1920s, referring not to Spain, but the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.
Bizet's Carmen
Argentine Tango
In Brazil: maxixe, choro, early samba (until the 1930s), baião, forró, coco
reggaeton
and it's a common variation within rock as well.
posted by umbú at 9:25 PM on January 30, 2009 [5 favorites]
Caribbean sounds completely right to me. If I had to guess (not knowing about the Habanera before I read what umbú wrote) I would have said it probably came from Trinidad's soca. In the last fifteen years or so I've seen that basic rhythm leap from country to country in Latin America and spread from regular Soca to Soca-Chutney (wait until around 1:10) to rock fusions.
I think the first time I heard it was during the craze for El General and his insane fusion of raggamufin with other Caribbean rhythms during the late eighties.
Just in case, those links might not be safe for work (things related to mad Latin rhythm rarely are, aren't they?)
posted by micayetoca at 4:06 AM on January 31, 2009
I think the first time I heard it was during the craze for El General and his insane fusion of raggamufin with other Caribbean rhythms during the late eighties.
Just in case, those links might not be safe for work (things related to mad Latin rhythm rarely are, aren't they?)
posted by micayetoca at 4:06 AM on January 31, 2009
umbú is right -- this is a fairly common pattern. For what it's worth, I most closely associate it with reggaeton -- Wikipedia has more on the history of that rhythm as the "reggaeton beat."
posted by danb at 1:39 PM on January 31, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by danb at 1:39 PM on January 31, 2009 [1 favorite]
Actually, that link calls it "dem bow", from a Shabba Ranks song and it says it came from Jamaica.
Some years before Reggaeton exploded I heard in Honduras this awful music that everyone I asked told me it was Reggae, though it sounded nothing like actual reggae and it sounded a lot like what eventually would become reggaeton. It was more raw, sounded like it was recorded in karaoke bar, and its awful all around. You think I'm being too harsh?, judge for yourselves then.
posted by micayetoca at 5:08 AM on February 1, 2009
Some years before Reggaeton exploded I heard in Honduras this awful music that everyone I asked told me it was Reggae, though it sounded nothing like actual reggae and it sounded a lot like what eventually would become reggaeton. It was more raw, sounded like it was recorded in karaoke bar, and its awful all around. You think I'm being too harsh?, judge for yourselves then.
posted by micayetoca at 5:08 AM on February 1, 2009
This came up on my iPod today and I thought of you: Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hell.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 11:55 PM on February 1, 2009
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 11:55 PM on February 1, 2009
Hey thanks everyone for the responses! We've got a nice selection of variations on a theme here, just what I was hoping for. Thanks to úmbu for the extensive history, I see what you mean about this beat being a step towards the something "structured in clave". Micayetoca - great links! I think the soca-chutney is most like how I want my song to sound. Karlos, your link/song brings back some memories (the mid 1990's were a time of expanding musical horizons for me), and I'm surprised to hear the beat there as well. Does anyone know how to trace it from the Caribbean to, um, whatever style Squirrel Nut Zippers are? Is it the ska?
I also didn't see the rock music coming into it, so that was a real surprise to hear "Then He Kissed Me" with the same idea (with slightly different instrumentation), although the tempo of that song really changes the feel, despite the similar pattern. I'm always amazed at how tempo can affect the feel of a song. It doesn't just change the length of space between notes, it changes the shapes of the spaces between the notes. I think it has something to do with how human beings are forced to play instruments differently at different tempos due to the mechanics of body / instrument interaction.
I still can't get this beat out of my head. At a meeting this afternoon I was tapping it out on the floor with my feet, and the guy across from me said "Reggaeton!," so I guess my instincts weren't far off to being with. It still amazes me how close this beat is to the canonical rock beat, where the first snare hit isn't syncopated, and yet how completely different the feel is. That's the craziest thing about rhythm, that such subtle changes can produce such profound effects. I don't notice it as much in harmony.
As a rhythmic aside, I'm a rocker at heart, and I've always felt the rock beat gets unnecessary slighted too often for it's simplicity. I think it's really one of the most advanced rhythms we've yet created. The first beats that human beings made, although they were probably made with rocks, were also probably quite syncopated and intricate, because that's what the world really sounds like. The "rock" beat to me is totally modern in that sense, stripped down to an essence that may not have been accessible to the first humans making music.
maybe.
(I also think that's why the British are so adept at making rock music; there's something almost stodgy about the rock feel, but it's still subtle and modern, and the British were always able to grasp it fully for whatever reason.)
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 6:18 PM on February 2, 2009
I also didn't see the rock music coming into it, so that was a real surprise to hear "Then He Kissed Me" with the same idea (with slightly different instrumentation), although the tempo of that song really changes the feel, despite the similar pattern. I'm always amazed at how tempo can affect the feel of a song. It doesn't just change the length of space between notes, it changes the shapes of the spaces between the notes. I think it has something to do with how human beings are forced to play instruments differently at different tempos due to the mechanics of body / instrument interaction.
I still can't get this beat out of my head. At a meeting this afternoon I was tapping it out on the floor with my feet, and the guy across from me said "Reggaeton!," so I guess my instincts weren't far off to being with. It still amazes me how close this beat is to the canonical rock beat, where the first snare hit isn't syncopated, and yet how completely different the feel is. That's the craziest thing about rhythm, that such subtle changes can produce such profound effects. I don't notice it as much in harmony.
As a rhythmic aside, I'm a rocker at heart, and I've always felt the rock beat gets unnecessary slighted too often for it's simplicity. I think it's really one of the most advanced rhythms we've yet created. The first beats that human beings made, although they were probably made with rocks, were also probably quite syncopated and intricate, because that's what the world really sounds like. The "rock" beat to me is totally modern in that sense, stripped down to an essence that may not have been accessible to the first humans making music.
maybe.
(I also think that's why the British are so adept at making rock music; there's something almost stodgy about the rock feel, but it's still subtle and modern, and the British were always able to grasp it fully for whatever reason.)
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 6:18 PM on February 2, 2009
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posted by arcanecrowbar at 6:48 PM on January 30, 2009