Back beat
This article is about musical beats. For the film about The Beatles, see Backbeat (film).In
music a
back beat (or "the
off-beat", "the
up-beat")) is any of the even "
beats" (eg, quarter beats 2 and 4) as opposed to the odd
downbeats, (eg quarter beats 1 and 3), which are called downbeats because the conductor normally points his stick down.
The name back beat refers to the common practice of backing the hand or drumstick away from the drum on the even beats in
Classical music. In comparison, modern music uses the off beat to create
tension. The name off-beat refers to the fact that when the down beat is not happening, it is considered that the player is not
on the beat, that the player should be in fact up-beat, away from striking the drum. Release (or not hitting the drum) on the off beat sets a mood that causes "groove", and often gives the piece a danceable feel.
In
popular music, back beat refers to a
percussion style or technique where a strong accent is sounded on the second and fourth beats of the bar, most often from striking a
snare drum. This is a form of
syncopation, and the tension between the normally much stronger first and third beats (downbeats) and the backbeats creates interest, because of this it widely used in
Rock music, especially
Thrash Metal.
The style emerged in the late
1940s in
rhythm and blues recordings, and is one of the defining characteristics of
rock and roll and is used in virtually all contemporary
popular music,
bossa nova being a notable exception. Drummer
Earl Palmer states the first record with nothing but back beat was "The Fat Man" by
Fats Domino in
1949, which he played on. Palmer says he adopted it from the shout (last) chorus in
Dixieland. Another song that employs the back beat is
Ike Turner's "
Rocket 88", which is one of the seminal works in early rock history.
In
Reggae music, the term 'One Drop' reflects the complete de-emphasis (to the point of silence) of the first beat in the cycle.
