Stop-time
In
music,
stop-time is, according to Samuel A. Floyd Jr., "a musical device in which the forward flow of the music stops, or seems to stop, suspended in a
rhythmic
unison, while in some cases an
improvising instrumentalist or singer continues
solo with the forward flow of the
meter and
tempo. Such stop-time moments are sometimes repeated, creating an illusion of starting and stopping, as, for example, in
Scott Joplin's 'The Ragtime Dance' and
Jelly Roll Morton's 'King Porter Stomp'."
Joplin's 'Stoptime Rag' (1910, four years after 'The Ragtime Dance') is in stop-time almost all the way through; it even lacks his characteristic 4-bar introduction. Stop-time in Joplin's rags is characterized by directions in the music for performers to stamp their foot to the beat.
Stop-time is common in most
African-American popular music including
R&B,
jazz,
soul music, and was transformed into the
break of
hip hop.
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Project Stop-Time: The Meaning of "Stop-Time"
