The Big Beat: Origins and Development of Snare Backbeat and other Accompanimental Rhythms in Rock'n'Roll Volume I: Chapters Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor of (2025)

The Big Beat: Origins and Development of Snare Backbeat and other Accompanimental Rhythms in Rock’n’Roll Volume II: Appendices

1998

Switching the Backbeat

Music Theory Online

This article explores manipulations of the nearly ever-present backbeat in rock music from the “long” 1980s. The status of the backbeat as not only metrically consonant but a defining feature of rock meter is discussed within the context of dual-aspect meter. Operating from the assumption that isochronous snare drum hits in rock are heard as a backbeat, placing those snare drum hits on beats other than 2 and 4 creates a particular kind of metrical dissonance, which I refer to as a backbeat switch. I examine two ways in which a backbeat switch occurs, the quick flip and the polymetric pogo. A quick flip usually occurs at a phrase break, where the drummer apparently (but intentionally) “drops a beat” and then resumes the backbeat pattern, thus shifting it “to the left.” A polymetric pogo involves a situation where the backbeat-insistent drummer is pitted against the rest of the band playing in an odd-cardinality meter, resulting in snare hits that bounce back and forth between even-nu...

The Drums Throughout Time: Rethinking the Beat

2017

This paper will examine a variety of ways that drum makers approach their craft by comparing the processes of distinct forms of drum construction as well as the philosophies and aspirations of these artists. This dissertation will review the various choices of drum makers by: (1) providing a brief history of the drum set, (2) comparing the processes of manufacturers, both prominent and independent, and (3) narrating a firsthand project of making a drum with an independent drum builder while incorporating a handmade drum into original compositions and recordings. The paper will also explain the creative decisions of drum makers and how they have reflected the needs of artists throughout history. The motivation that underlies the various techniques will be discussed: that all drum builders are driven by a desire to provide instruments that are musical, extraordinary, unique, and, above all, true works of art. Uncommon approaches to making drums will also be presented to illustrate the...

Rhythm and Polystylistic Rock Music

Musicologica Olomucensia, 2013

Race and Rhythm in Rock and Roll

2013

This chapter argues that contrary to conventional wisdom and the views of many scholars and critics, rock and roll’s most important rhythmic elements are derived from a complex blend of African, American, and European musical traditions. There is therefore no objective support for racialized characterizations of the “beat” that often serve, however unintentionally, to perpetuate stereotypes in discussions of both the genre and American popular music more

Rhythmic play, compositional intent and communication in rock music

Popular Music, 2014

From Ghetto Laboratory to the Technosphere: The influence of Jamaican Studio Techniques on popular Music

"Reggae and dub has brought about many changes in production practices internationally. The studio Innovations pioneered by Osbourne “King Tubby” Ruddock and Lee “Scratch” Perry, have revolutionized production techniques in reggae, dancehall and many popular international genres. The Ruddock and Perry Production Techniques have had a significant influence on the development of genres such as hip-hop, house drum and bass, trip hop, trance and techno. Despite this major contribution to pop music production techniques, there has been insufficient recognition for these “Dub Master’s” role in pioneering studio production styles. This paper will examine the role of Ruddock and Perry, in the development of these distinctive techniques and juxtapose them along techniques of Anglo-America, namely Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and the Beatles Sgt Pepper Lonely Heart Club band which have been valorized as landmark signposts in the history of pop music production. By exploring the production techniques involved in creating the 1980s pop hit Genius of Love By Tom Tom Club. I will show how the techniques of Ruddock and Perry have been appropriated by mainstream culture and how these techniques have influenced pop music production globally. In the process making a claim for the equal recognition of the work of Perry and Osbourne placing them in the same hallowed space occupied by their Anglo-American counterparts. "

African Vibrations: The Percussive Approach in Hip-Hop Music

The percussive approach is a method for analyzing the meaning behind sound and dance in hip-hop music. Percussion, especially the drum, and percussiveness have been and still are significant parts of music-making and social organization throughout the African diaspora. Based on cultural theorist and percussionist John Mowitt’s percussive field, the percussive approach examines not only the musical side of percussion, but also the social, psychological and theological aspects of percussiveness. The percussive approach is divided into three sections: percussiveness in music and language, social percussiveness and percussiveness as a symbolic form of resistance. By drawing from the perspectives of the African diaspora and the spiritual system of shamanism, as well as from the texts of cultural theorists like John Mowitt, James W. Perkinson, Jon Spencer and Tricia Rose, this paper will explore the cultural significance behind the percussive practices in early hip-hop music.

Shaping rhythm: timing and sound in five groove-based genres

Popular Music

Shaping events at the microlevel of rhythm is an important aspect of many groove-based musics. In the present study, we explore the interconnectedness of musical parameters such as timing, attack shape, timbre and relative intensity in creating groove through investigating musicians and producers’ discourse in five genres (jazz, samba, electronic dance music, hip-hop and traditional Scandinavian fiddle music). Through semi-structured interviews, we found both genre-specific accounts of how such musical features interact at the microlevel of rhythm and a cross-generic focus on inducing movement by shaping sound and generating rhythmic friction. The study empirically substantiates the multiparameter nature of musical performance and experience, and that particular genre-typical configurations of temporal and sonic features are needed to create the experience of groove. It thereby adds to the scholarly discourse on groove, which has often taken a more general and time-oriented view of ...

“the comet tail that trails behind it:” Percussive Durations in Electronic Dance Music