My Music And Song's

Posts Tagged ‘memorable’

Rhythm is a vital aspect of popular music. In fact, it is one of the things that makes popular music popular. Rhythm is fundamental to human consciousness. In the womb, we grow to the beat of our mother’s heart. Everyday activities have rhythm  walking, or tapping our fingers on a table. Rhythm can be intoxicating, and it can carry people out of themselves. Armies march to the sound of drums, and some religious rituals have used drums to assist with the inducing of trance and altered states of consciousness. The overtly rhythmic nature of rock music itself was characterised by some critics in the 1950s as primitive, a reversion to the jungle.

In classical music, the beat is implicit. A conductor signals the beats with waves of a baton, but rarely do classical pieces have a percussion instrument marking every beat. Percussion is deployed at specific moments in order to accent a theme or a dynamic change. By employing the drum kit (and, more recently, the drum machine), popular music has insisted on making the beat explicit. This is part of its long established connection with dance. In any music intended for dancing, which much popular music always has been, rhythm is obviously important. But a catchy rhythm can do more than just set your feet tapping it can be an important part of what makes a song memorable.