Is there a name for the disorienting sensation caused by switching beats in music? What happens exactly?

June 12, 2004 6:13 AM

Weird music question: In The Rasmus' "In the Shadows," the song begins with a recurring siren that initially seems to set the rhythm of the song. When the guitars come in, they very strongly take over the rhythm, relegating the siren to background syncopation. This produces a very strange "about-face" sensation when listening to the song.

If you don't know what I mean, listen to the song, and snap your fingers each time--exactly as--you hear the siren at the beginning. At some point-- shortly after the heavy guitars begin-- you will have to pause for a beat and then pick up again, if you want to stay on the *main* beat of the song...

My question(s): what musical principles are behind this? Is there a name for the disorienting sensation caused by switching beats like that? What exactly is happening there?

Are there any other songs you know of where this happens? I think it's pretty neat "catch" in the music, and I find myself listening to the song over and over again because of it.

posted by precocious to Media & Arts (12 answers total)

Response by poster: Eek, I *had* a [mi] tag on that, dunno where it went. Sorry.
posted by precocious at 6:17 AM on June 12, 2004

Sounds like you're describing a segue ...
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:17 AM on June 12, 2004

...in a syncopated style.
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:18 AM on June 12, 2004

Check Weezer's "Pink Triangle"
posted by mr.marx at 8:51 AM on June 12, 2004

I'm not sure if it's a segue: it's more like listening to the beginning of a song, clicking fingers/tapping feet and thinking you are on the backbeat, and then when the tune kicks in you realise you are really on the frontbeat. Making that transition back to the backbeat can be completely confusing; and although in theory it should not be too hard to pick up the new backbeat, for a while the syncopation of a song can appear non-sensical.

I've noticed this with electronic music; and no I don't know what its called either ;) One of my first memories of getting confused like that was Bassheads' "Is there anybody out there?" [/trainspotting]
posted by carter at 9:12 AM on June 12, 2004

I know exactly what you mean by that - DJ Shadow does it a lot too, and I love it when I hear it. His, at least, are the best examples I've heard of it - he has (and I'm off to check exactly which track this is on) once done it with the same piece of tune (in Rasmus terms, the siren comes back to the foreground but sounds utterly different because a different part of it is carrying the melody.
posted by bonaldi at 10:09 AM on June 12, 2004

Has anyone else noticed something weird about the opening riff of XTC's "Stupidly Happy?" To my ear, the timing seems to change somehow - but it stays in sync. It's hard to explain but there's something happening that I can't quite grasp.
posted by davebush at 10:42 AM on June 12, 2004

Also, Blur's "Beetlebum".
posted by mr.marx at 11:06 AM on June 12, 2004

Here's a link to their site. The first 30 seconds or so of the song will play in the flash animation. This site offers a real audio version of it.
posted by toothless joe at 11:46 AM on June 12, 2004

It happens in a fair bit of Industrial music, there's two or three dozen songs off the top of my head that use that particular kind of beat-switching. I've also used it in one or two songs I've produced myself.
posted by Jairus at 1:56 PM on June 12, 2004

The Bassheads song is streamed here. There's about 1:00 of ambient twiddling to start, then the bass line starts at about 1:08, then then the kickdrum comes in at about 1:24 at which point it seems to me to reverse the front and backbeats.
posted by carter at 1:58 PM on June 12, 2004

I believe in "Stupidly Happy" the guitar riff is coming in on beat two (out of eight) of the measure. Since the song starts with the guitar and nothing else, there's that off-kilter feel when the drums come in.
posted by D.C. at 6:17 PM on June 12, 2004