The Elusive Tambourine

Go ahead and watch the first minute of the above video. I’m sure many of you have seen it. Admit it…Yes it is a Fall Out Boy music video. So did you watch it? Yea? Notice anything odd besides Pete Wentz’s outfit? It happens right around the 0:49 second mark. The band is grooving on their catchy little bass riff, the crowds clapping along with the snare drum, and then…what the, WHO’S PLAYING THE GODDAMN TAMBOURINE??!

As you look around and notice that the other instrumentalists do not have a hidden tambourine somewhere on their

Guy behind Patrick=Tambourinist

instruments, and Patrick Stump’s hands are empty, the only other explanation is that someone in the throng of prom-goers must be the secret 5th member of Fall Out Boy. Yea. That must be it.

The truth is that many popular bands, if we were to examine their music like this, would also have secret 5th, 6th, or 7th band members comitted solely to full-time tambourine playing. Now, a note before I move any further. Technically this “elusive tambourine” trend is more of song producing trend rather than a song writing trend. In other words, during live performances of Fall Out Boy’s Dance Dance we may or may not hear the secret 5th member’s tambourine; and I doubt that when the band was actually writing this song one of them stopped and said, “we need to add tambourine right here.” In other words, the elusive tambourine added to the final version of a band’s “hit” song (the music video version) is a recording or production trick or technique used to add a strong rhythmic backbone to move the song along.

In some songs that use this technique the tambourine is quite audible like in the Fall Out Boy song above and Fountains of Wayne’s Stacy’s Mom. Others, such as The Jonas Brothers’ S.O.S. song, I believe are not really supposed to be noticed. Hence the elusiveness of this tambourine. There are many songs where the rhythmic backbone that is the tambourine is not meant to be heard consciously, but rather subconsciously. It is almost as if the production engineer didn’t want you to notice that there was a tambourine, but did want you to notice that there was something about the song that really “made it move.”

Since it is so often hard to hear, here (wow back to back homophones! Awkward…) are some tips for finding the elusive tambourine within the song “jungle.” It’s a treasure hunt! Crikey!

1. Very often a tambourine is incorporated into a song with a very slow tempo, as can be heard in Blue October’s Hate Me, Foo Fighters’ Wheels, and the very beginning of Weezer’s Perfect Situation. Thus the tambourine helps to “move the song along” and somehow actually weakens our perception that the song is moving at a very slow tempo.
2. Most of the time the tambourine only plays, or is predominant in the chorus of the song. The chorus is after all the most important part of the song, and often times a tambourine will just add that extra sparkle. An example of a song where the tambourine is only used during the chorus is Blue October’s What if We Could.
3. When listening for the tambourine, be aware that, relative to the meter of the song, the tambourine is almost always playing 16th notes. If the tambourines played 8th or quarter notes then they wouldn’t be the rhythmic powerhouses that they are! If they played 32nd notes or something, well, then it just wouldn’t sound humanly possible. All five of the examples given so far have 16th note tambourines.

Here is a playlist of the songs mentioned already plus other tambourine-happy songs. Enjoy, and I hope you might do some tambourine hunting yourself!

Tambourine Playlist

More Pop Song Trends!: Lyrics

Spinal Tap was way ahead of me on the topic that I would like to discuss. As a satirical rock band, Spinal Tap managed to make fun of everything rock n’ roll; their most popular skit being the “turn it up to 11!” scene from their fake rockumentary “This is Spinal Tap.” Besides the gags, they have also managed to write some very clever songs. One of my favorite Spinal Tap songs (mainly because I can remember playing it on Guitar Hero II) is “Tonight Im Gonna Rock You Tonight.” Haha they used the word “tonight” excessively! They really only needed one!.. yes I know. I know. Thank you.

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Why did they decide to use the word “tonight” instead of any other? Well, either rock n’ roll lyric writing followed the same trend as many lyricisits are following now, or Spinal Tap could see into the future. I’m open for possibilities really.

This trend in either incorporating the word “tonight” or at least having the story or content of the lyrics take place during nightime is probably the most pervasive trend that we have talked about thus far. It can be seen in pretty much all genres of music, but is especially prominent in the Pop/Alternative music coming out of B 97 everyday. Some songs, like Spinal Tap’s song, are open about its lyrical content and have the word “tonight” in the title. Examples include Chris Daughtry’s “Feels Like Tonight“, The All American Rejects’ “It Ends Tonight“, and the Jonas Brothers’ aptly titled song “Tonight” (which, by the way, can be found under countless other artists). Other songs like The Black Eyed Peas’ “I gotta Feeling” and Secondhand Serenade’s “Fall for You” don’t actually have the word “tonight” in the title but still make plenty use of it.

The #2 iTunes download right now is Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister”, and I am all over this one. For not only does it randomly throw in the word “tonight” at the end of the chorus, but it uses that darn I V vi IV chord progression for the majority of the song. An interesting similarity arises when comparing this Train song with Boys Like Girls’ song “Great Escape.” During the choruses of both of these songs, the singer is going along telling his story all fine and what not, only to pause for a second at the end to insert a “tonight” to qualify it as a hit song I guess. I don’t know.

Like I said earlier, while some lyricists don’t actually overtly use the word “tonight” or “night” in their song, many of them still center the lyrics around nightime. Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” (#4 iTunes download) and Owl City’s “Fireflies” are both popular examples of this.

In thinking about why this trend exists, I have come up with a number of reasons. The first two deal exclusively with the songwriter. 1.) Since I enjoy writing songs as well, I understand that the usually ideal time to really write a song (especially the lyrics) is nightime. Nightime provides the quiet atmosphere often times needed to sit, reflect, and write. 2.) Many songs are about emotional encounters or aspects of the songwriter’s life, and, in my opinion, I would say that most of these emotional encounters occurr during the nightime. If you just broke up with someone, you can’t stop thinking about someone, your best friend just got way to drunk and did something stupid, it is probably nightime. Or not.

The other two reasons deal with the listeners or audience that the music targets. 3.) Alot of the Pop/Alternative songs are being heard primarily in dance clubs and bars by this target audience, and what time of day do you go to bars and clubs? Thus it would only make sense for the music to which they are listening to talk about how “tonight’s going to be a good, good night.” 4.) Teenagers are also the other big target audience, but they are too young to go to clubs and bars. But that’s OK. Nightime is the teenager’s world. After being in school all day, they listen to their music and talk to their friends primarily at night. So, it would only make sense for Boys Like Girls to sing to them about how we are going to make a great escape tonight and not today. Where does a song like Train’s “Soul Sister” fit in? It’s definitely not club music, and judging by the age of these guys, are they really going for teenagers? Is the word tonight just thrown into the song because the lyricist saw this trend? Once again, I don’t know. What do you think?

Here is a playlist of the songs mentioned in this post as well as other relevant songs:

“Tonight” Playlist

The Clave: Hip Hop/Rap’s I V vi IV Chord Progression

Welcome back. Let’s review.

Previously, we discussed:

1. Many pop, R&B, and alt. rock songs past and present have relied on the I, V, vi, IV chord progression.
2. This progression probably stemmed from the I,vi, IV, V chord progression popular in the 50’s and 60’s.
3. Judging by recent popular songs, this progression which hints at some serious musical stagnation is not going anywhere. (See the end of this post.)

We now turn our attention to some on-going trends in different genres of music that were not really talked about in the last post: Hip Hop and Rap. Analyzing chord progressions of popular Hip Hop and Rap songs would not be very fun at all. Mainly because the majority of the songs in these genres make use of creative beats and riffs (repeated musical phrases) to create the “hook” rather then chord progressions and melodies.  Some of these songs do not have any discernible chord progressions, or rather seem to hang on one note or chord for most of the song. So I guess you could say that there is a chord progression trend in Rap music; that is, to not have one. But that is not where the true trend lies. And, believe me, each and every genre of music has its true trends that so often play an integral part when writing its music. So what is Hip Hop’s I V vi IV chord progression? For this answer, we need to look to the beat…

Meet the “Son Clave:”

The Son Clave

The “Son Clave” is a musical beat. A rhythm. For those who can’t read music that well, this  is one and the same with that catchy little beat from the hit song “I Want Candy” (that song that Aaron Carter sang when he was like 8. Seriously look at the video. Judging by his prepubescent voice in the beginning, he can’t be older than 10 .) It’s that “Boom Boom Boom… BOOM BOOM” going throughout the whole song. This particular beat, mainly due to its syncopated first half followed by the forceful two beats at the end, can be quite memorable.

I would also like to introduce a different type of clave rhythm, the “Bossa Nova Clave:”

Bossa Nova Clave

The “Bossa Nova” is only slightly different from the Son, with the last note shifted one “eighth” note further, giving the beat a revolving quality and even more syncopation.

Together these two clave rhythm formulate the underlying beat behind almost all modern day Hip Hop and Rap songs. (A bold statement indeed!) Take that beat from prepubescent boy’s “I Want Candy,” slow it down a heck of a lot, maybe chop off that last quarter note, insert Snoop, and you’ve got yourself a Top 20 song on Q93. How the clave rhythms came to find their place in Hip Hop glory is a very interesting story, I’m glad you asked.       Let’s do it!

The clave rhythms derive from early Afro-Cuban music. For instance, the “Son Clave” was a particular clave rhythm that accompanied the Cuban musical style called “Son.” Clave rhythms were a central part of many different types of Cuban music such as the salsa and rumba, hence the name “clave” which means “key” in Spanish (since they were a “central” or “key” part of the music.) Claves like the “Son Clave” were very popular, but there existed other claves like the “Rumba Clave” and the “Bossa Nova Clave” as mentioned. Since Cuba, as well as the other surrounding Caribbean islands, saw heavy European and African influences during the slave trade, it only makes sense that Cuban music became a mesh of both European and African influence. However, it was the African cultures, cultures whose music relied heavily upon beats and polyrythms, that probably influenced these different clave beats the most. Thus the African influence on American music began. The syncopated clave beats made their way to America through ports like New Orleans, were integrated and accepted into American music largely through jazz music (look out for the “Son Clave” during Mardi Gras…it’s out there), while a syncopated “African type music known as “Ragtime” had already begun to sweep America off its feet.

Scott Joplin, King of Ragtime says: "Chicks dig Syncopation."

Fast forward a few years (just a few), and we get to Hip Hop and Rap music and…what do you know, the clave and other African influenced syncopated beats are still very much alive, and helping to shape a genre of music that will come to be a very important symbol of African-American culture.

So is the clave beat as pervasive as the I V vi IV chord progression? Yep. However, while all the songs I presented in my last post truly had that particular chord progression, the following popular Hip Hop and Rap songs don’t all follow the clave rhythm precisely. Like I said, sometimes a quarter note is chopped off, sometimes an eighth note is added, etc. It really is up to you to see whether all these songs really do have something in common or if I’m just crazy. So without further ado, the following songs all have a clave based beat that form the backbone of song:

1. “Drop it like its hot” by Snoop
2. “Say Aah” by Trey Songz
3. “Carry Out” by Timbaland feat. Justin Timberlake
4. “I think they like me” by Dem Franchise Boyz
5. “Laffy Taffy” by D4L
6. “Crank That” by Soulja Boy
7. “Bed Rock” by Lil Wayne
8. “How Low” by Ludacris

The best representative of the “Son Clave” is probably “Drop it like it’s hot.” The snare drum during the riff at around 0.19 seconds replicates the “Son Clave” with an added quarter note where the first quarter rest is located. Ludacris’ “How Low” pretty much truthfully represents the “Bossa Nova Clave.”

So what do you think? Am I crazy? I don’t think I am. As far as how and why this beat has survived for so long, and why it came up in the first place, I think it all pretty much has to do with syncopation. African tribal music was mainly about dance, thus African music centered around danceable beats. And there is something about syncopated beats that make your brain and your body want to both locate and move to the actual beat, that is, the “1,2,3,4” or “1,2,1,2” pulses of the song. Use the clave at a slow tempo in a song, and watch the listener’s body sway to the “1,2,3,4” in a smooth, slow manner. After all, isn’t that what most of the Hip Hop and Rap songs are about? Being smooth, cool, gangsta, whatever. Maybe that’s why slow motion is so popular in music videos (see “Drop it like its hot”), why there is so much dancing associated with this music, and why syncopated beats like the clave are still being used. See you next time.

*Back to the whole I V vi IV thing…In his transition into the world of alt. rock, Lil Wayne’s right on track with the rest of ’em! He’s no dummy!

• “Knockout” by Lil Wayne

O Boy, Here we Go.

Now let’s see…………….Where to begin?

O yea! Why don’t we talk about the subject I knew I would first talk about from the very moment “Songwriting Blog” popped into my head? Now, I will truthfully say before I say anything further that this blog will not turn into a “song-bashing” donnybrook (a new word of mine, finally able to use it) where everyone is saying how much this song sucks and how much that song sucks. However, I simply cannot pass up this perfect opportunity to vent publicly about a little problem in today’s music industry, a little “pet peeve” that has been bothering me for a long time.

You see, as many of you may have guessed after visiting my new bandcamp site, for the past 10 months of my life I have worked for a company called Raising Canes (where our sauce is, in fact, “the boss”). The job is great, the crew is friendly, and we even get to listen to music while we work. Fun, right? Well, it was a fine June day at Raising Canes. I was going about, doing whatever job they had me doing in the kitchen, talking to my crew, and listening to the music being played of course. As most of the Raising Canes restaurants do, the Cane’s for which I work was playing music from a “pop” satellite radio station. So I’m doing what I’m doing, listening to “Don’t Matter” by Akon, digging the auto tune and what not, and next comes “She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5. This being a little more my style with the whole “full band” thing, I was dissapointed when Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” came on next. So after Rihanna was done convincing me to hate men yet again, you can imagine my frustration when for some reason…the song came on again! Why would they do this to me? Is it that popular? What the…and then I realized something. This was definitely not the same song, it was “Tattoo” by Jordin Sparks. Oh…

So how was I tricked like this? And why, besides these two songs, was I increasingly getting more and more pop songs confused with each year? And then my curiosity led me to a variety of people, of whom all had discovered a certain trend in popular songwriting. And thus I came to know the monstrosity that is the I V vi IV chord progression.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH RUN AND HIDE!!!

No, but seriously the I V vi IV chord progression (which, for instance, would be C G Aminor F for the key of C) is everywhere, including all four of the previously mentioned songs. Other popular songs that make use of this chord progression for the “hook,” many of which you will be able to hear in the below videos, include “With or Without You” by U2, “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz, “Wherever You Will Go” by The Calling, and about 7 Blink 182 songs. The evolution of the I V vi IV chord progression is interesting to follow. It seems to be a direct descendant of the once more popular I vi IV V (e.g. C Aminor F G) during the late 1950’s and 1960’s “doo wop” and Mo-town era of popular music. Songs like “Last Kiss,” “This Magic Moment,” and “Stand by Me” are all classic examples of the I vi IV V progression of this era that does not seem to be that popular anymore (although The Police may have tried to bring it back with “Every Breath You Take”, and later Pearl Jam with their own version of “Last Kiss”.)

So what’s the problem I have? Are all these songs crap because they use the damn I V vi IV progression? No. I love blink 182 and they would not have survived without it. I also understand that it is not usually the pop star artist who writes these hit songs, so I don’t blame them. I don’t blame anybody really. I merely imploring anyone and everyone involved in writing and  producing songs, like Ne-Yo and Stargate (who are behind many of the R&B pop songs mentioned) to be a little bit more creative and imaginative like the artist you are. Paintings would be boring if all the artists started using only four colors in the same order would they not? Then again, I guess the majority population can see these kinds of things but not hear them… SO! I CHALLENGE YOU THE READER TO USE YOUR EARS AND FIND MORE SONGS USING THE I V VI IV CHORD PROGRESSION AND TELL ME. It will be fun, we can make a definitive list. And you can start by checking out these videos.