backbeat
4
4.6
- noun
- /ˈbækˌbiːt/
- Specialized
- The backbeat of CRYSTAL SHIP, dreamy and hazy, Warhol-like interview floating over the room like a giant mushroom cloud.
- a heavy backbeat
- hear the backbeat
- music with a backbeat
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Watch on YouTubePunk is still EA and D chords with a backbeat.
- Punk is still EA and D chords with a backbeat.
- We blow stuff up with a drummer and a backbeat and don't sing about the secret of life, because there is none.
Examples
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Four bars, four beats to the bar... with a backbeat.
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A strong backbeat thumps through the open front doors.
Fiction book (1991) -
As we hear the backbeat of "People Are Strange."
Fiction book (1991) -
The sound of wind, the backbeat of LA WOMAN flooding in.
Fiction book (1991) -
The backbeats are on two and four.
-
Three bored musicians played slow music with a backbeat.
Fiction book (1990) -
The backbeat of WHEN THE MUSIC'S OVER starts, into its spiraling descent.
Fiction book (1991) -
The occasional sound of car tires slapping along a distant roadway provided an erratic backbeat.
Fiction book (1993) -
So Carl learned to play rhythm and blues, that heavy backbeat on the 2nd and 4th beat—the beat that nobody wanted to play, Carl remembered, in the bebop days.
Fiction book (1992) -
The drummer emphasizes the backbeat to create an exciting rhythm in the song.
Synonyms
489
1.0
A regular rhythm like the sound in music or a heartbeat
12
1.6
A repeated sound made by hitting a drum
1
4.8
A steady beat that gives the basic timing in music or poems
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word backbeat comes from the parts back ('behind') and beat ('a regular hit or rhythm'). It names the strong rhythm on the second and fourth beats that sits 'behind' the main pulse and gives many pop and rock songs their driving, danceable feel.