Blog 6 (10/3-10/6)
This week we talked about beats in class. We talked about how different genres of music can revolves around different beats. For example, we started by talking about a lot of beats from Central and South American cultures such as The Habenera, Tango, and Samba. The Habenera is said to be from Cuba and features a displaced beat (1, 2, 3 & 4). Jelly Roll Morton, the “inventor of Jazz” says that he was really just playing Cuban music when he played Jazz by following a similar displaced beat. This displaced beat also translated over into the Swing beat as well, which features a triplet played over a 2, 4 beat. Rock comes from the swing beat by taking out the triplet and keeping the 2,4. A lot of hip hop features a strong swing beat.
A really interesting part was when we talked about the Reggaton beat. I have always thought that the Reggaton beat was obvious to pick it out until we talked about how the Reggaton beat is in all these top hits right now. I had no idea! I was definitely wrong. I think in Latin music it’s easier to pick out since I’m use to hearing it there, but I didn’t notice it in the pop music. Similar to the swing beat in hip hop music!