Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A sharp rhythmic accent on the second and fourth beats of a measure in 4/4 time, characteristic of rock music.
Wiktionary
- n. music The sharp accent on the second and fourth beats of rock music in 4/4 time.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a loud steady beat
Etymologies
- back(ground) + beat. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I mean, my whole life has been, you know, the backbeat has been, the backbeat has been the Beatles.”
“One thing I have learned - and this is going to sound silly - is that music is music, and whether it's rap or indie-rock or pop, the circuitry that makes you react to a melody or a backbeat is the same.”
“Tony Allen (best known as the backbeat of legend Fela's band) want us to download the 15 constituent parts of the single "Secret Agent," the title track off his new album on World Circuit label.”
“While Mr. Domino pounded out a steady bank of triplets (three notes to every beat), the drummer hit the second and fourth beats harder (known as a "backbeat") and the horns played call-and response bass riffs.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Rhythm of Rock 'n' Roll: 'It's All in the 1, 2, 3'
“The rhythm guitarist, in the same mold as the other two, punctuated the backbeat with a bluesy chord, rotating through a basic progression, changing with each quick, downward strum.”
“The smoky melody to the ensuing Ruins makes Jack Wyllie's sax more like a stringed instrument crossed with a trumpet, its quivering vibrato spooky but turning more guttural and free-jazzy as the backbeat pushes on.”
“For forty years, I kept on singing," she sang over a pulsing backbeat, then swung her arm around for emphasis, "before the money started r-o-l-l-i-n-g in!”
The Huffington Post: Art Levine: Amid Dreary Concert Season, Bettye LaVette's Triumphant Return
“Her delivery is made up of not quite equal parts rhythmic gesture you can hear the backbeat in much of her singing and a modulated jazz inflection with which she toys with the ends of lines.”
The Huffington Post: Dan Alford: Review: Emily Warren & The Betters at Webster Hall
“Yet she removes the backbeat and the echo chamber not to mention the sunglasses, and reduces the song to its most emotional essentials; Orbison's colorful melismas become even more anguished and tearful.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Jazz Scene: Hot Tones, Francophones
“On the other hand, the strong backbeat put me into a reggae mood.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘backbeat’.
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back phrases/hyphens/compounds
backache to backyard
back-ache, back-aching, back-acter, back-acting, back-answer, back-bar, back-basket, back beat, back-bias, back-blast, back-blowing, back-boiler and 342 more...
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MUSIC - jazz
Afro, habanera, pentatonic scale, bop, bebop, jazz, cool jazz, pentatonic, malignment, music genre, jazz musician, syncopate and 437 more...
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MUSIC - ALL TERMS
With focus on non-classical styles, but not excluding terms of the latter.
banjo, accompaniment, acoustic bass, bass guitar, bass clef, ground, brass, cornet, Mute, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, arrangement and 866 more...
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the beat & the break
words relating to rhythm
syncope, ascensional, sonant, syncopate, assonance, caesura, prosody, modulation, cadence, rhythm, interval, clitter and 34 more...
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Front and Back
backchat, backbone, backpack, backhoe, backfire, backhanded, breakfront, beachfront, drawback, effrontery, frontier, switchback and 196 more...
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