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What is a backbeat?

Discussion in 'Music Ministry' started by tinytim, Jul 2, 2006.

  1. tinytim

    tinytim <img src =/tim2.jpg>

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    Ok, I'm ready to show my ignorance!!!

    I have always heard from people that have a problem with CCM that it is a sin to have a backbeat in a song.

    What is it? Can someone explain it to me in terms that a non-musician can understand?

    Thanks.
     
  2. rbell

    rbell Active Member

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    Most people who say that are trying to use fancy lingo to communicate ideas such as:

    "I think the drums are too loud."
    "Drums are evil...now which one of Noah's sons started playin' them confounded things?"
    "Bill Gothard don't like it. Thus, God don't either."
    "In Hesitations 3:27, it condemns a backbeat. (or is it 1 Confusions 5:3?)"

    "It's them evil Backbeat Boys...heatherns!"
    "um, that's Backstreet Boys."
    "nevermind."
     
  3. Scarlett O.

    Scarlett O. Moderator
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    rbell,

    I have got to stop reading your posts with chips and salsa in my mouth. You're making choke! :laugh:
     
  4. tinytim

    tinytim <img src =/tim2.jpg>

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    Let's see if I got this right....

    If there are 4 beats in a measure, a backbeat is the emphasis on beats 2 and 4.

    so it would be like: 1 2 3 4 right?
    And in rock, it would be: Bass, snare, Bass, Snare?

    What is Bass, snare-snare, Bass, snare-snare ? (where the snares are 1/2 beats)

    What makes that more holy than 1 2 3 4 ? Isn't this the beat that country songs use?
     
  5. PJ

    PJ Active Member
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    Back beat, forward beat, upside down beat ... bring on the good stuff, tinytim! When I play the bass guitar, I've been known to play on any and all beats! ;)
     
    #6 PJ, Jul 3, 2006
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 3, 2006
  6. Bro Tony

    Bro Tony New Member

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    Its the evil beat infiltrating the church by those black devils from Africa. They are bringing their voodoo into our churches and causing Christians to worship the devil.:rolleyes:

    Israel would be surprized to know that drums are of the devil----even David must have been demonized as he wrote Psalm 150, funny I thought the Scripture was inspired by the Holy Spirit---what are those drums and cymbals doing in the Bible and why would we be told to praise God with them?

    Bro Tony
     
  7. Eric B

    Eric B Active Member
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    I think you mean "what makes 1 2 3 4 more holy than 1 2 3 4?" Because the latter tends to lead you to bop or dance; while the former leads you to march. Marching is supposed to be more holy than dancing, because marching is "controlled" and therefore of the submissive spirit of "the spirit", wile dancing (or any other such pleasure) is supposed to be "of the flesh". Of course this ignores that David danced, and that the Nazi troops marched...

    That sounds like some sort of Waltz timed rhythm. Do you have carnival type music in mind?
     
  8. tinytim

    tinytim <img src =/tim2.jpg>

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    It would be a waltz if there were only 3 beats/ measure, but count it as 4 beats/ measure.

    I'm not really a musician, so I have always wondered what "backbeats" were.

    BTW, isn't calling the flesh sinful a gnostic thing?
    They went so far to the extreme that they taught that Christ didn't have actual flesh. Since flesh is sinful.

    Some would have us separate from ourselves if we could.
     
  9. Eric B

    Eric B Active Member
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    So what you mean, basically is "1 and 2; 3 and 4"? I guess that would just be a variation of the backbeat.
     
  10. Bro Tony

    Bro Tony New Member

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    Wow that must really be from the devil, it sounds like Lawrence Welk and we know polka music is other worldly,:laugh: :smilewinkgrin:

    Bro Tony
     
  11. Trotter

    Trotter <img src =/6412.jpg>

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    Actually, that would be a backbat and a half (my definition).

    The "and"s are the half-beats, akin to eighth notes. 4/4 music would count as "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and". For sixteenth notes, it becomes "1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a".

    Sorry. Former band geek...
     
  12. Eric B

    Eric B Active Member
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    But the "and" in the case Tim mentioned was an additional snare, not bass.
     
  13. Aubre

    Aubre New Member

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    Where is the backbeat in 3/4 time ? How about 6/8?

    I don't see how a beat in and of itself could be sinful.
     
  14. ccrobinson

    ccrobinson Active Member

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    I don't know of one. Most CCM, and secular rock for that matter, is written in 4/4, so the backbeat is an easy thing to target as being evil, since it's the only thing that's in virtually every piece of CCM/secular rock. In the case of 3/4 or 6/8 time, I suppose that the "evil" chords would be targeted, or perhaps the lifestyles of the musicians are targeted. When you're condemning CCM, it seems that any old target will do.
     
  15. Eric B

    Eric B Active Member
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    Steve Miller's Contemporary Christian Music Debate mentioned a 3/4 "antipestic beat" that some said to be bad. Like the 4/4 backbeat, it was accented on other than the first beat. I don't know which songs use this offhand, as 3/4 is not as common in contemporary music as 4/4, but I guess for any time signature, the "rule" of the first beat being accented would hold.
     
  16. rbell

    rbell Active Member

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    I wrote a song about 5 years ago in 5/4 time. Does that mean I lost my salvation?

    hmm...so...3/4 is "antipestic?" Does that mean it doesn't go well with certain Italian sauces?

    *grins*
     
  17. Pipedude

    Pipedude Active Member

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    When someone says that music is neutral, he defies thousands of years of thinkers and experience.

    The nature of rock & roll has always been as plain as an eastern sunrise. Those who created it knew it. All of its performers have known it. Most of its consumers have known it. All of its history has shown it in unmistakable vividness.

    Fools make a mock at sin.
     
  18. gekko

    gekko New Member

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    who created music Pipedude?
     
  19. Eric B

    Eric B Active Member
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    No, only a certain type of 3/4 is said to be anapestic. A lot of hymns are 3/4, so they're not saying all of those are bad.
    "Of the Father's Love Begotten" is in 5/4 (or at least a hynmal we had signed it that way; others often leave the signature off. So even though 5/4 is rare, they don't say it is autimatically bad either. Just as long as it follws their rules of being more melodic than rhythmic or harmonic (with a beat accented wrong supposedly making something too rhythmic).
     
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