Should You Clap 1 and 3 or 2 and 4?
Listen to this clip of the Taj Mahal blues legend performing at a concert in Germany in the 1990s. The crowd cheers for “Blues with Feeling”, but Taj stops the performance in the middle of the song.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Mahal says. “It ‘s Schwarz music.” Mahal explains that the rhythm of the crowd may be right for Mozart, Chopin and Tchaikovsky, but for his jazz/blues style they should applaud like “one-TWO-THREE-FOUR”.
It got me thinking about clapping, clicking, foot tapping, and other rhythmic responses to music, and whether there’s a right or wrong way to do it. It turns out that this is a complex issue involving race, identity and history. So one-and-two-and-and-and-and-on the way we go…
Rhythm and popular music
Most of the music that most people like is written in 4/4. It’s four beats per bar – when you “count” you go “1, 2, 3, 4”. Ballads are sometimes found in 3/4 , and oddballs like Radiohead and Rush are sometimes played in 5/4 or 7/8, but this is an exception; most of us mostly listen to music in 4/4 time.
When we are forced to physically respond to music, clap or clap, we often only clap on two beats in each bar—either 1 and 3 or 2 and 4—and which pair do we “land” on when listening to which . Music can say a lot about who we are.
As the Taj Mahal said, emphasizing the first beat of the bar, the downbeat, is a hallmark of traditional Western music . But music that relies heavily on backbeat, 2s and 4s is associated with historically subversive mainstream music forms such as blues and jazz.
But audiences don’t always get it. Applause at the “wrong” time, especially on the 1st and 3rd, can cause Justin Bieber to yell , George Collier’s sarcastic taunts, and make Harry Connick Jr. clap. add a beat to your piano solo so you don’t limp. But is it wrong ?
“So, just slap on 2 and 4?”
While “friends don’t let friends clap 1 and 3” might be a music lovers meme, and someone might write a children’s book called Clap 2 and 4 , that’s not all.
For example, take a look at a clip of Frankie Lymon performing ” Little Bitty Pretty One ” in 1960. Ignore (if you can) the unnatural reactions of the teenage musicians in the audience and focus on when they clap their hands. Laymon comes out clapping his hands on 2 and 4 and the groove is heavily backbeat built, but by the end of the song the crowd leans heavily towards those 1 and 3. I ran this clip from musicologist Alexandra Grabarchuk to get some idea of what’s going on here is happening.
“There is a very clear turning point,” Grabarchuk said, “in his little sing-song introduction; much clearer that there is an unusual accent. But then, as soon as the usual drum beat starts, the crowd starts cheering. First they split up, then the majority wins, and they start clapping their hands for 1 and 3.”
So the crowd is “wrong” clapping 1 and 3? Should Lymon stop the show to yell at them like Justin Bieber? Not necessary.
“From a musicological point of view, one can find justification for clapping on dominant beats or non-standard beats. I think this is more of a sociological question, in terms of who does it and when,” Grabarchuk said. “It seems to me that this is also very similar to a question of group psychology… it has to do with cultural conditioning, a kind of group psychology of the crowd and some sociological markers in terms of which group you belong to and how that group interacts with the music they are with. interact.”
As much as some would like it, there is no hard and fast rule about which beat is best to clap. According to Duke Ellington, “ No one ever snaps their fingers to the beat. It’s considered aggressive ,” but that’s in a jazz context. (And this is in the context of comic, performative fashion. Ellington continues, “By twirling, snapping fingers, and choreographing the tilt of the earlobe, one discovers that one can become as badass as one wants to be.”) In other forms of music, it is not as easy as Ellington claims. : James Brown, Bootsy Collins and just about every other funk musician is clearly one, disco is all four beats equal and rock is everywhere. place.
I asked Frank Meyer, guitarist and vocalist for Los Angeles punk rock legends Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs , about when people should clap at shows. “It all depends on the groove,” Meyer said. “Numbers mean nothing until the groove hits. In any case, it’s not about the math.”
What Your Applause Says About You, Your Childhood, and American History
I guess most people never think about it and clap their hands when they feel like it, but even if you don’t realize it, the way you keep the rhythm often comes from deep, cultural and personal reasons. place.
According to Grabarchuk, if you don’t have a musical background, the music you listen to as a child and the reactions of the people around you to that music likely determine whether you’re a 1-3 cracker or a 2-4 cracker, and this distinction often comes down to race in America.
“We are, in a sense, programmed by the people around us, our culture and the musical cultures we participate in, especially at a young age,” Grabarchuk said. “If you sing hymns in church as a white person in the Midwest as a child, it really tends to emphasize material on those dominant beats of 1 and 3.”
“It gets really complicated when 100 or 200 or 1000 people get together and listen to something. They will all hear a slightly different version of what is really happening, and they will all react physically differently. And this is where the question of group psychology arises: “Who will dominate?” Well, it will probably be the racial class that usually “gets the floor”, that usually gets airtime in a country built entirely on white principles and white supremacy.”
“It’s like heteronormativity or patriarchy. All these things seem invisible, but in fact they always hover around us and make themselves known to those who clap in what rhythm and who clap louder than others.