On Music With A Heavy Beat

On Music With A Heavy Beat[1]

By Robin Phillips – 2002

Human beings have a built in response to rhythm because we have rhythmical bodies. Our respiratory, vascular and nervous systems all work in accordance to certain rhythms. That is why rhythm in music affects our body in a physical way. Depending on the type of rhythm we may want to tap our foot, clap our hands, get up and dance, etc.. Even when no such response is provoked – say, if we are listening to a tranquil classical piece – the piece music will probably be dependent on a time signature, in other words, a consistency in it’s rhythmic format.

So rhythm is essential to music as - and I would argue because – rhythm is essential to the human body. If rhythm is not there in the background (which is the case whenever there is a time signature, and some of the time when there is not) music doesn’t really sound right.

What then of music where the rhythm is not in the background but in the foreground, as when it forms a driving, pulsating beat to which the other elements of the musical triad, namely melody and harmony, become subservient? I would suggest that because of the association rhythm has with the body (an association melody and harmony do not have) the presence of a predominant pulsating beat has the power to manipulate one’s neurosensory apparatus and shut down conscious mental processes. The same technique is used in transcendental meditation to open the mind to outside forces and shut down volitional authority. As our body is drawn into the beat it becomes impossible to maintain any physical separation between our body and the rhythm of the song. And that is precisely why the music has such an appeal. Human beings have always been drawn to things which take them outside of themselves, things which give them a sense of being drawn into something bigger. This instinct is fundamental to human nature and is shared by all, from the most holy saints to the most repubate sinners. Whether it be food, prayer, sex, alcohol, sports, poetry, witchcraft or bungee-jumping, human beings crave that forgetfulness of self that comes through identification with something external.

And that is precisely what music with a heavy beat provides. Because it addresses the body it is able to immerse the listener in it in a way that becomes totalising. Now because our whole person becomes involved in what our body is doing, as our body is sucked into the beat it becomes difficult, if not totally impossible, to also maintain an emotional and psychological separation between us and the music. This is the sense in which such music can be said to be totalising. The result is that we become drawn into the atmosphere, orientation and philosophy of the song similar to being drawn into the philosophy of a television advert. In both cases (television adverts and music with a heavy beat) the ability of our minds to think objectively is assaulted. In the case of adverts our objectivity is assaulted because our emotions are manipulated; in the case of the pulsating beat our mind is assaulted because our bodies - and through them our emotions - are manipulated.

Now it is not bad in itself for the objective mind to take a back seat or for us to lose a degree of cognitive volitional authority as our emotions respond at the level of instinct, but it depends on the context, or more specifically, it depends on what physical or emotional stimuli is causing this affect and what it is orienting us to in the process. This is such an important question that the absence of clear knowledge concerning the implicit and explicit motives, philosophy, attitudes values and spiritual orientation of those who perform heavy rock music should itself be sufficient reason to abstain. With music that doesn’t have this kind of heavy pulsating beat such questions are not so crucial since the separation of listener and music is not so acutely challenged. It is this lack of separation that makes one liable to be directly influenced by the orientation of the artist.

With a piece by Bach or Handel, it takes effort – and often a certain type of informal education - to learn to identify with it, to learn to participate emotionally in the musical experience the composer is offering. When music has a heavy beat the opposite is true: we have seen that it takes effort not to identify with it and it can be almost impossible to listen to it and not maintain a physical and emotional separation from the music. This is the sense in which much contemporary music is anti-intellectual. It does not require the listener to be active and reach out to it, but causes the listener to be passive and sucks him into it.

The aspect in which music with a heavy beat is anti-intellectual is accentuated by another equally important element, namely, its banality. By banal I mean that it is a beat with little or no variation.[2] Compare the simple ‘thud, thud, thud’ of a heavy rock beat to the complex, forward-flowing rhythms of Caribbean or jazz music and you will see what I mean. Jazz music usually finds a way to express variation, psychological depth and imagination in rhythm even when we are left with just drums. It must be understood here that by banality I do not mean simplicity. A basic march beat is simple but it is not banal for it provides a structure that allows for melody and harmony of depth, imagination and variety even when there is little or no variation in the beat itself. With a four-square rock beat, on the other hand, there is a great limitation on the extent to which it can be adorned with melody and harmony of any depth or imagination since the nature of the heavy beat predominates the foreground. This is to be expected since such music is addressed to the body rather than to the mind or the soul. It’s anti-intellectual quality – seen in the following diagram - makes it the appropriate music for a culture in which has accepted the television commercial as its meta-narrative.

[1] Anyone who is interested in reading more about my views on music should see my essay On Films Containing Sexual Content.

[2] A friend of mine as suggested that banality can also be dangerous in melody and harmony. He writes (in a letter to me), “You know the kind of tune that etches itself into your consciousness and refuses to budge. Its worth dies away quite soon, but it's impossible to bury. And what about banal harmonies. There are some harmonies that are merely academic. By harmonies, I mean the collection of simultaneous tones that make up a piece of music in horizontal time. What one set of vertical sonorities does to us, psychologically, develops into a different set of tones, and the relationship between the two or more sets communicates psychological drama. A piece of music that can't get beyond certain basic harmonies for fear of treading into anything that smells of dissonance will be missing the tensions that make the simple chord breathe out with other-worldly clarity and rightness. I think each part of music needs the attention of the craftsman, someone who is dedicated to finding a balance but not holding out something timid as a result. In this sense we must expect heaviness and ghostliness in each element as part of a dance between the elements.” These aspects surely warrant further exploration, especially today when philosophy of music is given too little attention.

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Music With a Heavy Beat