Concepts

A drum pattern taken from the instrumental break of a funk or soul record, or written in its style: kick and snare are syncopated rather than evenly spaced. Breakbeats drive hip-hop, big beat, jungle and drum and bass.

A steady kick drum on every beat of a 4/4 bar. It is the pulse of disco, house and most techno: the body always knows where the next beat lands, so everything else can move around it.

The felt quality of a rhythm that makes people move: how drums, bass and the other parts lock together and push against each other in time.

A feel in which the backbeat (the snare) comes half as often, so the music seems to move at half the speed while the tempo stays the same. Trap and dubstep use it to make a drop feel heavy.

The rhythmic signature of house music: a four-on-the-floor kick, off-beat hi-hats and claps on two and four, at roughly 118 to 128 beats per minute.

The points halfway between the main beats. An open hi-hat on the off-beat, the classic house pattern, lifts the groove because it answers each kick drum.

Playing pairs of equal notes unevenly, the first longer than the second. Drum machines and sequencers have a swing setting because a little lilt makes a programmed pattern feel played.

Accents placed where the listener does not expect them: between the beats or on the weak ones. Syncopation creates tension against the steady pulse and is much of what makes a rhythm feel funky.

A shift in a piece's speed, measured in beats per minute, partway through. In dance music the tempo usually stays fixed so DJs can mix tracks together, which makes a deliberate slowdown or speed-up a striking, emotional event.

The order in which chords follow each other. A few progressions recur across thousands of songs; the choice shapes whether music feels resolved, yearning or restless.

Music centred on a minor scale, whose lowered third gives a darker or more melancholic colour than a major key. Much dance music is in minor keys, which keeps euphoria bittersweet.

A note held or repeated, usually in the bass, while the chords above it change. It builds tension because the harmony keeps moving against something that does not.

A chord played one note at a time instead of all at once, rising, falling or cycling in a steady rhythm. Synthesizers and sequencers can play arpeggios automatically, and the pulsing synth arpeggio became a signature of electronic disco and much dance music since the 1970s.

The lowest melodic part of a track. In dance music it often carries the hook as much as the vocal does, and its rhythm against the kick drum defines the groove.

One phrase is answered by another: a lead voice and a choir, a vocal and an instrument. It comes from African and African-American traditions and runs through gospel, soul, funk and house.

The short, memorable idea a song is built to stick with you: a sung phrase, a riff, a synth line. A hook is designed for repetition and usually arrives early.

Re-recording a melody or lyric from an existing song inside a new one, instead of copying the original recording as a sample does. The borrowed tune is performed again by the new artist, and its writers are usually added to the credits.

Singing several notes on a single syllable, so the voice bends and runs through a phrase instead of moving one note per word. It is heard in Gregorian chant, gospel, soul and Middle Eastern singing alike, and it lets a singer show expression and agility.

A pattern repeated persistently, often for a whole section, while other parts change above it. Minimal techno and much film music build tension from ostinatos.

A short, repeated melodic or rhythmic figure, usually played by an instrument, that anchors a song. Rock riffs are often guitar figures; in electronic music the same role falls to a synth or bass line.

Two or more voices singing different notes at the same time, so that together they sound a chord. Stacked harmonies make a chorus feel wider and warmer.

A section where the beat drops out or thins, leaving pads, melody or vocals. On a dance floor it gives a moment to breathe before the music builds back.

A contrasting section, usually once and late in a song, that leaves the familiar verse and chorus before returning to them. It refreshes the ear before the last chorus.

A passage that raises tension toward a release: rising pitch, faster drum rolls, opening filters, added layers. In dance music it prepares the drop.

The moment after a build-up when the full beat and bassline return, often after a short silence. It is the release the arrangement has been preparing.

A longer version of a track, with extra intro, outro or instrumental sections, made for clubs and DJs rather than radio.

A short piece placed between the main songs of an album or EP to connect them. It usually drops verses and choruses in favour of a mood or a single idea, and works as a pause that shapes how the songs around it are heard.

A section of sound repeated seamlessly. Loops, from tape to software, are the building block of hip-hop, house and techno, where change comes from what is added or taken away.

A shortened version of a track for radio and streaming: a quicker start, fewer repeats, usually three to four minutes.

The common song structure that alternates verses (new words over similar music) with a recurring chorus (the same words and the hook). Most pop songs follow it.

Layers of sustained, slowly changing sound that create atmosphere rather than melody or beat. Many electronic tracks open and close with them.

An effect that repeats a sound after a set time, often several times and fading. Echoes timed to the tempo add rhythm; dub turned delay into an instrument of its own.

Deliberately overdriving a signal so that it clips and gains harmonics: grit on a guitar, a bass or a vocal. It adds aggression and presence.

A sustained sound or chord held under the music for a long time. Drones give ambient and psychedelic music its sense of space and suspension.

Gradually opening or closing a filter so that a sound goes from muffled to bright or back. Filter sweeps create build-ups and are a signature of French house.

The sound of a space: countless reflections that blend after the direct sound. Reverb places a voice in a room, a hall or an impossible space, and long reverbs make music feel distant or dreamlike.

A trembling effect made by rapidly repeating a note or by making its volume pulse up and down. On electric guitar it usually comes from an amplifier or pedal circuit, giving a shimmering, wavering sound associated with surf music, spaghetti-western soundtracks and 1960s pop.

A second finished recording of the same song by the same artist, with a different arrangement, tempo or sound rather than a reworking by another producer. Comparing two versions shows how much of a song's mood comes from production rather than from melody and words.

Reducing the difference between the loud and quiet parts of a sound. Compression makes vocals and drums sit forward and steady; pushed hard, it becomes an audible effect.

A Jamaican practice of remixing a record by stripping it to drums and bass and treating the rest with echo, reverb and drop-outs. Dub's studio techniques shaped techno, house and electronic music at large.

Music recorded with modest means, often at home, that keeps the marks of its making: room noise, simple equipment, imperfect takes. Lo-fi can be a necessity or a deliberate aesthetic, and many listeners hear it as more intimate than polished studio sound.

A track made by laying parts of two or more existing recordings on top of each other, typically the vocal of one song over the instrumental of another. Its art lies in finding songs whose tempo, key and phrasing line up.

The stage of making a record where all the recorded parts are balanced into one finished stereo track: their levels, placement, tone and effects. Mixing comes after recording and before mastering, and is often done by a specialist rather than by the producer.

Snapping played notes to a rhythmic grid. It gives machine precision; producers often loosen it, or add swing, to keep a human feel.

Preparing a finished recording again at the mastering stage, the last step before release: adjusting its loudness, tonal balance and dynamics, often from the original tapes and for a new format or reissue. Unlike a remix, a remaster leaves the arrangement and the balance between instruments as they were and changes only the overall sound.

A new version of a recording made by reworking its parts: changing the beat, harmony, tempo or structure, often by another producer. A remix can turn a ballad into a club track.

Taking a fragment of an existing recording and reusing it in a new one, as a loop, a chop or a texture. Sampling is central to hip-hop and dance music and raises questions of credit and copyright.

Compression that turns one sound down whenever another plays, typically pads or bass ducking under each kick drum. It makes room in the mix and creates the familiar pumping feel of house and EDM.

A synthesizer whose sound is made by analog circuits rather than computation. Their slight instability gives a warmth many producers seek, even emulated in software.

Software that corrects the pitch of a voice. Set to act instantly, it becomes an audible effect, the stepped, glassy vocal of much pop and hip-hop since the late 1990s.

An electronic instrument that plays programmed drum patterns. Its machine-steady time and synthetic sounds became the foundation of hip-hop, house, techno and synth-pop.

A drum machine released in 1980 whose booming kick, snappy snare and cowbell became some of the most used sounds in popular music, from electro and hip-hop to trap.

A device or program that records and plays back musical events in time, so a producer can program parts that repeat exactly.

An electronic instrument that generates sound from oscillators and shapes it with filters and envelopes. Synthesizers define the sound of electronic pop, house and techno.

A device that imposes the shape of a voice onto a synthesizer's sound, producing the robotic singing heard from Kraftwerk to Daft Punk.

A continuous sequence of tracks blended by a DJ so that one flows into the next. Extended and club mixes exist so that DJs have long intros and outros to mix with.

A light, high register of the voice above its normal range. Disco, soul and much contemporary pop use falsetto for a weightless, intimate or euphoric effect.

Playing the guitar by plucking the strings with the fingertips or nails instead of strumming with a pick. One player can then carry a bass line, chords and melody at once, and tapping or slapping the strings and body can add percussion.

A recording made in front of an audience rather than built in a studio. It captures energy, improvisation and the sound of the room, and often differs from the studio version.

A vocal delivered as speech rather than song: talked, recited or half-sung with little or no melody. In electronic and post-punk music a flat, deadpan spoken voice over a beat can sound cool, ironic or confrontational.

Playing the turntable as an instrument: scratching, cutting and juggling records by hand to make new rhythms and phrases rather than simply playing songs in sequence. It grew out of hip-hop DJing and has its own competitions, such as the DMC World DJ Championships.

The African-American music born in the Deep South around the start of the 20th century, built on call and response, bent "blue" notes and short repeating forms such as the twelve-bar blues. Almost every later popular style, from rock and soul to house, carries some of its scales and phrasing.

A late-1990s and early-2000s scene that fused 1980s electro, synth-pop and new wave with punk attitude, deadpan vocals and a taste for fashion and performance. It grew around labels such as International DeeJay Gigolo in Munich and clubs in New York, Berlin and Paris.

The music that followed punk from the late 1970s: still tense and stripped-down, but more experimental, with prominent bass, angular guitars, cold synthesizers and detached vocals. Its dark branches, gothic rock and darkwave, have been revived again and again since.

The world of nightclubs, DJs, dancers and their rituals in which house, techno and much dance music were made and are judged.

A new recording of a song by an artist other than the original. A cover can be faithful or transform the song's genre and meaning.

A guest performer credited on another artist's track, usually as "feat.": a rapper's verse, a singer's hook or a second voice. Features bring together different styles and audiences and are central to hip-hop, R&B and dance music.

A short film made to accompany a song. Since MTV it has shaped how songs are remembered, and on YouTube it is often the main way a song is heard.

Music written for or placed in a film, series or game. A placement can give a song a second life and an audience far beyond its genre.

An invented identity that a musician performs as: a mask, a character, a cartoon band or a pair of robots. A persona lets artists play with fame and image, keep their private selves hidden, and make the character part of the music's meaning.