four-on-the-floor
14 tracksA 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.
Rhythm
off-beat
5 tracks.
What it is
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.
Read more on WikipediaRelated concepts
house groove
26 tracksThe 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.
syncopation
6 tracksAccents 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.
Hear it in these tracks
Joss Stone
Less Is More
A teenage Joss Stone leans into a lilting, reggae-kissed soul groove and sings about wanting less with the husky authority of a singer twice her age.
Jain
So Peaceful
Zanaka's gentle closer, a reggae-tinged sway where Jain lets the album's travels settle into calm, sunlit contentment.
Ayọ
Down On My Knees
Ayọ pleads for a lost love over acoustic guitar and a gentle reggae lilt: the 2006 debut single, recorded with a live band in five days in New York, that made a German-Nigerian singer a star in France.
The Police
Roxanne
Sting wrote 'Roxanne' after seeing street workers near the band's Paris hotel in 1977: a plea to a woman to leave that life, set to off-beat reggae guitar and a tango-like rhythm, the A&M debut single that became the Police's signature song.
