breakbeat
10 tracksA 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.
Rhythm
syncopation
6 tracks.
What it is
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.
Read more on WikipediaRelated concepts
groove
37 tracksThe 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.
off-beat
5 tracksThe 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.
Hear it in these tracks
Whilk & Misky
Clap Your Hands
The 2014 breakthrough of the London duo Whilk & Misky: a barefoot, bossa-nova-tinged acoustic song with handclaps for percussion, played on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show and later carried onto dance floors by a Solomun remix.
Robin Thicke, T.I., Pharrell Williams
Blurred Lines
A cowbell-clacking, falsetto-laced funk-pop strut from Robin Thicke, Pharrell and T.I. that owned the summer of 2013 and then the courtroom.
Ed Sheeran
Shape of You
A plucked marimba-like loop, a dancehall bounce and a flirtation that starts at the bar: Shape of You is the minimal pop machine that took over the world in 2017.
Fernanda Porto
Sambassim
Fernanda Porto's own Sambassim: the São Paulo composer's song that fused samba and bossa nova melody with electronic beats and helped name a style, drum 'n' bossa.
Nouvelle Vague
Too Drunk to Fuck
Nouvelle Vague turn the Dead Kennedys' punk satire into a hushed bossa nova sung by Camille, a 2004 cover whose softness makes the lyric more absurd and more unsettling than the original's noise.
Jorge Ben Jor
Take It Easy My Brother Charles
Jorge Ben's 'Take It Easy My Brother Charles' is a two-and-a-half-minute samba-soul classic from his 1969 album: a swinging guitar, Trio Mocotó's percussion and a warm word of caution to a 'brother of color', half in Portuguese, half in English.