breakdown
13 tracksA 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.
Rhythm
tempo change
1 track.
What it is
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.
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half-time
0 tracksA 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.
Hear it in these tracks
Nicolas Jaar
Time For Us
A young Nicolas Jaar's slow, sultry minimal-house classic, a crooned vocal and dusty, swaying textures that famously sink from dance tempo into a long, swooning breakdown nobody wants to mix out of.