Songs that fool you about where the downbeat is.

I think "It's No Good" by Depeche Mode

That Clash one starts on beat 3.

I've often used 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' as a classic example of a drumless riff that starts on an upbeat, so it can be deceptive if you've never heard it before.

It's probably been mentioned already but 'Videotape' by Radiohead - the piano chords are syncopated, but the first chord doesn't fall on the "and" of "one and", it falls on the "and" of "four and" so the chords are always ahead of the beat.

Pyramid Song, sorta, in that sounds like a weird time-signature when it's just a slow, syncopated 4/4.

This one particularly is a funny one, because it has the ability to confuse a person where the "one" is for the duration of the entire song. Unlocking where the one is pulls the entire song into focus and makes the song sound as if it played completely straight.

(I count it like: one two three four five six seven eight, with a swung feel)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jySJWwyO5Vg

^ When this guy plays the pattern, you can hear the 4/4.

'Little by Little' has another syncopation trick, where the main riff sounds as if it should be on the "on" beat but is on the "off" beat instead.

this is a fun one to try to follow:

julie grant "stop"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kz0XOly6l0

this one from bee gees' 1st has always made me a little dizzy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JaUaIEh9F8

I've been trying to figure this one out for a while (the intro into the beginning of the song)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYfvzo331Pg

Sure, 'cause the piano chords are anticipating the downbeat by a 16th note

“Where Will I Be” by Emmylou Harris is one of these. Check out the released studio version vs either the Spyboy version or the alternate version on the expanded Wrecking Ball. Tricksy downbeat.

This one drives me crazy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rt5sdsKlYU

Wow, I listened to that Emmylou one and thought I had it, but I was wrong and can't get back to how I heard it the first time. It's all due to that cool beat that Brian Blade is playing (and I checked out the live version, where his brother is on drums and doing a much more straight-forward beat).

In The Air Tonight.

"I'm Free" The Who, back and forth verse and chorus are seemingly different downbeats

― billstevejim, Thursday, November 19, 2009 2:44 AM (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

On 'I'm Free', me and Pete had to play the drums and Keith played the breaks because he couldn't get the intro. He was hearing it differently from how we were, and he couldn't shake it off. So we put down the snare, the hi-hat and the tambourine part and he came in and added all the breaks. When we did it live, the only way to bring him in was for Pete and I to go like this [makes an exaggerated step], which must have looked completely nuts.
— John Entwistle[4]

When they played it live on their 1975-76 tours, Pete phrased the guitar part differently so that the one was easier to discern. No longer did he have to make an exaggerated step to cue Moon for his entrance.

Wow, I listened to that Emmylou one and thought I had it, but I was wrong and can't get back to how I heard it the first time. It's all due to that cool beat that Brian Blade is playing

i love that beat, but that one seems kind of straightforward to me. the opening gtr lick lands on the downbeat, as does the last word of every line in the verse.

It seems obvious now, but I was somehow hearing everything land on the 4, with the whole band leaving out the downbeat, lol.

The beat is very second line-ish, very nice.

I never listened to the Who much but it's cool listening to that track knowing how it was recorded, that's hilarious.

Similarly, the first two minutes of this track by a friend's band always confounds me. The bass doesn't start on the downbeat (I think there's one 8th note of anticipation), and the key is that the snare is actually on the backbeat (with the hi-hat accents on the upbeats), but it totally doesn't feel like that. It doesn't make sense until the heavy part two minutes in.

Apparently the bass player still thinks of it totally differently from the rest of the drummer, and still somehow works live even though they disagree where the downbeat is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SXP6OeDIqk

Sure, 'cause the piano chords are anticipating the downbeat by a 16th note

― change display name (Jordan), Friday, December 28, 2018 1:53 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's what's going on DURING the verse, but I can't hear it in the transition between the intro and the verse, I think maybe the downbeat just shifts

Idk I'm pretty sure it's the same from the beginning, but it's hard to feel since the bassline is so squirrelly too. But I can tap it out and it seems to line up once the percussion comes in.

"Tomorrow is Already Here" by Stereolab does this to me, but it's also in 5/4 which accounts for part of the disorientation.

That one's easy once the maraca comes in pretty much immediately.

It might have been mentioned already but does Roxy Music’s « the bogey man » work here ?
The drums seem pretty tricky.

Bogus Man !

Why Music Experts Are Fighting About Ludacris

The chiming 12-string bridge section of "Stairway To Heaven" is a good example of this, there's another thread that goes into it. This video (warning: dude is annoying af) goes into it if you can stomach watching all the way through:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhlLtd19szw

The Ludacris thing is a very stupid argument because all you need to do to get the answer is listen to the entire song instead of just the chorus

everything theo parrish has ever made

The Ludacris thing, I'm in the third group camp. Sounds like a latin jazz rhythm (muntuno?)

Genesis - "Keep It Dark."

The guitar-only intro sounds like a loping waltz. Then the drums and keys come in, and you realize you've been listening to the off-beats of a 6/4 groove.

The Ludacris thing...yes, it's a weird beat that feels very ungrounded, and the harmonic movement of the horns make you want to feel a downbeat on the & of 1, instead of on 1.

But OF COURSE the drums are in 'half time', and of course the snare is playing backbeats.

yeah i found it easy to hear 2 or 3 possible downbeats at first, but once i locked in on that same understanding -- snare playing backbeats -- it suddenly became impossible for me to hear it any other way.

So crazy to me that I would have definitely lined up the horn phrase with the second note landing on the downbeat, like a square, but Timbaland made a CHOICE.

Had to look it up, Tim used a sample (err... interpolation) of the opening horns & rhythm (tumbai/muntuno) of this Senegal Africando song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiOMHAi4Bto

Good call on Keep it Dark. Glorious Om Riff by Steve Village is syncopated in a similar vein, as is Disko by Komeda.

Woo-Hah by Busta Rhymes? Definitely with Space by Galt McDermott, which provides the sample, it's hard to follow the downbeat all the way through the song.

Heartbeat by Chris & Cosey, just because the 808 clap isn't "supposed to be" on the downbeat.

I’ve never able to follow the meter of this song (maybe that’s just my own failing):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXU4P6j3TNY

I didn't follow the Ludacris debate but, listening now, idk why you wouldn't just hear the snare as the backbeat.

the ariana song is a mid-tempo 4/4 with the fingersnaps on 3.

what makes "get well soon" hard to follow is it's heavily syncopated and often there isn't anything on the 1

Ride of the Valkyries. I just discovered the downbeat is not where I always thought it was, and I'm guessing most other people mis-hear it as well. I was watching a Youtube video, and the conductor looked out of time until I realized....whoa. My mind is kind of blown.

I'm very curious about this, because I can't imagine it anywhere else?

Trying to unhear it the way I do and am pondering the string stabs during the main riff?

Here are two ways to hear Ride of the Valkyries, in each the downbeat is capitalized.

1 2 3 1 2 3
1) DUT dadut daaaaa daaaaa DUT dadut daaaaa daaaaa etc.

1 2 3 1 2
2) dut dadut DAAAAA daaaaa dut dadut DAAAAA daaaaa etc.

The first one is how Wagner wrote it. The second is the way I've always heard it.

I'm interested in this phenomenon, especially when you're approaching a dance rig and the first round you hear are the high hats, but because you perceive them out of time they take on an almost ska-like quality 'mm-TSSS-UH mm-TSSS-UH' until you get closer and hear the kick drum and the whole beat switches into place. Any dance producers played on this before?

"Lost In Music" always gives me a little double take, which is part of the pleasure imo - it's like 'the pocket' is so deep in this song, the pocket has a pocket of its own

dl I have "played" on this many times by accidentally lining the records up on the off-beat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯