Off Beat Clapping at Concerts
- Thread starter CousinLarry
- Start date
I was once at a club and off in this sideroom, four middle-aged white dudes were having a hoedown of sorts, attempting to clap along to the house music from the other room. One dude would clap at the exact time the other dude wasn't clapping while two other dudes clapped a split second after that. It created the most bizarre time signature that buggles my mind to this day.
That's called polyrhythmics my friend
I've heard of such a thing, but not this night. This was more along the lines of: two Fela records playing at the time time, with the fader right in the middle.
one of my best friends since like kindergarten is a smart dude but man he is far beyond rhythmically challenged. he will automatically clap in the wrong spot, even if right next to 10 people who are doing it right. and this is after he knows its wrong and is trying to do it right!
i dunno man. how do we know it's not you scatterclapping? your dude is probably posting right now in an alternate interverse in that thread "childhood buddies who can't clap correct".
although, i'm sure he's cutting you a little slack on account of those 10 other people with no rhythm influencing your offbeatedness.
some of you sound real
Ha ha. I'm sure it's not just white people, but what is the deal with people clapping on the 1. I think there are a lot of older white people to blame for this. Maybe there is a time to clap on the 1 and 3, but in my head it seems like the proper thing to do is mimic the snare with your clap (since it's a similar sound). Clapping on the 1,2,3,and 4 could be ok, but that's usually not the case.
They get rolling on the 1 and 3 and then the people around them start getting confused and eventually it jumbles into the tin roof scenario and will finally turn into full blown applause as an attempt to cover the lack of rhythm.
I was once at a club and off in this sideroom, four middle-aged white dudes were having a hoedown of sorts, attempting to clap along to the house music from the other room. One dude would clap at the exact time the other dude wasn't clapping while two other dudes clapped a split second after that. It created the most bizarre time signature that buggles my mind to this day.
Reminds me of this story in Mezz Mezzrow's book Really The Blues, where his jazz band somehow gets booked to play at a country hoedown, and although they go over suprisingly well, the band's sense of swing clashes with the "geometry" (Mezzrow's word) of the local yokels' square-dance style.
[color:red]White people clapping is like some free jazz shit.
[color:blue]Ha ha. I'm sure it's not just white people, but what is the deal with people clapping on the 1.
Haven't listened to it in a minute, but if I'm not mistaken, isn't the 99% black audience on the Wattstax album clapping off-time to one (or more) of the Staple Singers' songs? Or is it that delayed stadium echo messing with people's heads?
[color:blue]Ha ha. I'm sure it's not just white people, but what is the deal with people clapping on the 1.
Haven't listened to it in a minute, but if I'm not mistaken, isn't the 99% black audience on the Wattstax album clapping off-time to one (or more) of the Staple Singers' songs? Or is it that delayed stadium echo messing with people's heads?
Ha ha. I'm sure it's not just white people, but what is the deal with people clapping on the 1. I think there are a lot of older white people to blame for this. Maybe there is a time to clap on the 1 and 3, but in my head it seems like the proper thing to do is mimic the snare with your clap (since it's a similar sound). Clapping on the 1,2,3,and 4 could be ok, but that's usually not the case.
They get rolling on the 1 and 3 and then the people around them start getting confused and eventually it jumbles into the tin roof scenario and will finally turn into full blown applause as an attempt to cover the lack of rhythm.
You have it all wrong. The white people were clapping on the nothing. They were not even close to any part of the beat.
[color: green]I think there are a lot of older white people to blame for this. Maybe there is a time to clap on the 1 and 3, but in my head it seems like the proper thing to do is mimic the snare with your clap (since it's a similar sound). Clapping on the 1,2,3,and 4 could be ok, but that's usually not the case.
Which reminds me...what was the deal with that "soul clap," which pretty much sounds like people clapping on the 1,2,3 and 4?
Which reminds me...what was the deal with that "soul clap," which pretty much sounds like people clapping on the 1,2,3 and 4?
haha i have this monthly gig that I do for the $$ but it's a drag and like the whitest gig EVAR, and this one song people always get into it and start clapping, and I'm looking around and always see all these old people crapping as far AWAY from ANY beat as humanly possible. always fucking cracks me up. but hey, they're having a good time, so i can't hate on 'em.
) but i couldn't hang... i'd clap along for 4 or 8 bars but then just give up, feels so square. 2 and 4 is completely ingrained on me at this point, for better or worse
i know dude! i was at a Latinamerican music concert last weekend and the band kept getting the audience to clap on 1 and 3. It was a mostly-Latino audience so people could generally stay on the beat (
I was gonna start a thread about this about a month ago, specifically about the breakdown of use me, but then I got shook by the massive appreciation thread about that album I found searching around. I love the album, but I gotta cosign about the white crowds. Despite the killer set Bill and co put on, in my mind I imagine the crowd at Carnegie Hall in the late 70's was pretty white, pretty middle aged, and pretty damn confused by that syncopated breakdown.
I was gonna start a thread about this about a month ago, specifically about the breakdown of use me, but then I got shook by the massive appreciation thread about that album I found searching around. I love the album, but I gotta cosign about the white crowds. Despite the killer set Bill and co put on, in my mind I imagine the crowd at Carnegie Hall in the late 70's was pretty white, pretty middle aged, and pretty damn confused by that syncopated breakdown.
I find myself wishing Bill would have a Mingus moment and stop the song and tell the crowd to shut up.
"Look mutherfuckers if you can't do it good, don't do it at all!"
Ha - talk shows are the ultimate off-beat clapping scenario ...
is there anything harder to watch than when a rapper performs
on Letterman or whatever, and they show the crowd? 500 middle-aged
middle-Americans all clapping completely out of time with these
bogus smiles plastered on their face, while on stage dudes are rhyming
about "I got money, man" and the realities of life at the strip club.
is there anything harder to watch than when a rapper performs
on Letterman or whatever, and they show the crowd? 500 middle-aged
middle-Americans all clapping completely out of time with these
bogus smiles plastered on their face, while on stage dudes are rhyming
about "I got money, man" and the realities of life at the strip club.
...
i experienced this last sat at this gig i record down in the woods. Its some festival every weekend in a natural amphitheater. I think a pic is currently my avatar.
Anyways, there was like 200 people there and during the middle of this blue grass set, two of the whitest people on the planet were clapping all kinds of janky and off beat like 100 yards from me. Everybody there was staring at them like someone farted in public. Disgraced shaking head screwface looks. Didnt phase mister and miss cornbread though (
) at all. They just kept going at it all hellbent and loud as shit. This one dude that looked like tommy chong kept giving them the
and muttering shit at them throughout the show. it was pretty ridiculous to see how "rhythm-retarded" some people can be. I kept fucking with the soundguy doing my best Deliverance impression clapping like i was in a square dance. heeeeeee haaawwwwwwwwwwww
Anyways, there was like 200 people there and during the middle of this blue grass set, two of the whitest people on the planet were clapping all kinds of janky and off beat like 100 yards from me. Everybody there was staring at them like someone farted in public. Disgraced shaking head screwface looks. Didnt phase mister and miss cornbread though (
