Day 11
Ever been told that you have 2 left feet?
Something interesting in class caught my attention: people can’t count music beats. How is this possible? Cultural exposure, of course!
Each culture puts their own emphasis on specific beats in music. New world music (including Europe and the US), accentuates the first and third beats in a four count. Meanwhile Old world music (Africa) tend to stress the second and fourth beats. Ever gone to a concert where there’s discordant clapping? This is why.
Most of the current world’s popular music (including but not limited to pop and R&B) emphasize the 2 and 4 count. Americans tend to accent the 1 and 3 beat. See the problem? Each culture is taught to accentuate different beats, leading to the double left feet. Recently even Justin Bieber got annoyed enough during a concert to correct the audience, who had been clapping on the wrong beats: Justin Bieber audience admonition
It is possible to train oneself to listen for the correct beat. Having taken dance classes since I was 5, I would watch new students come into class completely off beat, starting too early or too late. Within a relatively short amount of time, those same students were teaching the next group of new students how to count the beats in the music.
Another new type of beat becoming increasingly popular is the swing beat. It pretty much sounds a lot like its name: one beat is lost as it r=transitions from one beat to another, resulting in only 3 beats. One, two, and three, four. The third beat is displaced as there is no definitive direct beat.
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