Can be from any genre. Mine is when an acoustic guitar comes in towards the end of a song and totally changes or reframes the mood/energy (see “Money” by Widowspeak)
2, 5, flat 6 to the key change. Or a nice 4 minor chord.
Not sure if it’s a trope, per se, but I love finding good covers of my favorite songs in other languages.
Edit: When the lyrics switch into a different language on a breakdown. That’s a trope, right?
My favorite example is this one, because it’s a faithful translation of the meaning of the song while substituting words to keep the rhymes.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=SWfB6-kJzik
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
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If you’re on Twitter, the account @foreigncovers posts covers in other languages.
I’m a sucker for a good buildup and drop in EDM. As much as I complain about tracks whose sole purpose is the drop, if I’m feeling the song and there’s a good drop, you’ll likely see this 40yr old’s bass face.
In hip hop production, at the start of a new bar, silencing the drums and bass for the first quarter note - a technique J Dilla popularized. If your nodding your head along to beat, and the 1 is silenced like that it, it really just hits harder.
In jam/improv based music, the tension and release theory. Where the lead instrument solos in a certain key without ever hitting the root note of that key. It builds up a sense of tension since we expect to hear that note but aren’t. The solo continues and the tension increases. Eventually the lead instrument hits that note, and if the band is good, the rest of the their parts increase in intensity simultaneously. The result is a sense of release from the tension and even euphoria.
This one is probably very specific but Utada Hikaru has one that I love, where towards the end of certain songs she sings the chrous, and then keeps the same melody going multiple times but with different lyrics. It’s like she extends the feeling and rhythm of the chorus but keeps it interesting by using different lyrics the whole time. Some examples: Goodbye Happiness, Making Love, About Me, LETTERS, Sakura DROPS.
I can’t think of any more examples, but bands that rework an old popular song and keep parts of the melody and make a new one. Both examples I know of are teen spirit/rape me by Nirvana… and linoleum/linewleum by nofx and are both, imo, reflections of what gained them a larger following. Can you name some more?
Music that is REALLY stereo. I recently-ish got a pair of open back planar magnetic headphones, which sound bloody brilliant. So wide, so open, so crisp! It’s almost like VR for your ears with certain tracks and albums.
So ye! Songs that really lean hard on having fun with stereo, or just really well engineered music in general. I was FLOORED when I listened to Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral for the first time with those things, so much fine detail and incredible audio engineering in that album. I’d honestly consider it one of the best engineered albums I’ve ever listened to, and I’m saying this as a huge Steely Dan fan.
Another go to for me is Pond’s Man, It Really Feels Like Space Again. Psychedelic music just hits so incredibly well when I use those headphones, and this album in particular just really takes me through a friggen journey when listening to it.
Lucid Dreams by Frans Ferdinand was one song that stood out to me, at least it was the first one that did after I got my first pairs of nice headphones. It’s the 7:55 minute version, and the part starts to build around 4:38
All Along The Watchtower blew my mind when I listened to it through headphones for the first time. I’d heard it hundreds, if not thousands of times over the years, but either in pubs and clubs, or through fairly crappy equipment where you couldn’t hear the effect.
I got myself a pair of half decent headphones, and decided to try something different to the usual fairly modern punk and rock that I like, and it just happened to be in the playlist.
I had no idea that it sounded that good :)
That is literally called The Gallop!
A lot of old Iron Maiden will fit that quite well, of course, maybe most infamously, The Trooper.
All the Kings Horses - Two Steps from Hell
I love a good “stickedibum”. Which is a song ending in 4 quick drum sounds. I can’t quite explain it, but for example the four very last drum notes on Alive by Pearl Jam is a stickedibum.
Breakdowns. Chug chug chug chug chug Random growls and barks
Mmmmmmmmmm. Soothes my soul.
I love when the track goes completely silent for a single rest after some buildup and then punches back into the full chorus. If that “gap” in noise is part of the melody itself it’s even cooler. It makes the following sound so much more impactful, even if the actual volume hasn’t increased by much.
Have to agree. Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins executes on this so perfectly.
Yeah, that’s one of my favorites too! Got any good examples you like? One of my favs is “Ivory” by Polyphia. It hits right towards the end of the song and always gets me good.
Going back to my skater teen phase, “hands down” by Dashboard Confessional has a good one.
Classic, it’s a good one.
Create by OVERWERK is a good example that uses what I’m talking about multiple times throughout.
I dig it, cool song!
Right now it’s breakdowns in hyperpop songs that are a lil too dubstepy but don’t overstay their welcome. Underscores is a great example
I really love concept albums where the chorus of the first song makes a return in the finale. Makes it feel so conplete.
Examples, all power metal:
- Gloryhammer - Return to the kingdom of Fife
- Memories of Old - The Zeramin Game
- Marius Danielsen’s Legend of Valley Doom - (all three albums listened to together)
In a similar vein i really like the pink floyd vamp. Its on (i think) 50% of the songs on dark side of the moon. Its Gm7 and C9 back and forth on great gig in the sky but there are a few variations. For example Em and A7 on breathe or its used here and there in “time” with F#m and A.
It ties alot of their songs together and sounds amazing.
acoustic guitar comes in towards the end of a song and totally changes or reframes the mood/energy
The Stage by Avenged Sevenfold fits the bill. Especially if you watch the video along with the music, that song is just all around fucking great, to include the ending.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=fBYVlFXsEME
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
BT - Firewater is a very extreme example of this. First part of the song is more ‘ethnic electronica’.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=mpCKXXFFhAg
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I was also reminded of A7X except I thought of their song Sidewinder. The guitar ending is my favorite part.
I call them groove breaks, when the song takes a little break and just grooves for a bit.
The video version of Even Flow by Pearl Jam has a great one, Stranglehold has one, the album version of Sweet Emotions has one as the intro, so maybe not technically a break.
You might like Utah, Gateway to Nevada by A Plage of Locusts then. It changes back and forth between a slower, groovy chorus, and a slightly more energetic refrain.
