quoted 3 lines You guys think 357 bpm is crazy? Take a listen to teh track> You guys think 357 bpm is crazy? Take a listen to teh track
> "Thousand" by Moby. It starts out at a usual bpm and then
> kicks it up to literally 1000 bpm.
Although I'm sure one could turn a tempo knob up to 1000 bpm pretty easily
(creating what would certainly sound like a high pitched beep), the concept
itself is absurd (that is, it is nonsensical). A 'beat' is a term that
directly relates to the human perception of rhythm - if you can't detect a
rhythm of a given sound on some level, if you can't feel it pulsing, then I
don't think it's helpful to refer to its increments as 'beats'.
Sure, it may technically *be* 1000 bpm, and for the composer it may be
important to have that many beats to work with within each minute, but no
listener can detect a beat pattern that moves at a rate of around 17 beats
per second. It's like listening to a sped up tape of someone talking - after
a certain speed, the words lose meaning and become a blur of sound. At 1000
bpm, the beats (at least the ones that are hitting every 1/16 of a second)
are meaningless.
My guess is that the Moby track you mention has some other beat pattern that
is moving much more slowly, for example, around 100 bpm. If you can listen
to that song and tap your feet or nod your head to any aspect of the song,
then the rate at which you are bobbing your head is probably what we should
refer to as the song's effective tempo, not the 1000 bpm noise going on
alongside it.
Either that or Moby has moved into a new kind of music that has no
detectable rhythm and simply explores the realm of sonic textures. Doesn't
seem likely.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org
For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org