All mixtapes

Glossary

All the terms from the reader in one place. Type to search; the link takes you to the chapter.

12-bar blues: I–IV–V pattern over 12 bars with an AAB lyric
2 Tone: British label and movement for the ska revival and against racism (1979)
AABA: Song form of 32 bars with a contrasting bridge
AABA: 32-bar song form: A twice, a bridge (B), and A again
ADT: Automatic double tracking: doubling a voice automatically with a second tape recorder
Algorithm: Rule of calculation that decides which music you are offered
AOR: Album-oriented rock: radio that plays album tracks instead of singles
Auto-Tune: Software that corrects pitch, also used as an effect
Baby boom: The wave of births after 1945
Backbeat: Stress on beats 2 and 4
Bebop: Fast, harmonically complex jazz from the 1940s
Bedroom producer: Someone who makes a complete production at home
Blue note: Flattened third, fifth or seventh, often sung or played with a bend
Boerenrock: Rock in dialect, such as Normaal
BPM: Beats per minute: the tempo
Break: Instrumental section of a funk record, basis of hip hop
Break: Instrumental section of a funk record that people danced and rapped to
British Invasion: The wave of British bands that conquered the US from 1964
Britpop: British guitar pop of the 1990s, modelled on the Beatles and the Kinks
Canon: The list of works regarded as important
Classic blues: Urban blues by women singers with a band, 1920s
Clave: The rhythmic key pattern of Afro-Cuban music
Concept album: Album with a continuous idea, story or framework
Confessional: Personal, autobiographical song lyrics
Contrafact: A new melody on the chords of an existing song
Counterculture: The counterculture of the 1960s, against war and materialism
Credit: Official acknowledgement of who did what on a recording
Diaspora: Dispersal of a people outside their land of origin
Distortion / fuzz: Distortion from an overdriven amplifier or pedal
Distortion / fuzz: Distortion of the guitar signal
DIY: Do it yourself: recording, releasing and organising things yourself
Downtempo: Slow, atmospheric electronic music
Drone: A sustained note or chord under the music
Drop: The moment when, after a build-up, the beat and the bass come in
Drop-D: Guitar tuning with the low E a whole tone lower
Drum machine: Device that plays drum patterns, such as the TR-808
Drum machine: Device that plays back drum patterns (TR-808, LinnDrum)
Eurodance: European dance with rapped verses and a sung chorus
FM synthesis: Making sound by letting waves modulate one another's frequency
Folk process: Passing a song on by word of mouth and constantly reworking it
Four-on-the-floor: Bass drum on every beat, the basis of disco and house
Four-on-the-floor: Bass drum on every beat, the foundation of disco
Four-on-the-floor: Bass drum on every beat (disco, house)
Frontline: The melody instruments of a New Orleans band: cornet, clarinet, trombone
Fusion: A merging of jazz with rock and funk
Gender bending: Deliberately playing with masculine and feminine appearance
G-funk: West Coast hip hop with slow funk grooves and synthesizers
Head: The theme at the beginning and end of a jazz performance
Hidden track: A track that is not listed on the sleeve and follows after silence
Hi-NRG: Fast, electronic dance music from the clubs, the basis of SAW
Hook: The catchy part you remember
Hook: Short, recognisable motif that sticks in the mind
House: Electronic dance music from Chicago with a four-on-the-floor beat
Indorock: Rock 'n' roll by Indo-Dutch people, 1950s and 1960s
I-V-vi-IV: The most widely used chord progression in pop
Kleinkunst: Dutch-language song with emphasis on the lyrics, from cabaret
Leslie: Speaker with rotating horns, used with the Hammond organ
Masters: The original recordings, usually owned by the label
MIDI: Standard with which instruments and computers exchange notes
MIDI: Standard (1983) by which instruments and computers communicate
Modal jazz: Improvising on scales (modes) instead of rapid chord changes
Modulation: A change to another key
Motorik: Stoic, continuous 4/4 beat from krautrock
MP3: Compressed audio file, about ten times smaller than a CD track
Musique concrète: Music from recorded everyday sounds (Paris, 1948)
Nederbeat: Dutch beat music of the 1960s, mostly in English
Nederhop: Dutch-language hip hop
Nederpop: Dutch pop music, mostly in its own language
On the one: Funk's emphasis on the first beat
One drop: Reggae rhythm with the bass drum on the third beat
Open tuning: Guitar tuned so that the open strings form a chord
Oscillator: Electronic circuit that generates a tone
Overdub: Recording an extra part on top of an existing recording
Payola: Paying DJs or radio stations to play records
Peer-to-peer: Sharing files directly between users, without a central server
Pickup: Magnet that converts the vibration of a steel string into current
Poppodium: Venue for pop concerts, such as Paradiso
Power ballad: Slow, emotional rock song that grows to a loud climax
Power chord: Chord of root and fifth, without a third
Power chord: Chord of root and fifth, without the third
Pre-chorus: Build-up between verse and chorus
Producer: The person who decides the sound and recording of a record
Publishing: The rights to the song itself: melody and lyrics
Quality control: The weekly review of new recordings at Motown
Quiet-loud dynamics: Alternation of soft verses and loud choruses (Pixies, Nirvana)
Rhythm changes: The chords of I Got Rhythm, the basis of countless contrafacts
Riddim: The rhythmic basis of drums and bass in reggae
Riff: Short, repeated instrumental motif, often the hook of a rock song
Riot grrrl: Feminist punk movement of the 1990s
Rude boys: Jamaican street culture, linked to ska and rocksteady
Sample: A piece of an existing recording, reused as a building block
Sampler: Device that makes recorded sound playable
Sampling: Reusing recorded sound as a building block
Sequencer: Device that repeats a series of notes or sounds
Sheet music: Written-out music, the product of Tin Pan Alley
Ska: Jamaican music with accents on the offbeat
Skiffle: British do-it-yourself music with washboard and tea-chest bass (1950s)
Solid body: Guitar made of solid wood, less prone to feedback
Song plugger: Pianist who promoted new songs by playing them live
Soul: Gospel and rhythm and blues with secular lyrics
Strain: Complete 16-bar section in ragtime and march music
Streaming: Playing music over the internet without owning the file
Subculture: A smaller group within a culture with deviating norms, not necessarily young
Subtractive synthesis: Making sound by filtering a rich wave
Superproducer: Producer whose sound matters more than that of the artist
Swing eighths: Uneven eighth notes, long–short
Syncopation: Accent between or before the beat
Synthesizer: Instrument that generates and shapes sound electronically
Synthesizer: Electronic instrument that generates and shapes sound
Tape loop: A piece of recording tape that goes round and repeats endlessly
Topliner: Writes melody and lyrics on top of an existing beat
Tritone substitution: Replacing a dominant with the dominant a tritone away
Varispeed: Playing a tape faster or slower, which changes both tempo and pitch
Vocoder: Device that puts the timbre of a voice onto a synthesizer
Wall of Sound: Production style of Phil Spector, with doubled instruments and reverb
Youth culture: A group of young people with their own clothing, language, behaviour and music