Learning that groove is at the center of West African and African-American music and how it plays a critical role in giving “perception of a human, steady pulse in a musical performance” made me think that this might be the genre I’ll look into for when I’m creating music for our own live performance. As a dancer myself, I’d love to make the audience feel the urge to just break into a dance while they listen to our rhythm. It was interesting how altering such small details can completely change the nuance of the music, there wasn’t a lot of things to say or do.

The fact that the backbeat is presumed to be “some very ancient human musical behavior” that was one of the earliest musical attempts of humankind and that we’re still using it as the backbone of our music compositions after all these years made me wonder if having a backbeat is crucial for all types of music, or whether it can be omitted by choice. Is the reason why it sustained for this long solely due to it being a necessity in creating music, or is it because it’s helpful/personal choice of style/etc.?

Finally, the comment about the current music industries and how “rather convincing electronic tracks have replaced the drummer” in recorded tracks made me remember a question I’ve been harboring for a long time. I’ve always wondered whether the strings/orchestra in the background of songs were live recorded backtracks, or whether they were just electric keyboard synthesizers with keys that mimic the sound of strings playing. I just thought that using simple keyboards would save the musician’s budget by a lot more compared to hiring a live ensemble, and whether we’d be able to tell the difference between the two because nowadays, technology has evolved to the point where the tracks it produces are “rather convincing,” as the writer claims.

p.s. Here’s just a quote that I thought was really powerful — I wanted to write it here so that I’ll keep this in mind as I produce projects in the future. “For what is soul in music, if not a powerfully embodied human presence?”