Have you noticed that a single basic beat has become the rhythmic soundtrack to everything? This "hip-hop" beat has become too ubiquitous to even be called that anymore. The tempo varies and the beat may be modified, inverted, to keep it "interesting." But it's the same beat! (It is sometimes called the "
amen break.") Back in the 1960s it was possible to listen to tTop 40 radio and hear mambo, swing, rock, and samba. Now such rhythmic diversity is unimaginable.
DJs favor this uniformity because they can blend everything together into one long hypnotizing monorhythm. Rock, pop, and "alternative, music" were mostly assimilated in the 1990s. Country music has now largely succumbed. The many genres of Latin popular music represent the last great reserve of both African polyrhythms and traditional European dance rhythms such as polka and waltz. Now even they are at risk from a reggae inflected hybrid of the "basic beat" that is particularly contagious.
I don't want to blame hip-hop artists for this rhythmic mass-extinction. Hip-hop DJs may have hooked us all by mixing that beat in so many cool ways. But in the end it was the music industry that saw to it that every commercial, ringtone, and band with a contract was marching to the same drummer.
No guilt trips here. Don't feel bad when you catch yourself movin' to the crunching fresh beat of a car commercial. Just check out Cabaret Decadance! We know how to polka, cha-cha, waltz, swing, and bump & grind! Break out of the commercial break-beat enchantment and discover the magic of Cabaret Decadance!
