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)
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.
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.
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.
Have to agree. Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins executes on this so perfectly.
I love songs that completely change genre partway through. Can be slow acoustic songs that switch to fast techno; loud, bangy songs that turn calm and soft; rap songs with calm, piano-based choruses; whatever.
Examples would be:
- Still Loving You by Sonata Arctica
- Lost Winter Days by Alpine Universe
- Journey to the End by Windir
- Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance.
Don’t forget Bohemian Rhapsody, the all-time king of this niche.
God yes, using changing genres to tell a story in your music is such a power move
Stairway?
Yeah, Stairway is another great example.
Aqualung does it well, too.
This, but primarily more along proggy lines.
On that subject, Sleep Token - The Summoning has a fun progression https://youtu.be/wJNbtYdr-Hg
I like it when the vocalist announces what’s coming next, like yelling “GUITAR!” right before a guitar solo or “bring back the horns” right before the brass section kicks in or “sing it, girls” right before the female backups echo the refrain.
I really like this one for certain genres like Funk or RnB that are generally more energetic and spontaneous when performed live. Helps the recorded material feel a little more alive.
Even better when the singer “requests” it from their bandmate by name. (e.g. Honey Don’t by The Beatles)
GUITAR
I Believe in a Thing Called Love!
Siren noises and airhorns and generally post-ironic soundboard noises. Like remember DJs in the early 2000s? When the radio sounded like
(Tires screeching) Husky overly excited voice: you’re listening (Siren blaring) To the one and only (Red tailed hawk screech) (Machine gun noises) 97.4 (Dog barking) (mgm lion roar) KZRL “Krazy” FM (Choir sings hallelujah) Your one-stop-shop for hits from the 70s and 80s (Chorus from “don’t you forget about me” plays) (Guitar solo from Panama)
All those stupid noises are great when they get shoved into mid 2010s dubstep music, and when they are put into SoundCloud mashups.
Teacher: “You can’t hear text”
Random Lemmy Comment:
Back when you downloaded new ringtones via SMS short codes you found on the back of a magazine
Only assholes put sirens in music. Me in my car trying to find where the trouble is.
I quite enjoy it when songs sneakily build up, starting out with a mellow rhythm and after a few minutes, you find yourself in the middle of an epic solo on top of this thick carpet of rhythm, and it’s all very much over the top, but it works, because of that slow build-up.
I used to get annoyed by pink floyd songs being so slow. I now realize it’s so much more powerful and overwhelming because it started slow
I love that in Handlebars, where the music and the lyrics build up and slowly get louder and more dynamic and more impressive through the whole song until a huge crescendo, then it all comes down again very suddenly for the last few lines repeating the first few lines. Love it.
I love that train track or horse gallop chugging rhythm some songs have.
Gives me feelings of movement forward, travel or progression.
Great car songs!Muse - Knights of Cydonia, Roy Orbison - I Drove All Night is probably a good examples of this.
That is literally called The Gallop!
Oh, cool!
A lot of old Iron Maiden will fit that quite well, of course, maybe most infamously, The Trooper.
Mixing metal with other genres or introducing instruments or elements that you otherwise wouldn’t expect in metal.
By now most of these are considered to be subgenres of metal but for me it blew my mind when I first encountered them.
Bands like Ayreon, Avantasia, Subscribe, Therion, Haggard, Nightwish, Ostura, just to name a few.
Wheel of Time by Blind Guardian is one of my all-time favorites. Looking at the other bands you linked, I’m guessing you’ve already heard it; but for others reading this, clicky the linky!
Symphonic Metal is such a small genre though… I want more! Q_Q
Key change!
Not sure if this is a trope per se, but I love when sounds don’t sound “perfect” - the producer kept in a little vocal waver, or the snare isn’t hit with the exact same intensity every time. The little imperfections make it feel/sound like real humans are playing the music!
I think that can be said about pretty much any creative work. Those little imperfections are what make it real, and I love it.
Hollywood using old vintage lenses for their design flaws, CG artists deliberately putting scratches and dust spots on their models, and so many more examples.To come back to music, I believe no robot will ever be able to play Clair de Lune with the gentle delicacy and softness that a human who just lets themselves flow with the sound can produce.
That’s what it’s all about.
Check out Since I’ve Been Loving You by Led Zeppelin. The kick drum pedal squeaks all the way through, and they left it in.
I like it when a chorus gets built up more on each repetition, either with the addition of more instrumental parts, new harmonies or background vocals, or a beat change that brings up the intensity.
Similarly, I like when that same effect happens within 2 halves of a chorus. Example of one I heard recently is the chorus of the song “Breathing” by ELLEGARDEN. The 2nd half adds a higher vocal harmony + a picked lead guitar line that open up the sound a bit and just give it a nice little emotional boost.
Untitled 8 by Sigur Ros does this sort of thing.
It’s fairly slow towards the beginning, but then they go into the best buildup-drop-buildup-drop-final climax thing I’ve ever heard.
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.
If you’re on Twitter, the account @foreigncovers posts covers in other languages.
i love the “stepped sound” electro swing music has, especially when brass instruments come into play; the best example i can find is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGbW44AEHeM
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=HGbW44AEHeM
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
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)
I like it when a song turns to sounding like a large group of people singing the song.
