The Music Theory of CBAT (the reddit guy song)

[@AdamNeely]

Watch this video (and all my videos) on Nebula ad free! nebula.tv/videos/adam-neely-the-music-theory-of-cbat-the-reddit-guy-song

[@lucas-nk9mu]

Ok

[@lucas-nk9mu]

I gotchu Adam Needly

[@AlbornozVEVO]

"CBAT is a microtonal reharmonization of All I Want for Christmas is You" is the wildest sentence spoken so far this year.

[@Mdjagg]

Im assuming you haven't heard the president speak this year! Lol

[@AlbornozVEVO]

@@Mdjagg which president

[@Mdjagg]

Good question.

[@sharpiestealer]

tbf i always thought it was more adjacent to dance of the sugarplum fairy which is equally as cursed imo

[@AlbornozVEVO]

@@sharpiestealer makes sense. both have a descending motif and staccato notes.

[@communismwithgiggles2515]

“She recognized the rhythm and asked me to stop.” I have never been so devastated at laughing at a sentence in my life.

[@RaptorT1V]

LMAO 🤣

[@ACAB.forcutie]

But like that's how you know he was thrusting to the melody and not the baseline🤣💀

[@ACAB.forcutie]

@@titlewave489 but then.. how did she recognize it? It was the melody bro 🤣

[@EmeraldLavigne]

LMAO owned

[@Lucidtundra]

yeh but like HAVE U BEEN F'ED IDK BOUT YOU BUT WE CAN FEEL THE RHYTHM

[@etruskin2924]

when you said "putting cbat to the test" i thought the video would take a WAYY different turn.

[@tehdopefish]

Gotta sign up for Nebula to get that part of the video.

[@turtlesarecaredfor]

@@tehdopefish NOOOOOOOO 😂😂

[@Jellopuff_TAS]

@@tehdopefish This reply is undeniable proof that some good can come out of the KZbin comment section

[@offcenterprofilepicture6274]

@@Jellopuff_TAS my joke was better

[@Jellopuff_TAS]

@@offcenterprofilepicture6274 Not really. You kinda just stole tehdopefish's joke and gave it a worse punchline... All good things must come to an end :(

[@savlecz1187]

Not gonna lie, when Adam said "putting CBAT to the test", I expected a different story than a band concert.

[@ryanconnelly7782]

"i decided to test that....last week i was on tour with my band" gave such a mounting sense of dread

[@agmass]

@@ryanconnelly7782 say gex

[@LizordSword]

​@@ryanconnelly7782certainly mounting

[@qwertyuiop.lkjhgfdsa]

thats only on nebula

[@McKeelix]

I’d say it’s a little more like an auditory loss.jpg than a rickroll. It’s simple enough to sneak into compositions without sounding out of place, yet distinct enough that you recognize it almost immediately. I honestly hope this meme sticks around the way rickrolls and loss memes have; it has a lot of creative potential.

[@pro-lapser]

Kind of like THAT famous "Lick"

[@gibbous_silver]

like the megalovania 4 notes

[@hundredLeech]

l lI ll L

[@jllemin4]

Once I put loss.jpg into my terraria house wall and it took months for my friend to recognize it. It was amazing

[@cottoncandiez8872]

​@@pro-lapserdunno what lick you're talking about

[@ob1quixote]

“She recognized this and asked me to stop.” I had to pause and take off my glasses I laughed so hard.

[@Monocultured01]

Read the whole post. It's glorious.

[@billyalarie929]

@@Monocultured01 one of the funniest things ever to happen on the internet. Not even trying to be hyperbolic.

[@ACAB.forcutie]

That's how you know he was thrusting to the melody and not the baseline 🤣

[@debrucey]

Not necessarily. She might have recognised it by his facial expression or maybe he was humming under his breath.

[@ACAB.forcutie]

@@debrucey do you, in your heart of hearts, believe this? Cuz.. I've had sex with lots of men who don't realize they are very bad at sex, and I just.. can't give him the benefit of the doubt 🤣

[@ellendegenerate3186]

This sounds like a song you’d hear in a horror movie while the characters are going through a psychedelic clown maze

[@kakolovessharks]

This is so specific yet so accurate

[@AmstradExin]

Never heard of it.

[@MaryTheresa1986]

🤡 🤡

[@FungleFunTime]

The 'lead synth' is actually a door creak off a horror themed SFX vinyl, so that actually makes sense

[@exodus3015]

With a bunch of reverb and sped up in my head

[@thomasgadd6438]

I don't know if Adam realizes that when he says CBAT will be a rhythmic rickroll, it automatically means that now CBAT's fate is to become a rhythmic rickroll

[@Ugly_German_Truths]

I'm not sure that is a thing deserving the future tense anymore as he filled the video with examples of it HAPPENING already. Including by his own band on tour... it's not a prophecy if you did cause it to happen months ago :P

[@Geoff69420]

@@Ugly_German_Truths I don't really think that using the plural word "months" is appropriate for describing an event from only one singular month ago. "Weeks", yes, but it's still at least one month too early to describe the cbat-roll as something which has been around for "months".

[@chuckycharliepeeper-oni9392]

A rhythmic rickroll... Like a certain other drum lick...

[@user-ty8vz5lj1z]

@@chuckycharliepeeper-oni9392 which one?

[@chuckycharliepeeper-oni9392]

@@user-ty8vz5lj1z How... Oblivious of you... 😏

[@brynnjohnson2316]

Can confirm the usage of CBAT as a rhythmic rickroll - my choir director used it as a rhythm exercise during rehearsals at one point and no one realized until it was too late.

[@PainSled]

"...and no one realized until it was too late." To which my mind appends: "The ensuing bloodbath will haunt me to the end of my days." What is wrong with me?

[@js-cm9si]

​@@PainSledYou're mind thirsts for the glory of battle.

[@k3ywarrior]

imagine the feelings of that girlfriend dumping the guy and trying to escape this 2 year nightmare just to encounter later her weekly (or daily) torture have became a popular meme

[@tangiers365]

It was on reddit where most stories are not true. Probably a virgin who said it

[@ridley2333]

@@tangiers365 actually I'm pretty sure the girl confirmed it

[@SodiumChloride_NaCl]

@@ridley2333 that could potentially be fake too tho, maybe just someone else contributing to the joke

[@flowergurllll]

​@@SodiumChloride_NaClthis is the epitome of paranoia

[@danielblank9917]

​@@SodiumChloride_NaCl"nothing ever happens"

[@RobotSavetheworld]

One thing that i think gets overlooked in the whole CBat phenomenon is that I'm almost sure the "annoying synth line" is actually an audio sample, in this case, the sound of a very squeaky door. The reason why that's important is that there's been a history of using a sample of the sound of "squeaking bed springs" in hip hop and trap music, for obvious suggestive intentions. It was first used in Trillville's "Some Cut" and spread throughout the late 2000s hip hop scene, making it all the way to Columbia and even Boyband Kpop. I think whoever was using this song for coitus was probably taking a cue from those tracks that used the rhythmic squeak of bedsprings to drive their beats and their sex appeal, but didn't consider that CBat's sample is less like an old bed getting a raunchy workout, and more like a clown falling down an up escalator.

[@Champiness]

Even on a music-theory level the whole “microtonality” discussion gets a lot simpler when you just note that it’s the same descending squeaky-door sample being played at different pitches

[@iantaakalla8180]

Cbat 🤝 Alexander Hamilton the song from Hamilton the musical: squeaky door samples

[@MoonWalkerTexsRanger]

I didn’t knew the origin of that squeaking bed sping! Thanks for the info! I first heard it in a lot of Cashmere Cat songs and so i thought it was his signature sound. Well he contribute to popularize it in all the way.

[@maxsync183]

although with the likes of sophie and arca and some modern electronic music, that kind of "annoying" melodic idea/texture has become pretty popular in general and in ways that arent even sex related

[@TehAwesomer]

@@MoonWalkerTexsRanger For the record, the producer says it was actually the sound of a squeaking chair in the studio, not a bed spring. " The commonly cited ground zero for salacious squeaking in hip-hop is Trillville’s “Some Cut,” a 2004 crunk landmark produced by Lil Jon. “We were in the studio, I was making a beat with my boy Craig Love, who plays guitar, and Le Marquis Jefferson, who plays bass,” Jon remembers. “I’m rocking back and forth in the chair as I’m making the beat. Craig’s like, ‘you hear that?’ ‘What you talkin’ about?’ ‘The chair is squeaking on the beat.’ ‘Holy shit!’ So we mic’d up the chair, I put on headphones, rocked back and forth and we recorded that and put it into the track.” "

[@Robert_DROP_TABLE_students--]

seeing if a sungazer audience can pick up a rhythm and then declaring it "entrainable" has got to be the most egregious case of sample bias i have ever seen

[@BTobiasJ]

Underated comment Edit: Now that this is one of the most liked comments it's an appropriately rated comment

[@topofsm]

Haha reminds me of a particularly frenetic 7/8 rhythm in Animals As Leader’s CAFO that the audience frequently claps along to.

[@officaldungeons]

Goated comment

[@Robert_DROP_TABLE_students--]

@@retrocatalog thanks, fixed it.

[@wi1dcard192]

Also doesn’t help that the musicians are aggressively head banging along to signal the pulse to the audience Granted I think the issue was people can’t follow the _melody_ but Adam’s “experiment” was if people can follow the _meter_ which is considerably easier in this case

[@SlyceCaik]

oh my god adam actually did it

[@klaxoncow]

He finally, really, did it. You maniac!! He blew it up. Ah, damn you!! God damn you all the Hell.

[@weakw1ll]

chill down KlaxtonCow

[@weakw1ll]

Man bro i missed adam

[@mihailmilev9909]

@@weakw1ll fr

[@nugboy420]

@@weakw1ll calm out

[@GabeMillerMusic]

7:59 Two months later, audiences going HAM over an overly intense cover of cbat is still as glorious as it is hilarious.

[@joe____]

It fucking killed me to see that, they LOVED it lmao

[@cameronmoore7675]

I am 100% convinced that the "synth" sound is actually a sample of a door creaking.

[@aliasella488]

I think it's turtles mating

[@rainbowkittycat627]

Girl what no- as an electronic musician, it is 100% just digital synthesis. Often times to un- trained ears, you can find similarities, but once you start creating a lot of this stuff, it’s fairly obvious the differences between the 2 sounds. It’s like when you start pointing out the perfect fifths that the car alarm makes to you freinds after you go to music school. But the similarities are there, 100%. A lot of synthesis is inspired and interacts with mutated or grandiose versions of real world objects, even when it’s not sample based. SOPHIE was a pioneer of this, she created a lot of sounds inspired by, “what if I had a massive upright bass or grand piano” etc. Check out METAL by SOPHIE and jimmy edgar if you’re interested. But sometimes there are sounds in electronic music that even if they aren’t sampled, can be very closely reproduced with actual physical objects. Take Aphex Twin’s Alberto Balsalm for example, it uses a sound that pretty accurately reflects a chair squeaking on the floor. It might be a sample, it might not, but either way, it can pretty accurately be recreated by an actual chair (look on youtube for this), but the synth in cbat is nothing like that. You will never be able to get a squeaky door hinge that sounds close to cbat, cbat’s synth is just too distinctive. Of course, using a squeaky door sample and enough audio editing you could get close, I mean with how good audio editing tools are now and with a good enough sound designer, you could 100% recreate EVERYTHING in cbat, drums included, with nothing but a sample of a squeaky door, but I don’t believe you’ll be able to get a door to behave like that. Plus, synths have their own characteristics, and Cbat stinks of modern wavetable synthesis, as apposed to lots of sample based synths or just straight up audio processed samples. It’s close, and not at all apparent on most or every song, for example even alberto balsalm I’m split on what that chair sound actually is, and things get even more confusing in the drums. But I personally find it pretty likely that cbat’s synth is a synth, and not a sample.

[@theMyRadiowasTaken]

​@@rainbowkittycat627 no im pretty sure it like actually IS a door creaking. like geniunely.

[@theMyRadiowasTaken]

​@@rainbowkittycat627 also no one is reading all of that

[@rainbowkittycat627]

@@theMyRadiowasTaken If you’re not going to read the explanation I gave, I’m not going respond to you seriously lmao. Unless you have an interview where hudson mohawke explains his process in creating that sound, you can’t just say “it is” without evidence lmao, because it most certainly is not.

[@waterPsychiatrist]

Has a youtube notification ever made you audibly shout "NO"?

[@hashiispep]

THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE

[@thailai3277]

LMAOOO

[@CiDK]

Not until now...

[@ej22_gc86]

Yes Not this one though because I had no idea what tf a cbat was

[@billyalarie929]

Many fucking times.

[@CapslockGoD]

"Nothing to get you more in the mood than the screams of an infant" - Those are some metal lyrics

[@drpibisback7680]

If anything, that's way too softcore for your average Slam Death band.

[@tigran2210]

Just look him headbang his face off at 8:00 😂 my man is metal af

[@WanderTheNomad]

Sounds really sus out of context

[@coileight]

Lostprophets type lyrics

[@Johnny_T779]

... Or a quote from Conan The Barbarian 😂!

[@mongarcia9151]

That mixture of CBAT and The Lick caught me off-guard, I laughed way harder than normal

[@garyermann]

It had to be done.

[@ZergRushJohnny]

Reading this comment thankfully didn't prepare me for how it would be presented, and I still lost it

[@abdelilhmanflores]

What’s the time stamp?

[@Booksds]

@@abdelilhmanflores 9:57

[@abdelilhmanflores]

@@Booksds thank you bro

[@Hallwo_333]

Hearing CBAT get mangled into the lick sent me into a state of shock, like I got my soul forcibly yanked out of my body

[@navedoesthings]

I saw Hudson Mohawk back in 2011 at a local fest in Detroit. Can confirm before this song was a meme it functioned very well on the dancefloor. I was a huge hudmo fan in late junior high and highschool and I never expected the rest of the world to discover his music via a meme shitting on the rhythm or microtonality of the wonky synth...

[@soriba391]

Brother, same here. Big Hud-Mo fan from Germany, also saw him live 2011. And I remember what a banger it was. Worked really well when I was playing it on parties. It's so strange that it get's rediscovered as a joke now. I having fights in the youtube section of this song trying to convince people that if it wasn't for the meme they would've probably liked it

[@Sergio-nb4hj]

​@@soriba391nah I see where you're coming from, but the goofy sound design of early 2010s trap has aged very poorly in the ears of mainstream music listeners. This kinda thing would not be liked, but also I think it wouldn't be very humorous either because without context it is just kinda goofy

[@StevenC44]

Adam Neely Drinking Game: take a shot every time Balkan rhythms are mentioned

[@aliciadalbey1201]

odd 9/8 slaps

[@Laurabeck329]

You'd probably be more drunk than people that created those rythms in the first place

[@contrawise]

Why not dance a little Balkan dance?

[@RusNad]

Rakija preferably

[@belgianvanbeethoven]

Two shots. Repetition legitimises.

[@MnilinM]

Note: The Sungazer audience wasn't headbanging to the rhythm of the melody... They moved to the beat.

[@AlexandreDuqueque]

Also wrong. They moved to the pulse.

[@astrwolf5507]

@@AlexandreDuqueque saying they moved to the beat is not wrong lol

[@AlexandreDuqueque]

@@astrwolf5507 yeah, i'm just playin

[@tomb8602]

Note: The Sungazer audience wasn't headbanging... They were banging.

[@himani8927]

yeah kinda weird adam ignored this. like many of the tiktoks he mentioned/showed said that the guy must've been thrusting to the rhythm of the melody, which made it off putting. headbanging to the beat doesn't prove anything

[@violetwitch2003]

The fact that it actually sounded good in the jazz form ,makes this even better in all ways possible

[@kingamiko382]

Didn't expect this to be the video that taught me that the disorder affecting my vestibular system might also be the reason I'm so incredibly bad at recognizing rhythms.

[@kenzen_denai]

Dammit I was incredibly bad at recognizing rhythms as a kid... maybe something went wrong somewhere

[@rowkingsbury945]

As a longtime fan of Hudson Mowhawke, I'm super glad this song is getting the meme recognition it absolutely deserves

[@dbmag9]

Adam: Music that we find pleasant is generally easier to entrain to Adam's band: *performs music in weird time signatures and complex tuplet structures*

[@lucayaki]

To be fair, it is still pleasant

[@hammerth1421]

Also Adam: _is surprised that the audiences who can dance along to nested tuplets can dance along to a trap melody rhythm which is supposed to be highly syncopated to the halftime trap beat it sits on_

[@violet-beck]

very easy to get entrained to tho! I remember his video about it, forgot the name, where they were like doing tests with the audiences :D

[@LeoTheMonts]

Adam has mentioned that his band's latest album was written with entrainment in mind, and thus actually uses a lot of simpler times, along with a few more complex ones as experiments

[@ericchin739]

Lol well... I think he means the general listener who doesn't know music theory. They typically like simpler stuff. I mean.... there's a reason why Pop is all basically the same song with the same beat and tempo lol. Because it works, and people buy it.

[@SawtoothWaves]

honestly the griminess of the microtonal melody and the "annoying" synth texture, paired against that simple rhythm just makes it go harder imo. also brian gave me a fistbump from the stage before the cbat part which was awesome >:D

[@unslept_em]

cbat is a great song, and i can imagine hudson laughing his ass off while he made it. same goes for a song like "young signorino - mmh ha ha ha" which i've seen someone unironically say is the worst song they've ever heard. i don't know why so many people perceive music that's a little goofy/weird as "bad".

[@itsaUSBline]

Yeah I actually love it. I've been a HudMo fan for ages, and it's funny to me seeing it blowing up.

[@The_SOB_II]

I'm pretty sure that synth texture is a pitch-shifted creaky door shutting. Strange to see nobody bringing this up yet. (Or maybe that's just the glissando at the end tricking me)

[@SawtoothWaves]

@@The_SOB_II someone make a cbat edit with the squeaky bedframe rocking in the background haha

[@Purplesquigglystripe]

It’s just the song paired with that context that makes it so uncomfortable. There’s probably stuff I listen to that would sound terrible in the same context.

[@randomchannel323]

The saxophone is such a good choice for the cbat melody

[@surkey5055]

Especially soprano or sapraino

[@Ambipie]

Yeah because soprano is a technically microtonal instrument and can smoothly cat scream if you blow right

[@snowman486cold]

6:42 thanks for the representativeness 💙 not just this in this scene, but in all other videos you've used

[@Levi12O8]

10:22 i played that line in my head and instantly broke out in laughter and also uncontrollable crying and possibly a manic episode

[@AaronLevyDrums]

The video I didn't ask for, didn't expect, and yet can't stop watching. Lol. Well done.

[@fennoqueven]

Adam will stop at nothing to explain the music theory of everything - long may it continue.

[@DaneOrie]

Long may he reign.

[@tjwebb7428]

Adam in 2027 - The musical theory of elephants yawning

[@mihailmilev9909]

@@tjwebb7428 is that new meme that I'm not aware of?

[@konstant_ly]

@@mihailmilev9909 wait 5 years and you'll see

[@MyBroSux24]

What's to add to saying it's "just a trap song" is that for the time being, Hudson Mohawkes work for electronic trap was laying a foundation for the popularity of a trap sound in popular culture. In 2011, that was totally unheard of and a kind of underground sound. His breakthrough as a producer was next years "TNGHT" project together with Lunice, which in turn wrecked dancefloors and festivals for the coming years

[@tumest]

This. He was quietly super influential on a lot of very specific sounds of the subsequent decade or so. Go back to Polyfolk Dance from 2009 and take a listen, you can hear plenty of seeds being planted.

[@GizzyDillespee]

Trap was a thing in Atlanta in the 90s. It even went mainstream with bands like 36 Mafia... in the 90s. It was stale by the time Hudson Mohawk was being promoted pretty heavily.

[@GizzyDillespee]

And Sun Ra was making melodies like this 60-70 years ago. Rocket #9 off the top of my head

[@jasonmacfarlund2703]

@@GizzyDillespee you can't really be telling me that the direction that hudson mohawke took trap music is at all like how Atlanta was taking trap music. Note how op isn't saying he made THE trap sound popular, he said A trap sound.

[@Alexander_Grant]

@@GizzyDillespee EDM trap vs. Hip-Hop trap. EDM trap taking inspiration from Atlanta trap and putting it into electronic music.

[@bassdivo]

Funny thing about this tune. Back when this first came out I was touring in Europe with an artist named Jose James. There were some incredible players in the band Brad Allen Williams, Kris Bowers and Richard Spaven, Spaven is from London and deep in the electronic music scene there as well as being an amazing drummer so he introduced this song to us. We thought it was the craziest shit ever, cause it was. The lead synth line is such an odd juxtaposition over a beat that is minimal and quiet but yet it goes SO HARD! Being the jazz musicians we are it instantly became a meme/lick amongst the band, we’d throw it into solos, intros, wherever and have a good time with our injoke. This was probably back in 2013 or 2014. I think you’re right about people playing it in performances and I wonder how it will feel when it happens because it’s not a tiny niche thing anymore. P.S. I have definitely had this song on while being…intimate and it totally works for a certain vibe. I don’t think anyone that’s having sex to music is using the melody to sync up to (at least they probably shouldn’t be) it’s all about the beat! That beat is dope and can definitely inspire some good times. I’ve seen it!

[@plankton50]

The song almost has a tiny Jamaican dancehall vibe to it. Tiny tiny bit. Hudson Mowhake definitely has a sense of humour, which tbh is missing in some music. He creates an amazing song, really well produced and just genius but also just really funny and some people can't get their head around something being funny but also good.

[@morgankosokowsky812]

9:56 that's the most genuine apology ive ever heard in my life, and the lick killed me

[@bigmichael2765]

As someone who is completely out of the loop, I read the title and wondered why Adam chose to analyze an entire Steely Dan album.

[@SUP3RP3DR0L1V3]

That would've been a 2 hour long video.

[@philipgwyn8091]

@@SUP3RP3DR0L1V3 I suspect it would have been a weeks' worth of 2 hour videos

[@tjwebb7428]

My god, cbat pitch manipulated into the melody of the lick killed me

[@alexanderm7270]

This is wonderful. I remember hearing CBAT ~10 years ago and its the type of song that really sticks with you even if you don't particularly like it. Great meme.

[@Netsuko]

It's literally Sandstorm all over again. You can't unhear it anymore.

[@risharddaniels1762]

@@Netsuko nahhh, sandstorm was kinda hype at least

[@maryj306]

I heard it on Workaholics way back

[@BinglesP]

The song is that old???

[@alexanderm7270]

@@maryj306 You know what? I think that's the money.

[@cyberskelet0n]

watching my friend lose his shit at the Detroit show at 8:16 is easily as entertaining from the stage perspective as it was from next to him. thank you for putting this up, lol

[@DerekCFPegritz]

This was superb, brother! I particularly love how you combined music theory with neuroscience--which is something I've been into for decades. Music penetrates the limbic system first then percolates up to the conscious mind. Also, your live cover of "Cbat" is fucking awesome.

[@nmccw3245]

Adam always fails to disappoint.

[@LankyMF]

Agreed, Adam never fails to appoint.

[@IlBiggo]

@@LankyMF He constantly disfails to satisfy.

[@gluessb]

this threw me the fuck off

[@AppleGameification]

Wait what. Wtf was the original phrase

[@gluessb]

@@AppleGameification “never fails to deliver”

[@SteMail926]

Hudson Mohawke is an absolute legend, especially here in Glasgow. He's a huge reason why hyperpop became a thing in my opinion. He was playing with taste in electronic music a good few years before a lot of others were. On babies babbling ( 1.40 ) he and Lunice even used samples like that in their TNGHT project.

[@bigmistqke]

💯 hudmo s legendary. The production on Butter still blows my mind to this day. So playful and quirky. There were some really crazy stuff coming from ur area back then. Really loved mike slott too, must have played Sun Tan a million times. Listening to it rn, still sounds as fresh as ever. And what was that one artist/album again w the big crystal on the cover?

[@SteMail926]

@@bigmistqke yeah, completely agreed! There was something in the water in Glasgow around 2012. You're thinking of Glass Swords by Rustie, which is still amazing!

[@bigmistqke]

Found it! Rustie's Glass Swords. Damn, must have been such a crazy scene back then. (edit: lol u beat me to it)

[@bigmistqke]

Ur so on point w the hyperpop-link too. Listening to Hover Trap rn and it is literally a hyper pop track. Maybe bump the BPM just a little.

[@teagancombest6049]

@@bigmistqke seriously, these people going crazy over cbat would have their minds blown by Butter.

[@sheilaross1449]

The other day when Adam tweeted about this, one of my kids saw over my shoulder and asked if I knew about it. I did not. Adam is now partly responsible for the most awkward conversation I've had with any of my children in quite some time, and in this family that's saying something. EDIT: okay, also? I have no formal music theory training, but I dance West Coast Swing and occasionally DJ for said dance and therefore spend considerable brain power thinking about beat and rhythm. So I appreciate the brief discussion of that- I haven't been able to find a lot of good content about music theory for dancing, especially as it relates to specific dances and popular music.

[@littlecake453]

9:04 i actually want full cover like this, sounds so good

[@atlander4204]

Same! It’s so jazzy!

[@BringMayFlowers]

As an aside, his hair game in that clip was also on fucking point.

[@aphonicsound]

are we brushing over 1:43????

[@samcampbelldrums]

YOOOOO IM THE GUY AT 8:57 WITH HIS HAHDS UP AND THE GOOFIEST SMILE EVER HAHAHA I can die happy

[@lorenzobellachioma8160]

10:29 hit me in the face so hard I almost had a panic attack

[@naota3k]

As someone who likes Hudson Mohawke but has literally never heard of this meme, this was fascinating.

[@McBehrer]

and then after that, try listening to literally any other music

[@lx4079]

@@McBehrer tasteless andy over here

[@dripjack_-1]

@@lx4079 jerma andy

[@idkissausername1667]

this whole meme was made 100x funnier for me today because i only just realized it was Hudson Mohawke who made the song, and he also made the soundtrack for Watch Dogs 2, one of my favorite games, which was such a left hook for me but after listening to a few of his songs compared to cbat, its so much funnier

[@Billiamwoods]

​@@idkissausername1667I think it's more funny that the EP Cbat is on came out in 2011 and from 2012 to 2016, Hudson Mohawke was a producer on multiple Kanye West songs and even a song from Drake's Nothing Was the Same. Meaning that Kanye West could've reasonably heard Cbat and invited this guy to work on songs like Blood on the Leaves, Mercy, and Famous.

[@SemiHypercube]

I want a full version of that orchestral rendition of cbat at 7:26

[@De-sync_Cats]

By Pastacat Productions

[@Asrelis]

having jared yee come out on stage just to play cbat for 20 seconds in the middle of "drunk" and then leave was one of the most hype and yet most disorienting event to have happen in my life also thanks for coming to the exit/in in nashville it was a blast :)

[@kwhyland]

I can’t quite describe how bizarre it was to see the guy selling merch in the front appear up on stage, apropos of nothing, to play this in the middle of another song. Totally hilarious (the whole show was a riot), but utterly surreal. I’ve never been more on-my-toes at a show in my life!

[@Hamuelin]

This wasn’t how I expected HudMo to get popular, but I’m glad it happened

[@unadventurer_]

Especially when the album he just put out is stupid good.

[@kelvint03]

Same

[@magnopere]

He's been around. Produced for Kanye, lmao. Everyone my age knows TNGHT.

[@NoName_NoTitle]

He was already quite big. People forget TNGHT or that he got to do Watch Dogs 2 soundtrack

[@teagancombest6049]

I mean he produced for Kanye years ago. He's not unknown.

[@cemetarypolka]

you gotta respect the cbat guy for being cultured enough to know who hudson mohawke is

[@mymo_in_Bb]

I just noticed how the clapping hand syncs with the 5/8 background music, when Adam is talking about non-isochronal pulses, and i just love that detail so much

[@BrodySchoonMusic]

As some others have said, I think a lot of why it feels awkward is because it's a syncopated rhythm without a super steady beat to keep it grounded. The rhythm in itself doesn't seem that bad but when it almost feels right but isn't it's weird.

[@aiemyeah952]

Some friends were talking about this song earlier today and I had no clue what they were talking about so they started to explain it. When the musical one of the two started to explain the specifics of the song, I immediately thought of your videos and how they probably got that from one of your videos since they’re a fan. And wouldn’t you know it, this pops up in my recommended. Thank you Adam for influencing my friend’s conversations, it makes for some weird conversations for sure

[@onescale]

I hate that i looked up the song, and just so happened to find this video after also trying to find this channel again for a couple years. Thank you CBAT

[@potroast702]

And all of that was done less than ten minutes after it was posted. The universe brought Adam Neely back to uou

[@stardynamite3762]

LMAO

[@rfmerrill]

It's actually kind of a catchy track. The "lead" is kinda harsh but it's a novelty. You're not really going to understand why it's popular listening on headphones though, you kind of have to hear it coming out of a club soundsystem or at least a frathouse's old beat-up PA. This sounds eyeroll-worthy but it's one of those tracks where if you don't have good bass drivers you literally lose an entire instrument. At a party the bass is dominating so much that the lead is almost an afterthought. It's wild that the whole internet thinks this song is objectively terrible because when I was in college shortly after it came out, it was SO overplayed at parties it annoyed the fuck out of me, but other people ate it up.

[@qazwsx014jsbd8]

Im guessing its because of the context in which it became popular. Like its normal on its own, but when someone says its the 'perfect song to have sex to' people quickly go to the complete opposite end of the spectrum due to how absurd that statement is

[@Masterpdudley]

I’m around 6:28 and I’m curious if music therapists ever have people with dyspraxia practice rhythm and music, I am autistic and I have noticed that over the past few years my coordination has been getting significantly better, this has also lined up with when i really started delving into playing music.

[@syvvieon]

OH HI I have dyspraxia and something causing me to slur words a lot (unsure if that's related to the dyspraxia) and I have been testing this on myself! i can say for that: a. practicing piano/guitar has helped a lot with dexterity in my fingers b. vocal training has helped my voice gain far more clarity it's definitely extremely helpful for someone like me where dancing, for example, is immensely difficult

[@BringMayFlowers]

Oh, huh, that is good to know. I am too and I'm just recently getting serious about it myself, so I'll see if I get any better about it. It might not be scientific, but more data points is more data points.

[@NodoudtYT]

This video is already on the national registry of culturally and historically significant films.

[@TheToasterWaffle]

Why does nobody talk about how the synth is a sample of a squeaky door hinge

[@potterfanz6780]

That reminds me of an Andrew Huang video where 4 producers sampled the sound of a squeaky door closing

[@teagancombest6049]

Because it's not.

[@TornaitSuperBird]

@@teagancombest6049 It's actually a sample of a squeaky chair

[@teagancombest6049]

@@TornaitSuperBird as someone who has made and listened to a lot of electronic music, it's clearly not a sample, or at least not entirely. The way it pitch bends down at the end of the phrase is so clearly synthesized, it may have a sample waveform mixed in but it's not just an audio sample being played back at different pitches. Hudson mohaekr uses a lot of weird textural synths in his music, it's way more likely that's some waveform synthesis than it being a sample. It clearly inspired by the squeaky bed spring sound from Baltimore house music though.

[@wiseSYW]

it takes a master to explain a masterpiece

[@EEarle]

the piano wedding version of cbat sounds like a wedding song they’d play in the sims

[@axman6815]

I'm so proud to have been part of such an important work of scientific research in Atlanta. Great show then, and great video now!

[@hectorh.micheos.1717]

Adam breaking down the music theory of love making. I didn't have this in my bingo card.

[@C_cotobuki]

*The harmonic style of 18th century European musicians making love

[@qwertyTRiG]

@@C_cotobuki Okay. That got a laugh.

[@zlotowlosy]

Adam pls, release a full version of your live CBAT cover, it actually slaps

[@Jukestar]

I 100% agree.

[@organmastr]

Glad to have been part of an Adam Neely video but not sure if this is how I ever thought it would happen XD (Thats me screaming at 7:45 lmao)

[@StrawDogsPu]

By releasing this video you've perhaps kept it more alive by inspiring more musician's to throw this lick in as many stupid places as they can, I say fantastic.

[@jmwmusic5665]

Absolutely cannot get enough of the Sungazer CBAT rework. You're so so right - arrangement is everything. I just can't stop listening to it.

[@TheR6R6R]

Being someone completely out-of-the-loop when it comes to modern internet culture (TikTok), I thought you were going to talk about Steely Dan's 1st album Can't Buy A Thrill. But this... This is a powerful tool.

[@Bass_Goat53]

8:00 I'm sorry, but is that a Nu Metal rendition of cbat with a saxophone lead????

[@theenglishbassist]

That Cbat lick will haunt me forever

[@happyhuell6664]

CBAT is perfect for an alarm. It's loud, obnoxious, and everyone already hates it so there's no fear of disliking the song over time.

[@crescentx3]

9:27 Can’t wait to hear megalovania and cbat in the same song…

[@PASTACATProductions]

Oh shit I made it into an Adam Neely vid! I arranged the bit at 7:16 and having watched this now...my brain really struggled to hear this melody where it technically falls. It's autocorrecting that F to an E. I played back what I wrote so many times and was like...."yeah I think that's an E. Or an F. Or somewhere in between." The melody is just weird and quirky as fuck and my brain can't handle it.

[@jqsm1neS]

The more I hear Cbat the more I start thinking it actually goes hard lowkey

[@awesome346]

Jesus loves you!

[@jqsm1neS]

@@awesome346 tell him I appreciate it but I think we should just be friends

[@EphemeralPseudonym]

it would with more texture like in adam's arrangement

[@whatdoyousuppose]

repetition legitimizes…

[@jqsm1neS]

@@whatdoyousuppose BEEP, BABEEP, BEEP, BEBEBEEP BEEP, BEEP, BABEEP, BEEP, BEBEBEEP BOOOUUUU

[@slipperynickels]

gotta respect the guy for putting his playlist on a cd

[@Chelarino]

i really hope that cbat will have it's place among the greatest musical memes of all time and in 10 years, i will just randomly be referenced in something i'm listening to, and all my memories of the 2020's will come flooding back

[@oscargill423]

How convenient, I heard of CBAT for the first time only a few hours ago Just when I thought Adam would never dare get more innuendal... innuendic? Innuendous? Innuendoal? Anyway, I never thought he'd touch on more suggestive content than his 6/9 chords vid. Man... Adam's headbanging game is strooong

[@birchwwolf]

hey so just for context, "Cbat" has been a punchline in jokes in the DJ/dance music circles since it was released. the Reddit troll post (it is a troll post) was the first time our little meme went viral outside of our tiny niche. i'm happy to see more people interacting with it :)

[@NicegramSouth_Texas_Roots]

Yeah👆Thanks for watching and commenting send a direct message right now you've just won a gift🎁🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@TheHesseJames]

Never heard of it before but I can attest that Cbat is brutally catchy.

[@ethanodell8044]

When the video that showed that “All I Want for Christmas is You” had the same microtone as this I nearly spat out my drink

[@memetime1784]

This video has given me my new pickup line: “Hey girl, I have an internal sense of pulse”

[@goldfishyearbook]

PART III: Putting it to the test idk Adam did you really put it to the test tho🤔

[@johnchessant3012]

what if you played it on organ and just had it descending forever (the song ends a tritone down from the first note, so repeating it once would end it an exact octave down from the first note)

[@HaileISela]

CBAT shepherd tone?

[@MaddieM4]

I think playing it on an organ was the original problem

[@hititwithit]

@@MaddieM4 Take my damn upvote and leave.

[@Kamirasu]

@@hititwithit you're not on reddit anymore

[@hititwithit]

@@Kamirasu Oh, right. Take my damn thumbs up and leave.

[@toter80]

Figured you were going to make a video about this after I saw you guys play this at a concert, I was not disappointed! Good stuff!

[@ZoniesCoasters]

clicking on a random video in my youtube recommendations and then finding out 7 minutes into it that it was uploaded by someone you saw live in concert a few months ago

[@treyhudson73]

The fact that you were able to turn this insanity into legit learning proves just how special your talents are, sir. 🤘

[@jeremiahlyleseditor437]

I've never heard of this before. It does sound like some micro tonal version of a part of all I want for Christmas.

[@salsa221]

“Nothing to get you more in the mood… than the screams of an infant”

[@InventorZahran]

I always assumed that this Redditor was **doing the deed** to the rhythm of CBAT's bassline, not the main melody. The bassline seems like it would be a lot easier to follow while **doing the deed...**

[@megatronianian]

But it’s so slow…….

[@DrDingsGaster]

@@megatronianian Double time it?

[@teagancombest6049]

@@megatronianian You're doing it wrong

[@kudos4201]

redditors doing the deed? unlikely

[@teagancombest6049]

@@kudos4201 about as unlikely as someone who calls it "the deed"

[@abdultarsha5312]

I've always been interested in music theory, and low and behold, this is the first video I've ever seen from you. Subscribed

[@JustDEV1]

Thank you so much, you finally got the freaking song out of my freaking head.

[@swizzarmygrizz]

Of course babies recognize pulses. Our heartBEAT is a fairly standard beat along with our breathing. Our bodies know how to sync to music naturally. We naturally tend to sync with others in breathing, speech patterns, walking, movement, even bodily functions. There is a rhythm to nature regardless of whether we acknowledge it or not.

[@lxjuani]

The thing is not every animal with a heartbeat dances.

[@thospe-f8x]

I don't think the song itself is at fault (and Adam demonstrated as much with changes in orchestration and the like). I think the problem was the OP's interpretation of the advice. Taking a step back from the OP's particular tribulations, I'm curious as to how they dance. If I were dancing to that, I'd probably groove to a steady quarter-note rhythm (Adam and co's live shows leaned into this), rather than directly moving my body exactly to the rhythm of that melody. The way the melody itself weaves around the beat is exactly what would make it fun to dance to and give a musical contour to move against. One thing that's nice about this particular piece is that you can move in a simple fashion and still have a pretty dynamic interaction with the music. That's a big part of why I find funk and disco so appealing. However, if someone were to interpret dancing as jolting one's body exactly to the melody of every song they listen to, they probably wouldn't look very good on the dance floor either. (of course this only applies to the particular context in which this piece of music was targeted - of course there are musical traditions around the world with carefully choreographed dance routines set very precisely to music, but I usually think of this kind of music as being written for a club/open dancefloor atmosphere where dancers are largely improvising around songs with simple repeating rhythms)

[@Dpx008Music]

2:55 click for flintstones

[@SlyHikari03]

Insert siivagunner/grand dad joke here

[@ConsarnitTokkori]

god that was a Big Spook i half expected the rest of the grandening

[@lila4740]

ITS BEEN MONTHS AND TOTALLY FOROGT ABOUT THIS

[@randominternetbro6562]

aaaaaannnnd I've come back to CBAT.... great. Here we are.

[@BetaVersionX12]

This, among other good things, is why I'm subscribed to this channel.