Pop music’s problem with silence

What are the uses of silence in music and why is popular music so afraid of them? In this video I look at the various ways composers use silence, and why so many of them are considered out of bounds to today's chart toppers.
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Sources:
www.slate.com/articles/arts/mu...
www.slate.com/articles/arts/mu...
www.amazon.co.uk/Silence-Musi...

[@cosinev1265]

This video made me realize how much background noise there is in my house right now.

[@goodial]

some nice John Cage music going on there!

[@iBaraban]

talking about background noise, visit florida some day, the a/c's never stop

[@Trumpophone7]

Eyyy im a trumpeter too

[@LucasStoten1]

I think this is partly because of a change in how people listen to music; a rise in passive music listening and background music that serves as more of a continuous texture than a narrative you listen to from start to end. Silence is only valuable in music when it is contextualised by what comes before and after it. When the music is just providing a "vibe" to a room, an intentional period of silence is indistinguishable from an accidental temporary disconnection between the phone and the speaker.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

My favourite fade out is 'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen - when my band play it live, the audience always continue singing past the fade out, and if they are still singing when they reach the next 'don't stop me now' we come back in and play another chorus!

[@MetalMarauder]

That’s pretty brilliant

[@DavidBennettPiano]

I remember the first time it happened... it wasn't planned, the audience just kept singing and we just all looked at each other and launched back into a chorus. When we then got all the way back around again to the same point the audience began to sing the fade out bit again!

[@austinmolitor7283]

TeZOcatlipoca The fade out in Hey Jude has a similar effect.

[@UnitedFeodor]

David Bennett Piano, it reminds me of Helter Skelter by The Beatles

[@GrumpyStormtrooper]

do you have a video/audio of it?

[@MotorGoblin]

I was something like 10 years old when I did a presentation about Metallica with my friend for music class. After talking about the band we played Sad But True on cassette and had a lot of fun watching our teacher always getting up during the pauses thinking the song had ended. Anyways, there's one example. Cool video!

[@valhallaforever1]

5:07 How angry would the audience get if I ripped a thunderous fart in the key of G?

[@hamster_of_the_apocalypse]

All I hear during silence is tinnitus :(

[@Eddieshred]

Me too

[@cynzix]

I know the struggle...

[@someonediscrete8234]

From my experience, tinnitus could be a sign of ear or dental infection. Do you have dental crowns, root canals? I would recommend getting them checked. PS: I am no doctor, this is just my personal life experience

[@thatrespectablehuman1884]

not good advice typically, tinnitus is usually just your ears suffering from other things you've done to them already, like loud noises (gunshots, music too loud)

[@hamster_of_the_apocalypse]

I think it's possible. I've heard of neck injuries and other seemingly unrelated things being the cause of tinnitus. The back of the jaw is quite close to the ears inner-workings too, so... I don't think that's the case for me though, because I've had tinnitus for many years now, and I would think that if it was the result of infections, it might come and go with those, rather than remain constantly. I'm also no medical expert though, so I think I'll bring that up with my doctor/dentist next time I see them. Thanks for your input!

[@stefan1024]

So called "hidden tracks" on CDs would be another example for the use of silence in pop music.

[@johnberkley6942]

"A musician's greatest commitment is to silence" -- Miles Davis (I think!)

[@leoleoleoleo]

Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys has a bar of silence after the famous "aaaahhh" chord near the end. She's Not The Little Girl I Once Knew, also by The Beach Boys has TWO bars of silence before each chorus! (which caused many radio stations to refuse to play it, resulting in poor chart performance for the single)

[@R0DisG0D]

Though not a single, You Still Believe in me (also Beach Boys) uses a pause as well in the end.

[@5roundsrapid263]

The best part of the song! Brian Wilson got quiet when everyone else would have gotten loud.

[@rosiefay7283]

As to "The Little Girl I Once Knew", it's a moment of stillness, but it's not actually silence, is it.

[@leoleoleoleo]

sure, but only in the same way Cage's 4′33″ isn't actually silence.

[@AkariNOX]

I am an aspiring (rock) musician with no formal musical education, but your content is amazingly inspiring as many other people have said here. I hope I can repay you someday through some good music of my own.

[@DBruce]

that's awesome to hear, thanks so much

[@djmelodix6868]

AkariNOX nice to see a fellow metalhead

[@DBruce]

5:05 Do I get the prize for the longest silence in a KZbin video?

[@matmoose]

You've a way to go... kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWXQeYObgqyHgK8

[@Envy_May]

Good luck competing with the "X hours of (absolute) silence/nothing" genre. ;o

[@Small_Vocaloid_UTAU]

For a video that's informational, that's likely to be one of the longest silences so far. As for pop music, Most of the pop music I have has no silence, but there are exceptions, even though it's debatable how much these belong in the pop-genre. Vocaloid music is quite popular in Japan and could therefore be classified as pop-music. From there, the most popular example of a short silence would be Meltdown by iroha (vocals Kagamine Rin): kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKPPlYuEpdSUl8U. This video has close to 10M views on KZbin and for that alone, I think it deserves the title of pop-song. There are better examples of silence in Vocaloid music like Watz of Knives by Lemm×西島尊大 (vocals Hatsune Miku), or P by ATOLS (vocals Hatsune Miku). With over 35000 artists who use Vocaloid (or UTAU) and certainly over 150000 songs, I am sure there must be more meaningful use of silence somewhere in Vocaloid music. EDM also has a huge variety, including songs that use silence with a purpose. Again, I am not sure whether this can be called pop. Still, all music on Soda Island's channel has something interesting, and sometimes the silence plays an important role in that: kzbin.info/door/BgfnEtT54HuWvR3F1LxFKgvideos I thought Mike Oldfield would have some silence in his works as well, but I couldn't find it. Maybe there is also silence in my music library I have yet to notice as such.

[@mtsairmass1123]

No

[@Citiesinmotionplayer]

May I ask if that clip is from the Elbphilharmonie?

[@gepmrk]

Silence is extremely important in dance rhythm I think. For dance rhythm, whether it be funk or latin or techno etc, to have the desired effect, the silences, albeit extremely short ones, just have to be there. There's no better way to kill the groove than to smother it with sustained chords.

[@saxpride100]

In visual arts (i.e., painting, photography, etc.), we learn the concept of negative space, in which artworks can have large areas of white or black space as a way to emphasize certain aspects of the artwork. In music, I like to parallel this idea and think of silence as negative space. It helps me acknowledge silence as a valid tool in music performance and composition.

[@thirdcreed]

Imogen Heap's Hide and Seek, has many dramatic pauses in the A section. One of them even appears at the apex of the melody. Blood aand (SPACE) tears. Another possible example is the intro and outro to Jeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah. It's used to good effect in many places throughout Fleet Foxes' newest album 'Crack Up' One very powerful set of (almost) silences for me is the brief pauses at 13:10ish in the Dawn Upshaw recording of Goreki's 3rd 1st movement setting off that little soprano solo nestled into the very top of the movement. Like you've walked up some Golgotha, and stumbled upon some Mary there still singing about her dead son.

[@michaelsands442]

Caleb Creed I'm only teasing but a golgotha is a pit, no? A garbage pit outside city walls so onee would have to go down... Your point remains tho... Well said.

[@thirdcreed]

I think you're thinking of Gehinnom (the proto-hell). Golgotha is the mountain that Christ was crucified on in Christian scriptures.

[@michaelsands442]

Caleb Creed you're totally right. Thank you. I knew that's where he was crucified but i know there are a lot of things that people have mistranslated or use of words have changed, etc and there's a common misco ception about both places but i can't remember what they are and it was just a passing thing so i don't feel like voing through notes lmao but thank you for correcting me. I hate stating something that's factully incorrect.

[@YashKMusic]

*No one dared disturb the sound of silence...*

[@simongregory9453]

Riley Graham 10000 people maybe moooore

[@BenjaminKassel]

Simon Gregory People talking without speaking...

[@simongregory9453]

Benjamin Kassel people hearing without listening...

[@as8221]

Simon Gregory people writing songs that voices never share

[@hirokokueh3541]

except that rude band sponsor

[@russkalen2337]

Great video, I couldn't but help chuckle that KZbin was so eager to fill the silence with a commercial that it even cut you off in spots.

[@JazzDuets]

Thank you so much sir. Best video I have seen in ages¡ Please can you do a similar one on dynamics please if you have not already. cheers + subbed

[@rbrooks2007]

So long as it's not to do with pop music as that only has medium loud and very loud.

[@KadeKalka]

One of my favorite examples of silence at the beginning and end of a piece is Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd. There's a brief bit of silence before the piece fades in and the piece ends with a very well made fade out. There's just something about that I really enjoy.

[@humanbass]

Zelda Breath of the Wild soundtrack makes great use of silence.

[@fructuous7242]

The silence adds to that eerie, lonely, and sad atmosphere of the game

[@PressPlayChey]

Extremely interesting and wonderful video. Really makes me think about how some songs I listen to for the first time that begin with silence make me think my headphones are broken.

[@augusto7681]

Thunderbolt by Bjork have a long pause between the verse but it was supposed to meant the time of lighting and the thunder. She often make long pauses between phrases too and let the background instrument shine. In my own composition i like to make variation in density of instruments to add "silence".

[@Richard.Atkinson]

I went to one of those new music concerts where every piece is an amorphous, pulse-less collection of gimmicks, and one of the program notes claimed to be using "silence as a quasi-contrapuntal device." It was a meaningless phrase in terms of the music I was hearing, but it did get me thinking about what that would even mean...

[@DBruce]

A nice piece of art jargon! Multiple overlapping layers of silence...

[@tooled68]

Richard Atkinson What band or artist?

[@owenbloomfield1177]

I'm trying to imagine what "quasi - contrapuntal" actually means. Is it then "quasi - harmonic" as well?

[@californium-2526]

@@DBruce Many layers of silence is better than just one layer of silence, right?

[@zeemon9623]

Silence is a part of a lot of metal music. An abrupt pause, or just an unexpected one, can make all the difference.

[@Preohhh]

Zeemon Strapping Young Lad - Oh My Fucking God is a great example of this

[@Walamonga1313]

Zeemon Annihilator are the masters of abrupt pauses and melodic, clean passages when you least expect it.

[@Hero_of_Storms]

There's some examples of fading silence in Metal, too. Like the beginning of Blackened by Metallica and the ending of Heaven and Hell by Black Sabbath

[@mmmmmmmtoast]

Archspires newest album does it quite a bit, when your whole song is blazing fast and you stop for a second before going right back into it it can have quite an impact

[@MrGeorgFTW]

Zeemon The pause in Meshuggah - Pitch Black is pretty glorious

[@LukeFaulkner]

6:53 "I only managed to find one example, which came from great website I found called Wikipedia" 😂

[@purple-flowers]

Hey! I love your music! Fancy seeing you in the comments section.

[@ElyOtto]

this video made me cry. I love you thank you for making this

[@joshstarkey8883]

Rush's YYZ is the first song I thought of. Those pauses after the morse code bit create a lot of anticipation.

[@iTomAnks]

Dilla was exactly what came to mind just before you played it!

[@blubear35]

Thank you very, very much for raising awareness of the beauty of silence in music. Silence is avoided like the plague by many composers (too many?) - only the most brave and accomplished dare to go there. As with all your videos, your treatment of the subject at hand is thoughtful and thought-provoking. Thank you.

[@thegeminidk]

Silence in classical music can be some of the most awe-inspiring time in a song. Especially after a crescendo. The sudden stop. A rest with a fermata, and then coming back in slowly with a pianissimo. Chills

[@DrCoffyLove]

I just wanted to thank you for your awesome videos, they never fail to inspire me.

[@jorgeotolio]

I loved this video! Mr Bruce, all your videos are great, but this is my absolute favourite. Philosophical, personal, provoking, relaxing, original. I'm caressing my hands for a deafening silent clap.

[@austinmolitor7283]

The silence just before the end of Strawberry Fields Forever is my favorite.

[@pathagas]

The way you talk about these examples inspires me so much…

[@ryofurue]

Bach's silence: one of the divinest silences in classical music is at the entrance to the coda of his Contrapunctus I in the Art of Fugue.

[@zakerymizell8838]

Haydn's String Quartet No. 30, "The Joke" Hearing the ridiculous coda in the finale for the first time really brightened up my day!

[@ricardosalgado5761]

Great video, i have been thinking of silence in pop music for quite a long time. I seriously think that i don't like certain kinds of music only because of the lack of silence. Its funny that u speak about barroque music because i often say that i dont like that time (musicaly) because it lacks silence. Greetings from a student in México City, im very glad that u r doing thin kind of work on youtube, thank you, Sir.

[@rocksnshit]

No Simon and Garfunkel reference? Bold move.

[@PinkLegue]

Bob Gooday literally the comment above you

[@marksieving7925]

Well, Sounds of Silence doesn't actually use silence as a musical element. Are there any other Simon & Garfunkel songs that do?

[@marcel1372]

good

[@justindestroyer1]

The more I delve into your channel, the more I love it. Great stuff!

[@Golegator]

Astounding work! Hugely underrated channel

[@MrMatijas16]

Kiss by Prince shows one of the greatest and sexiest uses of silence in a pop song IMO

[@matthijshebly]

David, your channel is literally the one I go to whenever I need inspiration in my composing.

[@jeanalisson]

I remember listening to Lorde's first record and thinking it was really innovative for pop music back then, precisely because of her use of pauses. There is still a reverb effect that "fills" most of the empty spaces, but for pop music standards, I think it sounds very unique to this day.

[@Gumpa2]

Thank you very much for making these amazing videos! They're always a pleasure to watch, and keep my mind busy for a while. :)

Incredibly inspiring video, thank you.

[@epiczeven6378]

Silence is one of my favorite musical notes. And complete silence during a piece can be a very powerful statement :)!

[@bartondisplay]

Beautiful video, David. Thank you!

[@musergio1]

man i procrastinated a lot to watch your videos don't know why but as soon as i saw it these last days i really love the things you talk about, things that concerns no just to music's technical aspects but also to the philosophical aspects about the whole thing of appreciate sound (music), or its absence in this video's case. Greetings from a musician in Colombia , great content!

[@UnfortunatelyTheHunger]

I think one type of silence you didn't mention is the one meant to accentuate loudness, which I found actually happens quite often in modern EDM. Basically, you introduce a moment of silence to build tension to a really loud part of the song, making it more impactful than it would've been otherwise. A good example would be the breakdown part in "And Then" by Rank 1 and Jochen Miller; you have a very faint synth playing the main riff four times before fading away completely, and then, BAM! You're hit what might seem like the mightiest synth bass you ever heard, or ever will hear. The lack of reverb on that bass, compared to rest of the track, makes the silence return yet once again, making the bass seem not only ginormous, but also intimate, as if you were stuck together with nothing but that sound in an anechoic chamber, wrapping your entire body. That kind of impact would've simply not been there if there had been anything else playing during that section, no matter how faint it would've been

[@gideoncheung8731]

Love how you ended the video. Nice detail and insight on how silent is used in music, absolutely loved it!

[@skemsen]

This really moved me. Thank you so much!

[@Mukundanghri]

David , you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge. Thank you dearly!

[@harakirikiss6128]

This is a great video. I have no orchestral background but I wanna include these silence and negative space into my drawings and music. Beautiful

[@DrumWild]

On silence in pop music, my first thought is the 17 seconds of silence in "This Is America," which was used to recognize the 17 victims of this year's Florida school shooting. Also, I think of the end of "The Next Episode" by Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, where the late Nate Dogg raps at the end, "Hey ey eya ey!" then a pause for 6-1/2 seconds before he finishes with "Smoke weed every day." This version is hard to find, due to the corporatization of Dr. Dre, which resulted in that last line being removed, but I digress. My guitar mentor seems to not like silence if it gets over-used. He notes that David Gilmour will often times have lots of silence, and will also not start playing on the first beat. I don't think Gilmour abuses this, but I suppose that comes down to preference.

[@marshallemmet1366]

I always liked the fade out, made it seem like a song never really ended, as if it continued on forever and ever and just left us, which is why I think it is perfect for psychedelic.

[@e7venjedi]

9:12 This is very well said David. It's why I've thought for a long time that silence not being awkward for someone is a really good sign of their confidence in themselves/their place in the world. When a friend or someone I'm meeting [and most importantly with a lover] is comfortable with silence between us, I then feel comfortable with them, and with "us", because it tells me many deep things about our relationship, some of which I'm surely not fully aware of. It tells me that they feel free to utterly be themselves, that they don't have to 'impress' me, that I like them already because of who they are -- or especially if we've met recently, that they feel confident enough in their own value that they're not in a rush to try and *make* me see it. And of course all of this applies to how I feel about them and myself as well, and signals that *we know* the other person feels the same way, which shows that there are a lot of complex layers to how this trust and 'knowing' occurs. You really prompted me to meditate on why exactly this is so important to me... I don't think I'd ever stopped and *thought* about why I value silence in my relationships before. Thanks David, your videos are so poetic!

[@HaterTaterLater]

Childish Gambino's Sweatpants plays with the sensuous pause near the end of the song. His last verse is spoken in anger, you hear fists slam against a table and then sudden silence, bringing a sense of uncomfortably, especially while watching the music video with everyone around him staring at him. A synth plays a simple chord progression followed by another heartbeat of silence, and then the chorus hits us more powerfully than before.

[@veesthoughts7613]

So good!! I like the variety of material you used, and the dramatic ending haha I'm excited to watch your other videos.

[@danielraposo87]

Incredible! Never thought about silence in that perspective. Thank you for sharing this with us. I'll sure use this aproach in my next compositions

[@krronos7]

Björk has a magical moment in Harm Of Will after two crescendo moments with strings, choral and her vocals. The celesta, which plays all the way throughout the piece, dominates under her voice. Another example is in her piece Hollow, near the end, she uses pauses which gives her audience an edgy “is she finished?” feeling and then the organ starts playing again. I also had an experience at uni where we were given 10 random ambient samples to create a non-monotonous piece with. As I write for orchestra usually and everyone else in my class writes for electronic dance music, I created stretched out silences and drones whilst their music contained 120 tempo, 4/4 beat music.

[@jorgestramusic]

As usual great video thanks David.

[@TheMcShay]

This is SUCH a good video! Thank you for that!

[@rjanSolli]

I got some new music for my spotify playlist from this video now. Thank you

[@tsg_frank5829]

I never quite realized how profound silence is and the ways it could be used in music. Stuff like the fade out and using silence in music have been undermined and ignored over time, which after seeing this video, it just seems a shame and a loss that composers and musicians in pop and in general don't make use of it. Honestly, great job with this video, you deserve a lot of credit for your work.

[@arastoomii4305]

You have the best videos! You are very real, thank you so much for sharing your views.

[@HiEnergyMusic]

Great video on silence. I really enjoyed watching it. Some well chosen musical examples in this. Awesome!

[@giannidragos5211]

Unexpectedly found some great classics thanks to you!

[@ErickMcNerney]

This was inspiring. Thank you!

[@LisztyLiszt]

My favourite silence is in Richard Strauss's 'Metamorphosen'. After 20 minutes or so of music without any silence and much of it polyphonic, suddenly there's an unexpected bar of silence after an accelerando. It just puts you on edge as you await resolution. Very effective. Cracking piece, one of Strauss's best. Great video. Thanks!

[@zaralbsstuff]

Like the silence between a build-up and the drop in a dubstep song

[@emreemre96]

Very insightful video. Thank you!

[@NotRightMusic]

Steller video David! One of my favorites of yours. Your presentation keeps getting better. I felt as if you were in the same room with me. That's a hard quality to achieve through video. I tried to think of massive silence in pop music. The first thing that came to mind was "Divided Sky" from the rock band Phish. It's used before a resolution of one of the main themes in the song. It became a famous silence with fans. I mean, there are literally charts of the length of the silences throughout the years with various statistics concerning the pause. It's quite interesting to see a rock band in a huge outdoor concert achieve such a long silence in front of thousands of young people. And as stated in this video, many have said it creates a sense of divinity.

[@NotRightMusic]

Example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l6e4loZriL97ircm35s

[@DBruce]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate that! It's certainly an interesting challenge trying to get ideas like this across without sounding like a pretentious arse ! I love the Phish example, I wish I'd known about that before - I'll write to you with an idea I have about that.

[@DBruce]

What's interesting about the Phish example is the crowd is just screaming through it, so it feels more like the band is 'on pause', comically not moving, rather than in any kind of meditative state or whatever. To me it felt like they would have loved the crowd to be genuinely silent, that would have been quite special. I wonder if that ever happens.

[@NotRightMusic]

You do succeed in not sounding pretentious. To me at least, you come off as being genuine with your ideas in your videos. The audience used to be quiet in that part of that Phish song. Some would even hush the talkers. As they became more popular, and more people started showing up to the concerts, the screaming couldn't be helped. Phish are not afraid of getting extremely quiet with their music. They used to even do barbershop a cappella in stadiums with no mics. The audience would always queit down for those moments as well.

[@jeremykeaton274]

That video certainly brings to mind some interesting implications of a live audience that go beyond the scope of what you talk about in the video. One of the biggest controversies inherent to 4'33" is the idea that the piece of music is really in the sounds around the concert hall. This makes the audience reaction (coughs, shuffling) an integral part of the piece, and means every "performance" is a completely unique. In the Phish case, it was impossible, with a huge live rock concert audience, to get them to understand silence as anything more than a space to clap and cheer in between songs. The way silence interacts with live human audiences is another very interesting avenue to investigate!

[@LoveRonnelid]

This is great stuff! Thanks!

[@abramfoster2]

In terms of current radio pop, "Attention" by Charlie Puth has a full-measure pause before the last chorus.

[@natalierobles3049]

Abram Foster In an interview, Puth mentions the song originally came to him as classically-inspired love ballad :)

[@GreeceKelly]

Yes! And everytime i heared it on the radio they cut the pause in half and everytime i was like why??? :P

[@ItsFinigan]

Your videos are a great mix of passion and theory

[@jdpjamesp]

Jazz band I played in used to do a version of Cantaloupe Island (Herbie Hancock) where the piano would stop at the end of the bar before the trumpet comes in. Had a brilliant effect in jazz clubs where everyone was chatting and drinking. They were suddenly hit with silence from the band. Made them sit up and pay attention. Pressure was on me then to NAIL the trumpet part to make it worthwhile!!

[@DanGulinobass]

Really enjoying your posts mate 👌👌

[@carlpowell0]

This is such a great video. Nice one!

[@leonmott8630]

Beautiful, insightful, important. Thank you.

[@SirianaEvera]

A very educational video. Thank you for the insight, I really enjoy learning something new on a topic that is either neglected in our fast-pacing time or overly focused on (like in esoteric circles). The clip when the audience communally held the silence at the end of the music piece... whoah, that was more moving than anything loud. Like an exclamation mark to your explanation right before - perfect ! As for examples, I''m not sure if it falls into "pop music", at least it is rather recent but - as played by a classical orchestra- probably not what you meant. Nonetheless: Karl Jenkins "Benedictus" There is a significant silence in the middle, like taking a deep breath in the act of creation. Very enjoyable.

[@plekkchand]

This is useful. I recall reading a scholarly article years ago about the different shapes of silence in music-ridged, etc. Carter Piano Concerto used as an example.

[@mal2ksc]

I think Alanis Morissette nailed it in _All I Really Want._ _Why are you so petrified of silence?_ _Here, can you handle this?_ [silence] _Did you think about your bills, your ex, your deadlines?_ _Or when you think you're gonna die?_ _Or did you long for the next distraction?_ She both used it effectively, _and_ lampshaded why it isn't done more often. Isn't it ironic? ᴇᴅɪᴛᴇᴅ ʙᴇᴄᴀᴜsᴇ ɪ ᴄᴀɴɴᴏᴛ ɪɴᴛᴏ ɪᴛᴀʟɪᴄs.

[@siemonblidener652]

The example in pop music that immediately came to my mind is the break in Roxette's The Look that is just a bar of silence. In classical music I can think of two other instances: in the final movement of Mendelssohn's fifth symphony there is a general pause of the length of a quarter note towards the end that has almost the effect of comic relief. In the second movement of Beethoven's 4th sonata in Eb major pauses are an integral part of the main theme and give it a deep, contemplative mood. Thanks for your videos btw!

[@flamencoprof]

Thanks for widening my perspective on musical appreciation. Let's not forget the silence between tracks of an LP. It really was a part of the listening experience,

[@Gregorovitch144]

I think silence on modern popular music (all styles really) is implemented primarily by absence of kick and bass rather than silence per se. Interesting you talk about the reggae One Drop rythm here especpaillly as so much of modern post-rock music, especially EDM styles. is so heavily influenced by reggae. "Drop" is the operative word I think. The musical idea behind the One Drop rythm (leaving out the kick on beat one) is to free both the percussion and the bass line (which no longer has to emphasise beat one) to be much more expressive and adventurous only synching up to the single main kick and cross stick on beat three. Similar idea to funk which does that on beat one instead. "Drop" was also used in reggae as in "dropping the bass". The big sound systems used custom built amps which had hard crossovers controlled by on/offswitches. They would frequently switch off the crossover routed to the big bass bins for a period leaving the guitar and organ comp, the drum topline and the singer/toaster going, then flick the bass crossover on at an appropriate moment creating a very powerfull effect. The use of the term "drop" in modern pop and EDM to mean the main hook or chorus of a song is I think directly derived from this practice (aside from drop just sounding cool). A great deal of EDM music is almost entirely written by creating a 16 or even 8 bar drop first (containing the complete drum pattern and full on bass line) and then creating the arrangement around it subtractively, particularly subtracting the kick and bass from sections. Therefore I would say that silence in the classical sense is replaced to a large degree with "absence of kick and bass" in contemorary music which serves pretty much the same purpose. It is true that with an orchestra if you got the double basses and the cellos going hell for leather or the pedals on a great organ perhaps you sometimes get some real heavy bottom end, but I'm not sure it compares with a Jamaican dancehall or modern club sound system. Hence the contrast and emotional impact of "absense of kick and bass" amounts to the same thing as silence in classical music to some extent.

[@DBruce]

Great stuff thanks. A film someday all about the Drop seems like a good idea!

[@edwardfanboy]

In almost every subgenre of EDM, it is common to remove all but one element of the song (usually a snippet of vocals) right before the drop, for between 2 and 8 beats. That can accomplish a similar role to silence, in building anticipation for the coming part of the song. In fact, Punks by The Upbeats (drum and bass) makes use of pure silence for this exact purpose: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZOoc3-pjqqam8k

[@masonloeffler8064]

I just discovered this channel, I love your content! I'll have to check out the wiki-whatever site too!

[@hakonsoreide]

Wow. That end in Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" is so powerful, even when that is all you see of it, it still gave me goosebumps.

[@Slow2Life]

While I am a DJ using modern EDM, I actually like to toy with silence in familiar songs. As a song builds to a familiar catch or phrase I will cut for a beat or two which (if planned right) causes the audience to fill in the silence almost instinctively. It also works for a space between songs as well, especially bridging two dissimilar songs

[@garaughty]

I love your videos but this was seriously awesome !

[@wkingston1248]

Great video. I think one of the major reasons silence is so rarely used in pop, is due to the way people consume the music not the style its self. When i sit down to explicitly spind my time listening (much like you would in a concert hall) to a peice of music, silence can really enhance the peice and be engaging, but if im listening to that same peice but while im working out for example that same silence not only loses its effect but is a distraction and remove immersion from that peice of music or the activity im doing. I think for silence to work the listener has to be actively engaging with the music which explains why its rarely used in pop where people tend to listen passively.

[@Gnurklesquimp]

Modal ambient with silences between each one or two drawn out chords works so well. The slow attack and release usually lend themselves very nicely to chords that consonantly morph into one another, whereas you can use those silences to easily create otherwise rougher transitions.

[@katiekilgore6918]

I love this! Silence does have a profound effect in music, and I think I’ve been aware of that on some level for a while now. I’ve applied that idea a little in the few pieces I’ve written so far, and I’m excited to apply it more in pieces I write in the future. There are two pieces that I can think of that you didn’t mention which I think use silence very effectively. One of them is “When David Heard,” by Eric Whitacre, and the other one is the ending of “Mars,” by Gustav Holst. I think the ending of “Mars” is particularly effective, just because of the nature of that piece. It really forces you to reflect on the calamities of war.

[@Lamadesbois]

Thank you for this video and for the dramatic examples. It reminded me of the slightly related video "Listen", featuring composer R. Murray Schafer.

[@Gusrikh1]

Very, very insightful.

[@jgardner404]

I love the silence at the end of a piece played in concert. I heard the organist Naji Hakim play at St Giles' in Edinburgh: someone started clapping while the last chord was still resonating. I was so upset - the building was still singing! One of my favourite uses of silence in choral rep is Purcell's use of rests in 'Thou Knowest Lord' from the Funeral Music. Silent footfalls in a funeral procession ...

[@churricardo1457]

cool that you brought up dilla, the first thing i thought of when i saw the title of the video is that thing he does in a lot of his songs where he leaves out half (or a quarter?) bar and it gives the song a certain cool groove

[@ihazthots]

Thank you for the inspiration. I fancy writing progressive rock/jazz pieces and love to borrow compositional ideas from classical music. The concept of adding silence to a piece is highly intriguing. I will definitely write with silence in mind for the next piece.

[@MrHalafaseka]

Aaaamazing!!!! Thank you so very much

[@mariacopley2128]

I played a concert in Greenwich yesterday in a chapel in Trinity Laban, and one of he pieces we played was "Ekstasis" by John Taverner, which is a piece for orchestra and solo violin, oboe and trumpet, and is (according to him), a representation of the trinity. At the end, it has a bar marked to be 10 seconds long, followed by a pause marked "allow the echoes to fade away". It's a bugger to play but I'm sure it's beautiful to listen to!

[@JohnathandosSantos]

This channel is the classical counterpart to what Adam Neely is doing in the jazz scene! Love it!!!!

[@springboard9642]

Thank you! Now I have a reason to revisit albums. I had only considered song order the only element in creating the experience. Thinking back I'm silence as well as the lack of silence has been manipulated for effect, even if my addled brain can't remember an example.

[@ems7623]

In the concert hall, there is indeed something magical about an entire orchestra and a full hall convectively going dead silent whether it be for a breath or a long gap.