What Makes Up This Genre? #2 Eurobeat

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

Welcome to #2 of my series "What Makes Up This Genre?" This time...it's...

 

 

Eurobeat

 

 

Summary/Subgenres

 

Ah yes, the genre that officially launched the brony music community...the genre that laid the foundation for fan music in mlp...yes...that catchy...awesome...speedy...Eurobeat. 

 

Some of you guys may think that Eurobeat started in Japan...well...hate to say this but...it actually didn't. You see, if you take a look at the word itself...you'll see the big hint. "Euro" means of european origins. Eurobeat actually was british dance pop. However, what was considered Eurobeat back then, wasn't what we know today. Eurobeat back then was slower than your average Eurobeat song of today, which is between 170 and 190 beats per minute. 

 

Because of it's high-energy feel and continuous beat, Eurobeat is mostly about energetic situations. Here are some common themes Eurobeat uses

 

Love

Energy

Speed

Adrenaline

Cars/Racing

 

Eurobeat also has some popular fusions.

 

Euro-Rock: Euro-Rock takes elements of Rock and Eurobeat and puts them together. Sometimes, rock bands who perform Eurobeat tunes don't use a drum machine to produce the artificial sounds. Instead they use electric drum sets. Some may even stick with their acoustic drum set to give Eurobeat a "pure rock" feel to it. A drum machine is a device that produces a beat without someone having to play it.

 

Euro-Punk: Euro-Punk is Punk Rock and Eurobeat put together. Again, artists may do different things with drums.  

 

Instruments and Sounds

 

One of the biggest characteristics of Eurobeat is the heavy use of the synthesizer. The synthesizer is the key ingredient of Eurobeat. With it, the four types of soundwaves (plus a few more) cannot be produced. The most notable sound in Eurobeat is the Sawtooth Lead. The Sawtooth lead is what makes the melody sound. The sawtooth wave is created when the harmonic level of a sine wave is equal to 50. A sine wave is the simplest form of sound. It sounds like a digital hum. The harmonic level is the number of harmonics in a sound wave. A harmonic is a sub-sound created when a tone is played. Most harmonics cannot be heard, but when the harmonic level is raised, more of them are exposed. 

 

Here's what a naturally sounding Sawtooth Wave sounds like: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Sawtooth-aliasingdemo.ogg

 

(Sound byte used is from Wikipedia)

 

Now you can't just send this Sawtooth wave into the eurobeat scene. No. You need to tweak and tune it. To get the signature sawtooth lead sound, most artists of today have turned to what is called a polysynth. A polysynth is a special type of synthesizer that uses more than one oscillator. An oscillator in music is a machine that produces one of the four basic soundwaves. An oscillator is usually part of the circuit board or built into higher-end units.

 

To make the sawtooth wave the bright lead sound we need for eurobeat, we must first run it through what is known as an equalizer. An equalizer is a program that allows the user to adjust the volumes of sounds in all of the frequency range. The frequency range covers the different tonalities of sounds. There are three basic frequency ranges: low, mid and high. To get the sawtooth wave brighter, we focus on the high frequencies. Some musicians even go above and beyond and add what is called a sub-oscillator. A sub-oscillator produces pitches one octave below the principal pitch. An octave is the distance between two notes of the same spelling but difference in pitch (ie. C1->C2). Furthermore, this sawtooth lead sound requires minimal attack. Attack is the time it takes for a note to fully sound. In this case, the sawtooth lead has to sound in a blink of an eye, no delays at all. In addition, it's release is instant. Release is how long it takes for a note to fade after a key is depressed or a string is muted. What's more, musicians add what is called a chorus to the sawtooth to give it that dual bright feel. A chorus is a sound effect that duplicates the signal to give the illusion that more than one person is playing. 

 

Besides the sawtooth lead sound, there is another sound that is used known as a plucked lead. A plucked lead is any lead sound that sounds like a plucked string instrument. Plucked leads are mainly used in the background, but some musicians put them up front in the spotlight. Sometimes, they play licks in the middle of a verse or lyric. A lick is a little passage of notes that falls in between a phrase, line or lyric. Plucked leads are heavily controlled by filter effects. Filter effects are highly advanced equalizing effects that not only affect frequency range but bring about human-like vowel sounds such as "wah". Plucked leads are often fat sounding and contain a lot of low end. However, some musicians make their plucked leads thin-sounding for a more delicate type of feel amongst the steady beat. 

 

In terms of percussion, eurobeat features electronically-made drums. It is most notable for it's continuous pumping kick. Kick is another term for bass drum. It's usually used when referring to a drum set. The kick is played in quarter beats and lays out the tempo of the piece. Synthesized toms are present in fills. They are noted for their very unique punchy sound. They sound like someone shouting "Dew!". Synthesized claps are also present, and again, mostly found in fills. Sometimes, musicians put synthesized on beats 2 and 4 of the bar.

 

Now that we've laid out the sounds...here comes the fun part...the song layout:

 

Song Formats and Chord Progressions

 

Eurobeat has a very specific formula to it. According to japanese artists, it is said to have always follow this layout:

 

beginning → riff (musical synth) → a melo (verse) → b melo (bridge) → sabi (chorus) → riff (musical synth) → c melo → ending

 

Let's use this layout to breakdown perhaps the most famous eurobeat in all of the MLP fandom: Discord

 

 

The beginning of the piece starts with the moving organ, which has a very similar pattern to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. This intro lasts until around the middle 0:48, where the riff comes in. Notice the bright sawtooth lead I discussed earlier. If you're hearing a sort of wobble at the tail-end of the lead each time it holds a note, you're hearing what is called vibrato. Vibrato can be both naturally and artificially produces. Artificially, it is when an oscillator rapidly modulates from one pitch to another. These pitches are usually a half-step a part and the transition is a smooth bend. Modulation is any change made to the sound of a pitch. Moving on to the a melo (aka verse 1), this part starts at 1:01. The b melo (bridge, or pre-chorus) starts at 1:13. The sabi or chorus starts right at 1:25 and then the sawtooth riff picks up again at 1:37. Eurobeat Brony slightly modified his layout for a more extended eurobeat, as your typical eurobeat can be pretty short. 

 

In terms of chords and progressions, there is actually no specific progressions people use. In eurobeat, progressions are drawn out to cover more than one line of lyrics. In the verse, some people stick to the tonic key of whatever key the song is in, or use only two chords. Other times, they go with simple known progressions such as the I-vi-IV-V (aka the Love Progression). 

 

Now that we've covered the core concepts of Eurobeat, here is some miscellanous info. 

 

Sometimes, in the very beginning, musicians insert what is called a noise sweep. A noise sweep is a sound where a noise starts deep in a filter. As the frequencies of the filter rise, the noise is "swept out" of the filter to create a build-up effect. Some musicians even do the opposite and sweep the noise into the filter quickly for a drop. A drop is the part of the song where all of the instruments come in at once. It is usually hard-hitting. Drops usually have an accented kick combined with a crash cymbal. 

 

Well, this brings us to the end of our exploration of the genre of eurobeat. I hope all of you aspiring musicians benefit from this guide. If you have any questions, drop a PM to me and I'll be sure to get back to you.