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Time ago I learned about the backbeat used in most present-day pieces of popular styles such as pop and rock, and indeed it was quite obvious to me it's used for the accompaniment instruments (mostly drums, but also sometimes the accompaniment guitar, etc.), but I still heard the lead voice and instruments accenting the on-beats.

Recently a teacher told me about the backbeat being used in practically all current popular pieces basically for all the instruments/voice, and I just can't wrap my head around it, that's not at all what I hear; unlike what I assumed at first, it sounds to me the accented beats can vary quite a bit for lead instruments in a single piece, but definitely not practically all accent the off beat, not even most of them.

Is the off-beat accentuation/backbeat in current popular music used mostly for percussion and accompaniment instruments, or is it actually used mostly for all instruments?

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    The backbeats are supposedly beats 2 and 4 in 4/4 time. 'Accented' doesn't really make much sense. In most pop type music, beat 1 has the kick drum on it. If that's not accented, what is? Beats 2 and 4 may have a snare, so does that constitute accents? Voice, singing the melody, can accent anywhere. I feel the question is somewhat vague and maybe asked with false premises. Teachers can get things mixed up!
    – Tim
    May 14, 2021 at 10:05
  • I can think of plenty of songs with syncopated melodies that start some notes on offbeats, including Beat 4.5 (e.g. Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer", Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance"), but I haven't listened to pop in years, and I don't know whether you count rock as "popular music".
    – Dekkadeci
    May 14, 2021 at 12:19
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    @Dekkadeci, "Livin on a Prayer" the melody is very much on the downbeat, of course there is syncopation in it, but beat 1 gets hit hard.
    – Michael Curtis
    May 14, 2021 at 20:17
  • @Tim What do you mean with "'Accented' doesn't really make much sense"? Regarding drums, I think the snare drums (which are usually, but not always, in beats 2 and 4) definitely constitute accents, certainly more than the kick drums most of the time.
    – Trisibo
    May 18, 2021 at 0:37
  • @Dekkadeci Indeed there are many songs that start notes in offbeats, but that wouldn't necessarily mean those are accented, the accents could still go in any beats, right?
    – Trisibo
    May 18, 2021 at 0:41

2 Answers 2

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I think the answer is no.

First let's make clear syncopating a melody or starting with a rest on beat one is not something new...

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Those two examples are from Haydn, piano sonatas 11 and 12. Notice that in the first example the syncopation is achieved basically by inserting an eight note rest at the start of the treble line to shift if off the beat. Otherwise the melody would be straight quarter notes on the beat.

Pop music does similar things...

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In the first melody we have an eighth note displacement. If the eighth note on "all" in the line "I give her all..." were changed to an quarter note, the line would fall squarely on quarter notes on all beats.

In the second melody the rest on beat 1 makes the first bar an anacrusis to beat 1 of the next bar leading to the word "said."

The pop melodies are using rhythmic devices similar to those in the Haydn melodies. I don't see a special shift to beat 2 in the pop examples.

However, in terms of on the beat/off the beat I think there is something else worth mentioning in pop music. There seems to be a tendency to sort of "balance" the on/off rhythmic feel. Either a line starts on the beat and then toward the end it shifts off, or vice versa, it start with an off beat feel and then shifts to on the beat. Like in these examples...

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...or with an anacrusis...

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...those were on beat to off beat, this one is off beat to on beat...

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I don't thing pop music has some special backbeat accenting of beats 2 and 4 in melodies, and certainly there is not an avoidance of accent on beat 1. I think there is a greater mixture of on and off beat rhythms in pop as compared to classical style. But it's just a matter of proportions, and certainly beat 1 is strong in pop. Keep in mind that's the most common place for chord changes. Beat 1 is important in pop music.

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The point of putting the rhythm group on the back-beat is letting the lead stand out on the beat, giving its lyric stresses and leading consonants (for a vocal lead) breathing room and giving it the lead in harmonic changes.

If you put the lead on the back-beat as well, there is nothing but back-beat and it becomes indistinguishable from on-beat.

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