Why the Jonas Brothers “Sucker” is NOT Funky
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ย. 2024
- In this episode I compare the drum break of the Jonas Brothers song "Sucker" and compare it to a James Brown's legendary "Funky Drummer"
#sucker #jonasbrothers #jamesbrown
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Ok, just so that I don’t have to respond to comments about quantizing and drum machines. My video is a response to the professor where he compares the funkiness of the Jonas Brothers drum break to James Brown’s Funky Drummer. Prince used drum machines and made funky music but the drum break and whistling section that the Professor describes as having “Stupefyingly Funky Proportions” is hyper- quantized to the 1/16 note as I demonstrated in the video. The drums lack dynamics because of heavy compression. This creates a machine gun like quality because of the lack of nuance to each individual part of the kit. If people can’t hear this it’s because they are immune to it. This is because of constant repetition of hyper quantized drums over the past 20 years. I guarantee it if I asked Homer Steinweiss if he likes his drum parts quantized he will say “Hell no!” and that goes for every big studio drummer I know and I know most of them. There’s a reason that they have groove templets in every DAW. It’s to make programmed drum more human not less. For those of you that think that the Jonas Brothers drum break is as funky as James Brown, well there’s not much to be said. I’m not anti- quantizing. I have quantized many players that have horrible time and no feel. If you quantize everything, take lessons with a great dummer or practice with a metronome. Oh and cool it with the “Ok Boomer” crap.
You’re so right! Art is supposed to be about expressing ourselves as humans, when it loses it’s imperfections, it loses it’s humanity.
I dig drum machines and real drumming....but I get what you are saying.
Right on Rick.
It's unfortunate that because of low intelligence, this needed to be written. The "boomer" and "old" nonsense is just used by the mindless AND easily manipulated few.
*you're
Ramdom Professor: "It's funky"
Rick : "So you have chosen death."
lol
Haha, that got me pretty good!
Yep, that puts it nice:D
Professor had NO IDEA this roasting was coming
@mr red, it's a way of stating what happens in a bath house, at any given moment. NOT THAT I WOULD KNOW!
The way the "professor" guy talks is how I used to write essays in high school on topics i didn't read about.
😉
Hahahahaha! The use of filler adjectives you’d hope would make your teacher happy. Love your analogy. Dead on.
I think his "funk" could only be portrayed on a Cliff Notes clef.
😆😂
"when in doubt put in jargon"
James Brown: “Take me to the bridge!”
Jonas Bros: checks google maps
Hahahaha this comment did not get enough credit 😂😂😂
This comment deserves respect!
Bro, that's another level of funny! Very good! ;-)
You deserve all the thumbs up
Hahah technology bad I get it
Funky means dirty; when you clean it up, it ain't funky.
Nuff said!
I’m like 69
Why does it mean dirty?
So a DOS pc is very funky.
@@k-leb4671 cuz it stank. Sumthin stank and I want some.
Maybe he meant funky like - “That banana smells funky.”
Oh! That's probably it!
Ahh... all makes sense now.
Cold but true....
thanks made my moment
hehe
Man, you’d love my drumming. My tempo is all over the place
who knew i was the funkiest drummer alive??
Made my day hahahahah
Haha nice
Jerrod C not funky enough for the times gut tho
The bass player never appreciated this for funk!
Imagine listening to a Jonas Brothers song and actually believing that "these 14 seconds is like opening a wormhole through music space time"...jesus christ
With any luck the reviewer will be sucked into the wormhole and hear real funk for the first time. And stay there forever.
Professors are taking some weird drugs these days. I don't want any.
We're waaaay overdo for that civilization ending event....
Ron J LMFAO God forgives, Beato doesnt
It's just a disguised commercial for them, full of typical spoon fed bs
As a musician who played with Brother Clyde for more than a decade, THANK YOU for standing up for what's funky, and for who is funky. Clyde's playing was always impeccably personal and human... and filthy bad. Here's a true story: I did a studio gig once with Clyde that called for a dead-on-the-one cowbell. Honest to god, this man, the greatest funk drummer of all time, COULD NOT play that cowbell steadily on the one. It was horrible. He was simply incapable of being a machine. They did it with Protools instead. On the other hand, his groove on the tune? One track, two takes, baby.
I dig Clyde. I like to think there is more than one funky drummer in the world.
“Being funky is not about sounding like machine” Money quote.
To be honest, Madonna’s into the groove bassline is sequencer and synths but to me that grooves like a mother...
Unless of course its a Sex Machine
Tony Jee Winner! ☝🏻
@bookmarkthis LOL, yes, a tail-end boomer, despised by boomers and millennials alike.
A quote a stupefyingly money proportions
Rick Beato: forensic musicologist and savage.
This video was savage. He pretty much buried the professor.
@@piteusx8440 The music writers for the NYTimes have awful taste in music. They write these glowing reviews for all this disposable computerized teen pop hip-hop stuff but they don't allow any readers comments. They don't want people like Rick and the people on this forum to tell them they don't know what they're talking about.
I have a name for that kind of music “teeny bop” I can’t stand it. To compare that to James Brown is ridiculous. So thankful there are voices of opposition to this stuff.
@@frankmarsh1159 That's not a suprise. Popular magazine write about popular music. I am not defending it but what to expect. Who in this time wants read about jazz, funk. They want make money so they write about popular music.
This video should be required viewing for all music theory students and all recording engineering students and all journalism students who want to write about music and all millennials in general for that matter...
Lol that “stupefying funk” sounds like a wal mart commercial.
You nailed it!!! savage comeback!
Most music on the radio today sounds like a Walmart commercial. Most top forty music sounds generic, fake and cheesy to the max. Some if it sounds like Cheese Wiz and some of it sounds like a Pepperidge Farm cheese ball...
he ment stupidfying
Stupefying, where have I seen that word before. . . Oh yes one of the areas in the first borderlands game. Lol
The whole epxlanation of the 'Prof' was a marketing babble.
In Rick's next episode, he will prove that Madonna was NOT a virgin.
I always said, Like a Virgin? Yeah Like a Prayer....
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You killed it
I checked already, she's definitely not a virgin.
You don't need a whole episode for that.
😂
Anyone who calls that “stupefyingly funky” shouldn’t be commenting on music publicly
I'm sure to HIS audience, it's quite adequate commentary.
Music critics scare me, they only make things worse
I've listened to his podcast. He has a tendency towards loquaciousness, but let's remember, he is an academic so that might be par for the course. It's a fine line between precision, entertainment and hyperbole.
You're being very kind. This is the sort of crap that makes the New York Times so despised by many people, the whole "we has been to college, so we're all smarter than you" thing. It offends the lumpy proles they're talking down to.
@Random One the guy was at the very least in his mid-20s AND he referenced James Brown in his own video. I really don't know what he was on about
This was the most polite burn ever
Rick beato: It's NOT funky, and I can prove it mathematically
I mean he didn't though, I'd love to actually see that, but he literally just presupposed it and didn't prove anything.
@@amaliajonsdottir7481 He surely did. I listened to the JB song just before I watched this - and what I heard really wasn't funk.
@@emm_arr That's not proof by any definition of the word. That is the definition of an opinion. "I listened to something and I thought x" is not empirical.
@@amaliajonsdottir7481 he did far more to debunk the claim than the ridiculous statements by the professor. Only a complete moron would try to tie that no feeling garbage to anything created by James Brown.
@@Lcacique that still doesn't prove anything. neither do your assertions.
If you need a professor to tell everyone that "this is funky", then it's not funky.
absolutless “I am the king!”
You quoted this line like a moron. It would be applicable if the Jonas Brothers themselves were insisting their song was funky. But the professor clearly had nothing to do with the song's creation. Fact is, critics and reviewers praise works all the time. It's their job. You are probably as dumb as much as you think you are smarter than this professor.
Lol for real 😂
@@zackwyvern2582 So as much as I think I'm smarter than this professor, is how dumb I am? So you're saying if I think I am exactly as smart as this professor, then I'm not dumb? You're essentially accusing me of being as smart as a college professor. Not a great insult, but I'll take it. Thank you sir. And I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, other than you clearly have some insecurities around intelligence. Good luck with that.
Meanwhile, I'm not calling him or them (The Jonas bros) dumb. I'm saying they aren't funky. Which is tragically much much worse.
@@zackwyvern2582 you think that someone paid to make a presentation for the New York Times is somehow unbiased? The media telling you other media is good is not a good sign of imparciality, what do you think is the overlap between NYT investors and Universal Music investors?
Modern pop is like someone who's had so much plastic surgery that their face is perfect but they can no longer show any emotion
this is a great analogy
vicious!!
Thumbs up. Brilliant analogy. There really isn't much left of(or to) pop music and there hasn't been for years IMO. Unfortunately, most "genius pop" also IMO was written 30-40 years ago. One might say, "yeah yeah yeah, but what about the Beatles?", going back a bit further and I would say that they were more rock and roll than pop and even kinda left that genre in the dust a few times during their time together. Not that they didn't or couldn't write really good pop, because they did, and they were the kings of the "hooks".....
A friend of mine used to say, "Pop music is nothing more than a product, created using a formula, to sell other product(s)", a statement both rife with obtuseness and subject to wide interpretation, but I think there is some truth in there.
I almost feel bad for the younger generations, because I honestly haven't heard much since maybe the early 90's that I thought was really, really good pop music. Maybe a song here and there, but not many.
I think the "formula" has been exhausted for decades, and most attempts at reviving or refining it have been subpar.
I just saw the "Has every song been written?" vid in the suggestions bar here off to the side, and that's a theory I've had for a while, too, or something like "has every structure, hook and group of chords/notes that is pleasing to the ear been done, and done repeatedly, ad nauseum?" Think I'll dive into that one tonight.
Thanks for the spot-on analogy jaylinsa, and thanks Rick B. for all your analyses and breakdowns in your vids. Much appreciated!
great comment.. I would add ".... face is perfect but odd looking."
This is true of rap music too in its own way. Black music used to be filled with soul and emotion, but rap sucked the soul and emotion out of black music and replaced it with cold, soulless machines and unemotional, dehumanizing, one-dimensional "spitting" on top of it.
the professor's analysis sounds like an ad for the Jonas Brothers, they should put him in the marketing department... oh wait, that's already what music press is about
I was about to ask you for your address in order to send you a "captain obvious" cap as a gift before I read your last sentence.
"The professor" sounds like he writes copy for an ad agency.
Ha! Perfect summation. It's PR speak.
Haha. Yes.
😂 That's accurate
Professor: “This is stupefyingly funky”
Pikachu: *Shocked George Clinton face*
Steve Curtis I challenge that professor to even grasp what funk music and “funky” even are, in all seriousness. I think he’s out of his depths, and not just in this particular case. If he thinks that break beat is funky he’s off.
“Oh I hear a rhythmic drum beat. That’s funky.” That is his interpretation.
Eh=hhs dropped from a 3rd floor onto a marble surface groove with so much more precision and swing
Oh man, this made my day. Nice one xD
This sounds like a GarageBand drumbeat
GarageBand, EZDrummer, call it what you want it's obviously snap to grid, copy and paste garbage, lol.
@@carlosmatos9848 Why would you put ezdrummer and snap to grid in the same sentence? Do you even know what that vst does?
Honestly, My mainstay is ABleton, and I play with several live drummers. However, I have goofed off in Garageband, and it has better drum beats than this unfunky bullshit. I hate the Joneass bros.
@@Danko_HS Yeah, I could have used a better example. I know the DFH expansion pack and humanizer can make some pretty nice grooves, but it's just as easy to create an overly compressed and fake sounding beat with Ezdrummer if you don't know what you are doing.
@@carlosmatos9848 You sure can, but EZD is famous mostly for its midi expansions (sound is really terrible) and those midi are actually performed by real drummers. None of them use snap to grid.
It’s funky because the “funky” switch on the Beatmotronix drum machine was switched to “on”
genius!
Yep works every time. I’ve got one of those funky switches on my left buttock. You flick that sucker on and I’m a funk mchine👍
I thought I didn't have rhythm. Now I know I'm just a gifted funk player.
Hahaha
Pajeets aren't funky
Bad at rhythm and bad at piano? Funk and Jazz are here to save the day B)
Professor Sloan strikes me as someone whose musical frame of reference is far too small, and whose love of hyperbole is far too large. Really nice job by the *real* professor: R.B.
Dead-on, sober analysis. As someone who grew up in the funkified soul stew of Philadelphia in the 60's and 70"s, I would surmise that Sloan's desk sits in the antiseptic reverb tank of his local faculty lounge. Thank you, Dean Beato.
Definitely the real professor. Something about him dismantling this joker’s “analysis” was extremely satisfying.
During my time at university i found that many professors worked there to not get too mixed up with reality. It obviously wasn't their thing.
Same with this Sloane guy here. Nothing ever changes - except for the bpm of a funky beat. 😀 😀
Probably a professor in marketing
@@mdturnerinoz Only after it's been quantized...😂
Rolling on the floor laughing at first hearing the "funky" whistle/beat...😂🤣
First thing that caught my attention...I only listen to funky whistling.
...that guy is supa stiff ...losen the f**k up prof!
When I hear that song, funky is the last thing I think if I think it at all.
Me too!!!! I have played in live situations therefore that track sounds a bit crappy to me anyway.
@@thesuncollective1475 he's probably quantized too, to a maximum degree
Pop Funk, is a Funk without groove or funk. Let's call it Flunk.
I approve!!
Reminds me of Country Rap. Crap.
Much like Call of Duty is not an FPS but "SpunkgargleWeeWee"
that’s funny!!!!
@@nkwari Not my joke, its from Zero Punctuation
This is more like “What Makes This Song Not Great?”
That would be an interesting series to see. Lol
I 100% endorse this series. Rick, make it happen!
Rick please
Thankfully we still have people like Rick, who actually knows music.
this guy doesn't know jack $#!+
luke shaw, I hope you're trolling. You might not agree with Rick Beato, but if you've watched any of his other videos, he is very well versed in both music theory and music production.
@@pkwiva definite troll
@@pkwiva there's no point wasting time with people like Luke.
Pedro Couto e Santos and Dylan 😉
As Prince said: " they tried to describe funk... well, if you can describe it, it ain't funky!"
prince was also a prominent drum machine user, and his songs were very funky so this video is a bit elitist
Jeremy formerly known as Token Live Matters this! quantize doesn't mean it can't be funky, of course rick is right about this song
@@jeremyformerlyknownastoken8218 It's what Prince put around it that was funky. Are you trying to compare Price and the Jonas Brothers?
I'm no Rick Beato but "indescribable" is the way I've always thought about it. Most of hip hop is about chopping up breaks and, while not perfectly quantizing them, there is definitely a predictable, static BPM. Does that mean hip hop isn't funky? Or is hip hop funky only because there are unquantized portions of the sample that fall between the quanization? Seems little restrictive to think of "funk" like that. Still, I get the point Beato is making. Those drums weren't of “Stupefyingly Funky Proportions”. Not even by a long shot. And over-quantization is probably a big part of that.
@@jeremyformerlyknownastoken8218 Prince is a bad example. While he did use the Linn drum on a programmed grid, he used it in a minimal way, with well-timed (not quantised) hits, and with all kinds of mushy analog effects that left a lot of open space for him and his musicians to play around. His drummers can still find a pocket when the Linn is being used. But that's not what's happening in Sucker - where the rhythm section acts as a metronome. Using the Funky Drummer beat in itself doesn't make a song funk or funky - nobody calls drum and bass songs (where funky drummer has often been sampled) funky because they lack that funk rhythm and groove.
I never thought I would see "Jonas Brothers" and "James Brown" in the same sentence... I'm stupefied
🤣🤣😀😀👍
Unless the sentence was Jonas Brothers < James Brown
Maybe on a school attendance roll call.
Ah yes it's cool to bash pop music hehe
They both have JB as initials so there’s that lol
As a professor, that guy should be ashamed for being a sellout of stupefying proportions, also the track is awful.
Sad, Rick, but ~true.
It's not awful if a large group of people like it. However, it might not be to your taste.
@@esyone3394 a large group of people like the smell of their own farts.
Ya that song is trash lmao 😂
Its AWFUL if you call it funk music when its merely syncopated pop. That cute pop song is to funk what a McRib is to a Ruth Chris steak. No comparison.
Quantized or not, that song isn't funk.
Sounds like a a march attack during the civil war with a LOT drunken soldiers. it is all pardilles and rudiments VERY I mean VERY fucked up.
@bookmarkthis Millennial, actually, and thanks for letting us know you have no argument.
It's FART
I like the song, but I agree, in no way is it funk.
@bookmarkthis shove it, member of generation loser music. Just for the record, I think you're good people otherwise.
“Stupefyingly Funky”
-OK MILLENNIAL
Not happening boomer
@@jasonclaros7073 loved that zeppelin profile pic
Lol ymmd
On the money, Luka Meah. Identity by group, whether it be race or age or anything else is just a way to shrink the individual.
@Luka Meah what is this branding nonsense you're going on about? I agree that marketing agencies appropriate these terms for very manipulative purposes, but most of these terms have different origins, and all have different histories that can be great starting points for many sociological studies.
This week on “When Hot Takes Go Cold”: a smarmy prof tries to sound hip, gets exposed as just a hipster.
more like he was paid to shill soulless music.
The glasses alone gave it away tbh
That is a savage comment!
How 'the professor' could compare that drum sample with Clyde Stubblefield's drumming is mind boggling.
Well said, it's like night & day!!
Why? Isn't it good?
its stupefyingly mind boggling if I may add
_"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence."_
- Charles Bukowski
“Stupefyingly Funky”= vaguely reminiscent of funk. Lol
Diet funk.
They "fixed" that drum break the way I "fixed" my dog - now neither has balls!
Lmao that analogy was on point XD
Damn that was good.
Well that was Memetastic!
this is so funny... omg!!!
You're a fucking legend.
One more note: that so-called "professor" is incredibly self-important and full of himself. Thanks for exposing his ludicrously misleading statements on the "funk".
Professor...someone afraid to leave school
@@jdjd167 you know Rick is a professor, right?
@@greenchilaquiles Yes, a REAL 1, unlike that other poseur!
@@greenchilaquiles Rick was a "professor" for a short time. However, Rick actually has real world experience in music: signed to a major label, a #1 hit, people actually pay Rick for his music skills, etc....unlike a career professor who does not and could not make money in music in the real world.
_"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people [have too many] doubts, while the stupid ones [have too much] confidence."_
Talking about "the return of funk" and NOT talk about Vulfpeck should be a sin.
I looked for all over the comment section for a vulf comment
I am happy now
Vulfpeck is great, but they're no Snarky Puppy...
(just teasing, don't wanna start a war please)
Snarky Puppy? Stay away from whatever drugs produced that name, kids.
Amen
@@Lcacique That goes for many popular band names XD "Kid"
Yeah stupefyingly funky sounds like a lifeless breakbeat from a loop library.
Yes yes and looped music was invented to drive us all insane!
"Perfect funk is jazz."
- George Clinton
Perfect funk is linear funk, which is also jazz.
"so wide you can't get around it, so low you can't get under it, so high you can't get over it...can't get over it"
- George Clinton
Oh yeah, i remember this. He was producing RHCP's Freaky Styley when he said that right?
Never trust a grown man that loves a Jonas Brothers song
Best advice I've gotten today
I'm going to use this
but its a really nice song, the description of it just wasn't as musically accurate as it should be, but I don't think you should discredit their music just because they're the Jonas Brothers.
It's a great song tho
David Ryan Aguilar Look, I know it feels right to say that “we shouldn’t judge their music just because they’re the Jonas brothers” but, I mean.. cmon. They came up from being a plastic Disney project. They’ve been completely manufactured from the start. Ever seen that video of Nick playing that solo live at the country music thing? Looked like he didnt know where to navigate himself on the fretboard to keep a melody going in his solo. It’s almost like he’s not very good at what he does. Anything thing we hear from “them” in the studio has been processed and primped by computers and producers. Not that I’m against computers in music (love hip hop) but when acts like the Jonas Brothers make a single in the studio it just becomes sooo basic and soulless to me. Same with any of the other hack artists that came up from Disney. It’s not art, it becomes an attempted “hit single” for some money, and you can hear it.
the song sounds like a car commercial lol
"Being funky is not about sounding like a machine, it's about ... Being funky" Prof Rick Beato...
And there's nothing wrong
The simplest answer is the truest lol
The imperfection is what makes it humans human.
John Forjustice If that is true, then I am superhuman! 😀😂
gohopdrummer perfect time is not the problem.
"Fixed" corporate professor is worse than a "fixed" drum track.
Bingo. Hit the nail on the head.
Who’s the anime gril in your pfp? She cute
They cut his nuts off?
Rick is like “The Professor” of the professors.
I wish he could revoke the tenure of the other professors and their pay would be cut. Beato is there to school, though, and this prof is now publicly embarassed as he should be, defending the Jonass Bros as legit funk. I mean, WOW!
I think this was well intentioned but accidentally came out sarcastic and insulting. lol
I totally agree, being funky is a feeling which comes from freedom. It is the human factor and effect on an instrument and the soul that is added by this freedom. Quantising takes the human element and expression out of the equation, leaving a soul less sound.
I'll bet that Nate Sloan's Twitter is exploding right now with tweets saying, "Dude, you just got KTFO by Rick Beato."
The “professor” is actually Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk in disguise.
Hey man, everybody's got a little light under the sun.
Starchild.. you have only won the battle! I will never dance!
🤣🤣👌
Sick reference 😂
Never thought id see a p funk reference in rick's comment section. Dope
You're not hearing him right. He's saying, "fun key," not, "funky."
😂👌🏽
whats the key to this tow, FUNK KEY FUNK KEY
David Dailey hahaha excellent 👌
David Dailey good call brother!
If D minor is the saddest of all keys, I wonder which is the funnest LOL
Aside from the quantizing, I just think it’s a basic drum beat over a crappy pentatonic whistle melody. There’s just nothing funky or syncopated or anything about it different from anything you’ve ever heard in recent pop. A few young people with little real exposure to music are probably blown away by it (like the professor) because they’re hearing the drums do and be something in this example that’s not just an underlying beat for the song. The drums came to the front and had a little tiny bit of syncopation added, and their ears are perking up like it’s just blow the frickin roof off of music as they’ve known it.
Unfortunately, a little more exploration of music history would reveal that there’s really nothing special about this dumbed down drum break.
I think the drum break sounds fine aside from the quantizing, other than that I agree with you. The drums got the spotlight and people though it was game changing.
I'm just happy that a pop song has live drums, though i'll agree that it's not 'stupifying' about it
That quantized “funk” beat makes me feel like I’m at a team building excercise on an office retreat
16inchesOC kidz bop: poppas got a brand new bag (of toys for Christmas)
Or like a DVD menu page
“Quantized Funk” would make a good band name 🤔
16inchesOC hah!
Funk can't live in captivity. Funk purrs when it's roaming around free.
Jesse Kiiskinen Fuckin A right!
@@evankeal what I've noticed that if the drums are straight up electronic and quantized, you can funk it up with unquantized funky stuff, in Prince's case usually guitars and vocals etc. It can be funky, BUT I think the maximum funkiness is achieved when all the elements are just the right amount wrong rhythmically to bring in the smooth snappiness.
Free range funk best funk
@@evankeal Prince never achieved stank funk.
I can only gauge how funky something is by how much it makes my face look like I just smelled a wicked fart.
They’re speaking of those 14 seconds like it’s something that’s never been done before, and it’s revolutionary...
The Jonas Brothers will never be funky-ever.
I've been playing drums for over 40 years. I've thought about what makes drumming funky or groovy for a long time. Some of it is placing accents, but I also think part of the answer is that at a certain note subdivision, say eighth notes or sixteenth notes, there has to be a little "swing" in the spacing of the notes. This applies to both timekeeping patterns and drum fills. I'm using "swing" here in the same way a jazz drummer will "swing" eighth notes on the ride cymbal. In other words, if you look at the notes on the grid (say, in some production software), you'll see some notes closer together than others, even though they're all the same type of note with no intended rests in between. A swing ride pattern in jazz is taking it to the extreme for eighth notes, BUT NOTICE: how much "swing" is put into that is totally up to the drummer. There are very "round" swing patterns that some drummers play on the ride, and others tend to "square it off" a bit more. The point is that the spacing between those swung eighth notes varies *a lot*, depending on the drummer, the tempo, or the particular tune. That's where the musicality comes in and the personal emotions the musicians are feeling in that moment. Now, what also usually comes along with this is that the "pulse" of the time is often staying quite constant - in other words, beat number "1" on each measure is right on the money, in a nearly "quantized" way. If a drummer can't keep that "pulse" at least somewhat steady, then the other players will feel that the timekeeping is no good. But many of the notes "in between the ones" will not line up perfectly on a grid.
I was at a drum clinic with Steve Gadd back in about 2006 in St. Louis MO, and during the Q&A I asked him if he could start out playing a funky groovy pattern, and then "morph" it into something that didn't groove. He looked at me a little funny for a few seconds, and then started playing (I wonder if he had ever been asked to play something "non-groovy"). His playing went from loose and funky and imperfect "in between the ones", to stiff, mechanical, and "quantized"-like. From imperfect to perfect, which in this case corresponded with from great and stupefyingly groovy to merely average and sterile. I don't hear any "groove" in this Jonas bros. computer-contaminated drum part, in the same way we all heard Steve Gadd grooving that day in St. Louis.
An example of this "uneven spacing" idea in sixteenth notes would be this: John Bonham's measure-long snare drum sixteenth note "re-entry" fill in "Whole Lotta Love". I hear a lot of uneven, swinging spacing in that fill - on every "other" sixteenth note, and it grooves like nothing else on the planet. And it was exactly the way to play it to suit the song and the players. Rick - you should take that drum fill and quantize it to make it "machine-perfect" and see what happens. It will be perfectly accurate, but the groove will disappear.
I play in some samba drumming groups and the swing is exactly all about how the 1/16ths are unevenly spaced.
Man, I wish I kept taking music through highschool after 8th grade. lol. I love watching vids like Ricks and reading comments like yours. If only I had more time.
I had a lesson i would hammer home with my students.. No Count Basie, then no James Brown. Basie and company found the funk in 1930. JB just presented differently.
Thanks for tearing it down, man... love the insights!
@@ajn465 YES. "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing." Duke and Count Basie were right and nothing has changed in the past 90 years.
Alternative title: "Rick Beato destroys New York hipster"
"Rick Beato verbally incinerates NY times hipster with fax and l0gic"
LA hipster, but yes, definitely.
😂😂
😂😂😂😂
Haha....If the dude watched this he'd probably be so upset he'd wreck his Lime scooter on the way home.
Hint for the haters: He's not saying that Jonas Brothers' playing sucks, he's saying that the original take has been modified in a second moment and that if the producers of the band avoid quantizing the song, it should actually be funky.
Dehumanizing funk is not funked.
The song So Fresh So Clean by Outkast is funky and played on a drum machine, I don’t agree with the message at all tbh i think tempo/quantization and funk are not at all correlated
Wrong, he is being more polite than even you think. The song is not funky whoever is drumming. I do not accept the label 'hater' and still know the song is utter junk.
@@mikel5163 I agree with you! Despite personal taste in music, they couldn't get this far if they hadn't talent, but contemporary production sucks in most cases because it sucks out the "mistake" from the music. Even if I don't like most of the chart music, I know that there is full of talented people but they all sound plain after other people touch the sound matter
@@joeyporth6025I totally agree!!
This is funky the way Dominoes is pizza. Looks like pizza, tastes like pizza only if you’ve never eaten pizza.
Pizza elitism?
Anthony Pompa didn’t have to tell me you were Italian with that name hahaha
Sean Clarke YES. Though it’s more like realism, if you’re asking.
That’s a good analogy!! LOL
^^^^^^ the perfect comparison - are you a song writer? You got a way with words !!!!
The words “Jonas Brothers” and “Funk” are mutually exclusive. The words “Vox” and “Information” are mutually exclusive.
Accurate.
I know it’s not technically funk but one of my favorite things about being a music teacher was teaching VanHalen riffs. Because Eddie would constantly play with the timing and do things like starting a riff on the pickup before the one. Kids just couldn’t get it. They’d learn how to play the part but the feel and timing was always off. Funk does the same thing. You gotta have that swagger and swing.
“i was stupefied with wormholes in space time with unyielding propulsive momentum” people who talk like this have no idea what they’re saying. so desperate to dunk their shallow messages and uninformed opinions in sophistication-sauce.
grape conqs I agree, but don’t you realize you sound like one?
Imagine getting called out on YT for not being funky. That's one of the most brutal accusations towards another human you could make.
To be fair, it was a 3rd party making such claims, not the people who actually made the music (to my knowledge).
Next week's column... "The Bay City Rollers.... Bluer than Miles Davis..." LOL
S A T U R D A Y ...having lived through that era of the Bay City Rollers that blasted song won't go away. It's the definition of trauma.
Hahahahaha!!!! Perfect! That was stupefyingly funny!
🎵Su Su Su Saturday nah IIIIGGGGHHHT🎵
I prefer 'You Made Me Believe in Magic'
Millions of teenage girls probably hate Rick right now.
The algorithm will send them here eventually…
It’s true. I’m glad to be one of the teenage girls to actually love Rick. I’m a bedroom producer and I agreed with everything he said.
If only he could be so lucky.
screw off sexist old white men hating on young women for having an interest in music. what are you trying to accomplish other than gatekeep ?
nah unless it's Kpop it's fine.
Rick is like a music superhero. When a music crime has been committed, he's there to right all wrongs. Thanks !
Yes
Rick, Two main words for this video: THANK YOU. You fight my battles for me.
Hell yeah. Great video. Someone needs to introduce the professor/musicologist guy to the Meters, too, if he thinks that Jonas Bros thing was "stupefyingly funky" or whatever. Because obviously his funk experience is lacking. Severely. :)
AhhhhYeahhh!
wait till the "professor" get's wind of this video from one of his croney's!
I think this professor is a lost cause. He clearly thinks he has mastered music. What we need to do is get all this quantized crap off the radio, and let people hear more real live music. If they did, then everyone would laugh when a claim like this one is made.
Midia: its funky.
Rick Beato: its a computer.
Hahahahahaha
I think the real question is, “how much did the Jonas Brothers record label pay ‘the professor’ to say that adjective nightmare?”
Lol
Clyde Stubblefield lived and performed in my hometown for years. Beautiful beautiful soul. Shudder to think of anyone comparing him to a heavily quantized recording.
He calls it "stupefyingly funky" because he was paid to call it that.
Correct
nah that's a hella weird thing to pay someone to do. Guy probably just thinks that, some people are just kinda wack idk what to tell ya
Stupefyingly rancid pablum would've been more accurate.
@@boysoul2075 man it aint weird it happens all the time.
Yeah, the “Professor” is a shill. Higher education indeed. Remember you probably paid for his education.
That "professor" should get the funk out of here.
My cardiologist , after listening with a stethoscope, just told me "Wow, is your heart funky!!" This was confirmed by my EKG, uneven unquantized heart rate. I'm very happy.
This is the most elegant way anyone has ever said "The Jonas Brothers suck".
They are suckers for you?
😂😂😂
Tbf he never said they suck. Honestly he never even insinuated that Jonas brothers or quantitative music is “sucky”. Js
onetoone, nicely put
Yeah people are just using this video as an excuse to write "Yeah the Jonas Brothers suck! Listen to my opinion!" in the comment section.
I can't help but thinking of Jeremy Clarkson saying:
"So what you're saying is; it would be better, if it was a bit worse."
I read that in his voice with an extra "bebby JEEEzess" thrown in...
Peter Trast hahahahhahahhaahhahaha
Hearing that “professor” talk about the Jonas brothers as if it was authentic artistic expression was one of the most puke inducing moments of my life
I found if hilarious...no need to get sick over something that is not relevant to authentic artistic expression. Just laugh. Today's artists have become lazy due to all the technology that does the work for them. I am not a Boomer but I am of course old in the eyes of the laziest, most entitled, and shamefully shallow youth that don't stand a chance striving for greatness. Back in the day we once identified youth was king, and now it would behoove the younger generation to put us up on pedestals to learn what is priceless. It's not a wonder that suicide is up with millennials... Perhaps it would be better to put down their Play Station and pick up a guitar....
@@David-vn2id I'm not a fan of this kind of music but just because we may not like it, it does not automatically mean that it is a bad piece of music. Also that suicide statement is completely false and irrelevant to the topic
@@David-vn2id There are plenty of actual talented young artists that write and play their own real music nowadays, you just won't hear them on the radio. Blame the big record companies for pushing out garbage meant to appeal to the widest possible audience instead of producing real art and letting it find its market.
Just gonna throw it in there that these guys actually do write their own songs
Jared Hazelton Yay.
"stupifyingly funky"
bwahahahaha
haha exactly how I reacted
Yeah-stupefy as in rendering someone stupid-by sheer boredom at listening to a time feel with no life or fire in it.
The Professor seems more in love with hearing himself talk than anything else. Then again, it is the Times.
When Clyde Stubblefield's name came out of his mouth I almost spit out my coffee!
This professor seems to think that James Brown is just some old primitive version of funk, and the new and improved version of funk is... the goddamn Jonas Brothers.
I can't imagine being so glowing about the Jonas brothers.
@Develop Robes actually I like Joe Jonas and his band DNCE at least the first album, it's pretty good.
Also I love guitar just read my name, but the guitarrist they found that girl it's nutzzz she's really good and I like her sound, she used to play in a orchestra, but she ain't Steve Vai or Van Halen if you're wondering
@Lane Sax 🤷 The ways of the young are not for _us_ to understand. Also, be nice to Juice Wrld, he just died in an ugly way. 😟 🥀
If you consume nothing but garbage 24/7 then even something mediocre sounds brilliant.
Probably trying to help them sell more records.
I totally agree, 95% of new music is quantized today to make it easier to work with in DAWs and it really sucks the life away from it.
Yea, I always feel like my DAW is judging me when I play something behind of ahead of the beat. It often sounds better that way and then when I try to 'fix' it, it doesn't work for me anymore. Then I get second opinions which only seem to complicate things further.
Recently I was working on a backing track for Jeff Beck's "Cause we've ended as lovers" and during my attempts to make one as close as possible to the real thing I've found out that the musicians on track slow down and speed up all the time, they slow down at the end of each phrase and speed up to catch up a few beats later. It gives the song a nice "breathing" feeling, it moves naturally. My very well-made drum track sounds great but lacks this feeling and it's making me really sad :)
I think musicans may go back to recording without a click...it's called live I'm told..that's what I'm use to.
@@zGollum We yeah pop is mechanical..shame is the kids love it ..what you gonna do? I know play live no ckick!
That Jonas Brothers break sounds corny as hell. That professor needs some new ears.
The audacity he has to compare them to James Brown 😬🤣
eniatsuM evaD You didn’t have to make a damn fool of yourself... just say “yes I agree” ...
The "professor" is a robot. His monotonous voice has neither melody nor syncopation, and it utterly lacks propulsive energy. I'm sure all his students fall asleep during the opening bars of his lectures. His brain has obviously been quantized to a soporific 60 b.p.m.
Someone broke out the thesaurus for this. Little pathetic, don't you think? All insult and no productivity.
@@zackwyvern2582 No thesaurus was necessary, but if you post your address here, Zack, I'll send you a dictionary for Christmas so you can look up 'tongue in cheek'.
I'm sure his utter vacuousness drives his students to rebel, which can only be a good thing.
@@zackwyvern2582 Not everyone needs a thesaurus to have an extensive vocabulary fella, some people also know stuff without having to google it too believe it or not. Also it made me laugh a fair bit, so that seems pretty productive to me. If nothing else, it produced a laugh and spread some joy in the world. What are you doing with your life? Going out of your way to ruin people's fun and criticising them for having a greater grasp of the English language than you do? Oh, how productive. Give yourself a pat on the back, you've earned it chief.
Come on man, you can't do satire or irony on this page, few will get it.
You've expressed my sentiment exactly! I'm often asked to "clean up the drums" on sessions with amazing drummers and I am astounded how afraid producers have become of the true greasy nature of funk and organic time. The true non-linear nature of time-keeping seems to only be left in classical music and some jazz, and it's quickly being eradicated from popular forms of music. It almost seems like our music culture strives to eliminate the human, kill the body and instead become one with the bland machines. A sad state of affairs but perhaps I'm being too nostalgic.
If you don't become a robot, you will be replaced by a robot. :(
"perhaps I'm being too nostalgic" - You are not.
John Seabrook's book "The Song Machine" covers a lot about the evolution of pop music, you might like it.
actually, a lot of modern hip hop in the style of j-dilla is unquantized/"human"
Great analysis !!
Definitionally the term “funky” can never apply to a finished Jonas Brothers track.
Yup
Agreed!!!
Burnin up is good
It is April 2020 and I just saw this. I cannot stop laughing. Rick your breakdown of this is totally on the money. I wont get into it here but I have spent years recording originals with some of "funk" musics masters. And I must say you would need to be "sucka free" if you really want to be funky. I needed a good laugh today. Thanks.
The whistle is even quantized! feels wrong overall, stiff as a grid
As a professor I love it when a total pseud of a ‘professor’ gets called out like this. He should be embarrassed into permanent silence. Let’s hope so. Nice work Rick!
Please, PLEASE talk about Vulfpeck!
damn straight... the Meters true sons.
Yes. This.
Honestly that is who I thought the prof was talking about, then Rick said Jonas Brothers 😬🤦♀️
Ben Finegold: "You... with the crazy comment"
Professor: "The Jonas Brother are funky like James Brown"
Ben Finegold: "Your indolence is inefficacious
"Like opening up a wormhole in space and time" I was thinking where have I heard that and similar music and then it hit me, The Mighty Boosh!! Similar music especially the "Mod Wolves" and the opening song speaks for itself.
The wormhole line sounds more like a "Rolling Stone" magazine clip.
"Innovative synchopation" = The Amen break but slightly faster?
lol
couple clicks up and this woulda been a drumnbass track hahaha
It's rather Apache I think
The "Professor" doesn't look like he can dance. That fact is NOT trivial.
Lmao fr tho, he looks like he goes to starbucks and knows all of the drink names by heart
This was hilarious! I love how you tore apart this song without dissing the group. Keeping the focus on what that "scholar" for the NYT said about it. Haha! Brilliant!
This is exactly the kind of wisdom that is often missing in our modern environment oversaturated with information. Thank you Rick for being an international treasure!
“That was funkier than James Brown on a bad night.”
- Trey Anastasio
Charlie T. Sanford What’s this from?
@@brianmurray114 The Phish documentary, "Bittersweet Motel."
Yep. Bittersweet Motel. Great documentary if you’re into Phish.
Lol. When I think of the whitest band in the world I think of Phish.
“Ya ain't got the funk. You're all rigid.”
I hope professor's daughter got those front row tickets to the Jonas show that she wanted!
lmfao
you are killing it lol :))