Songs with half time/double time

Duck Tape

Duck Tape

Platinum Member
Hi guys, I'm making another little list of songs and this time the topic is half time/double time. It doesn't matter what proportion of the song is in either, as long as it makes the transition, even for a bar. I will also take a song that just has a backbeat on the 4 or a reggae feel that makes the song feel slower (like Sting/Cold Chisel do)

I don't actually know if there's a common term for normal time when a song transitions into half time or double time but I'm pretty sure everyone knows what I mean when I ask this question.

So far I have

April sun - Dragon
The letter - Joe Cocker
The outlaw torn - Metallica
Through the never - Metallica
Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty
Wagon Wheel Darius Rucker
Better - Screaming jets
Leave me alone - Pink
Copperhead road - Steve Earle
Don't stand so close to me - The police
Forever now - Cold chisel
China grove - Doobie brothers
Pardon me - Incubus

Any ideas?
 
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I see you already have Don’t Stand… but you could add pretty much any Police song you like - that’s one of Stewart’s go-to moves.

Also, Black Dog by Led Zeppelin,

🙂
 
Tom Sawyer - Rush
The Immigrant song - Zeppelin
One Human Race - The Dead Scene (shameless plug for my metal band :) )
Sunset on 32nd Street - Strike Anywhere
Revelation - Iron Maiden
Bark At The Moon - Ozzy
Narcosynthesis - Nevermore

there are a million more I could list, but these all came to mind first
 
In electronic the genre dub step has many of these idioms, it's a function of the tempos. Around 140bpm and 70bpm are on the edges of what are considered danceable too fast and too slow (unless you're really trying to push the envelope), so they often vacillate. DJ's usually gradually increase the tempo throughout the set and will use dubstep to drop back down.
 
Duck Tape said:
I don't actually know if there's a common term for normal time when a song transitions into half time or double time but I'm pretty sure everyone knows what I mean when I ask this question.
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I’ve thought about this as well and haven’t been able to come up with a term that I love. ‘Normal time’ doesn’t sound right to me, so often I’ll use ‘a tempo’ when writing on personal notes/charts — although this is incorrect, since tempo isn’t the thing that’s changing, but it does get at the idea of a return to an established time feel. Wondering if anyone else has a preferred term?

Loads of Police songs, like ‘So Lonely’
 
SmoothOperator said:
In electronic the genre dub step has many of these idioms, it's a function of the tempos. Around 140bpm and 70bpm are on the edges of what are considered danceable too fast and too slow (unless you're really trying to push the envelope), so they often vacillate. DJ's usually gradually increase the tempo throughout the set and will use dubstep to drop back down.
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And when it drops down, the synth goes “Whop wa wa wa whooooooooop.”
 
so here is my nerdy way to differentiate...

the first tempo interpretation I hear in song is the "main" or homebase tempo. I compare everything else to that.

so if the first tempo is quarters =120bpm, with the snare on 2 & 4, that is the main tempo
if the drummer cuts the back beat to twice as slow, like a phat groove that is half time at 60bpm
if the drummer doubles the snare to twice as fast, like a "4 on the floor" , that is double time at 240bpm

in reality, the original 120 tempo has not changed, just where the drummer places the back beat...

though the descriptions are as subjective as music genres, I do try to enlist a standard in my little world here at school, so my students all know what I am talking about
 
There are tons... Off the top of my head:

Don't Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty.

Fool In The Rain - Led Zep

Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley

We Can Work It Out - The Beatles

Wasting Time - Collective Soul
 
Rush -
freewill , something for nothing

Pantera -
mouth for war
a new level
this love
becoming
slaughtered
death rattle
We'll Grind That Axe for a Long Time

Don Dokken -
mirror mirror

Cannibal Corpse -
hammer smashed face

April Wine -
crash and burn
future tense (awesome half time bridge)
 
Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX said:
Tom Sawyer - Rush
The Immigrant song - Zeppelin
One Human Race - The Dead Scene (shameless plug for my metal band :) )
Sunset on 32nd Street - Strike Anywhere
Revelation - Iron Maiden
Bark At The Moon - Ozzy
Narcosynthesis - Nevermore

there are a million more I could list, but these all came to mind first
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Wow, longtime since i heard that Nevermore song
 
Crimson and Clover by Joan Jett— has a double time section, but also the drummer plays a half time feel on the main slow tempo on the first verse. Suggests it anyway.

Also tunes where the drummer is in a half time feel all the way— like English Beat / Rotating Head. Clearly a fast tempo, but the drummer plays the back beat on 3 all the way.

 
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