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In music, abreakdown is a section of a song in which variousinstruments have solo parts (breaks). This may take the form of all instruments playing the verse together, and then several or all instruments individually repeating theverse as solo parts.
A breakdown is a popular musical section, particularly inbluegrass, notable examples beingEarl Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" andBill Monroe's "Bluegrass Breakdown".
According to music historianAllen Lowe the definition of a breakdown is complex and contested, with different shades of meaning in different musical genres, including bothwhite andblack American musical history. It is characterized by solo performance, improvisation, and a focus on rhythmic orpentatonic patterns.[1]
AUnion soldier inCharleston, South Carolina in 1865 recorded that young black people celebrating the end of theAmerican Civil War with joyful singing in the streets "ended their songs with a 'shout' and a 'breakdown'." Celebratory songs includedKingdom Coming andOh we'll hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree.[2]
Disco producer, mixer, and remixerTom Moulton invented the "disco break" or breakdown section in the early 1970s. Moulton had been remixing a record (”Dream World” byDon Downing) which "immaculated" (modulated to a higherkey) towards the end, and he wanted to cut parts together that were in different keys. To do this, he separated two sections with non-tonal information.[3] He edited in a section of drums, and the aesthetic effect was pleasing to dancers at the club. The placement was also useful for club DJs, providing a rhythm-only section of the recording over which to begin mixing in the next record. Moulton says his innovation was an accident.[3] The placement followed the pattern of a traditional pop recording: it replaced thebridge typically found in such a record after the second chorus.
A later example is the breakdown in "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)" byEn Vogue: a sampled male voice can be heard introducing this part of the record (at 3:27) with the sentence "and now it's time for a breakdown". Longerdance tracks often have two, three, or more breakdowns.
Initially, the transition to the breakdown was an abrupt absence of most of the arrangement in a disco record, as described above. Records in thehi-NRG style of the late 1970s to early 1980s would typically use a pronounced percussive element, such as a drum fill, to cover the transition. Later dance genres typically reach the breakdown section by a gradual reduction of elements, though a wide variety of styles have been employed since the mid-2000s.
In all genres, the stripping away of other instruments and vocals ("breaking-down" thearrangement) helps create intense contrast, with breakdowns usually preceding or following heightened musical climaxes. In many dance records, the breakdown often consists of a stripping away of the pitched elements (most instruments) – and often the percussion – while adding an unpitched or indistinctly pitchednoise, asound effect. This is often treated with a lot ofreverb and rises in tone to build toward an exciting climax. This noise then typically cuts to a beat of silence, creating extra tension on the dance floor, before thedrop – the sudden (and often percussive and volume-enhanced) return to the musical part of the track.
Breakdowns are often times found inmetal andpunk songs, as they can be used to eschew traditionalverse–chorus–verse songwriting. The staff ofRevolver assessed, "At this point in heavy-music history, the breakdown is as much a building block of metal as the thrash gallop, the blast beat and the rippin' solo."[4] When played live, breakdowns are usually responded to by the audience with high-intensitymoshing (slam dancing).
Thedrumming is usually simple, with a fourquarter-note ride pattern with thesnare on the third beat. Most commonly, the drummer plays quarter notes on thecrash cymbal orChina cymbal. In some breakdowns where a very slow tempo is used, the drummer will playhalf notes, to give the music a very "heavy", slow feel. Theguitarist usually follows therhythm, or "chugs" (usespalm-muted strokes on the lowest two to three strings of the guitar) along with thekick drum. In most cases, the drummer will use the kick drum to complement such "chugs" of the guitars.
The guitars play a set of rhythmically orientedriffs, usually on lightly palm-muted strings to achieve a very highattack noise thatdecays slowly, making the overall sound more thick and "heavy". Sometimes, these are contrasted with eitherdissonant chords, such asminor second intervals,tritones (flatted fifths), orpinch harmonics.
In punk, breakdowns tend to be more upbeat, using thefloor toms and snare to create a faster, "rolling" rhythm. This provides audience members with an opportunity toskank,mosh, or form acircle pit.
Many of the bands that play in the genres ofdeathcore andmetalcore make heavy use of breakdowns, which may consist of slow-paced strumming on the guitar, or fastsyncopatedtriplet-feel patterns, both of which are typically palm-muted and played on the lowest three strings of a guitar, and may also involve abass drop. These strings are usuallytuned down from somewhere between Drop D all the way down to Drop Eb tuning. As in modern metal genres and in other punk subgenres, breakdowns in metalcore and deathcore are signals for moshing at live shows.
Breakdowns are sometimes criticized as "overused" by modern heavy metal acts.[5]
Inbluegrass music, a break is a short instrumental solo played between sections of a song and is conventionally a variation on the song's melody. A breakdown is an instrumental form that features a series of breaks, each played by a different instrument. Examples of the form are "Bluegrass Breakdown" by Bill Monroe as well as "Earl's Breakdown" and "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", both of which were written by Earl Scruggs.
