The Backbeat.

It bugs me. For something like fifty years now, the tyranny of the backbeat has held sway. It has defined the mediocrity of mainstream popular music. If you want music for a middle of the road audience, especially if it’s only to be a vague presence in the background, you have to have a boring drum kit playing a boring backbeat.

I have nothing against rhythm. I like rhythm, especially when it’s being provided by something like the bodhran or the tabla. It’s mediocrity I have a problem with.

I heard a backbeat thumping across the school playing field from the vicinity of the village hall this morning, which just about clinched my decision not to take part in the Jubilee celebrations. It isn’t the only reason. Others include the fact that it’s raining and I would be living a lie. But mainly it’s the risk to my poor cardiac muscle, which doesn’t feel quite 100% at the moment. I won’t bother to explain that one, if you don’t mind.