Why do so many songs hit the snare on beats two and four?
The backbeat that drives rock and roll was claimed by a New Orleans drummer who said he borrowed it from the last chorus of a Dixieland tune. The historical record shows it had many parents.
▶ Start the storyMany songs hit the snare on beats two and four because that is the backbeat: a syncopated accent on the "off" beat. Count a bar as 1 2 3 4: the first beat is usually the strongest accent and the third the next strongest. The backbeat takes the accent and shifts it from the first to the second beat, and from the third to the fourth. In today's popular music the snare drum typically plays it, though hand claps and stacked cymbals can do the same job.
It is a big part of why rhythm and blues is so danceable. The Encyclopedia of Percussion says a big part of R&B's attraction had to do with the stompin' backbeats.
Nobody can say exactly who invented it. A hand-clapping backbeat is already on a 1938 record, "Roll 'Em Pete". Fred Maddox was using a slapping bass backbeat as early as 1937. Wynonie Harris's "Good Rockin' Tonight" in 1948 is an early record with an emphasized backbeat throughout. The New Orleans drummer Earl Palmer claimed the honor for "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino in 1949, saying he adopted it from the final "shout" chorus common in Dixieland jazz.
1937
Fred Maddox's slapping-bass backbeat
1938
"Roll 'Em Pete" with a hand-clapped backbeat
1948
Wynonie Harris, "Good Rockin' Tonight"
1949
Earl Palmer on "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino
Palmer's playing on "The Fat Man" featured the backbeat that has come to be the most important element in rock and roll.
Backbeat
- Accent on beats 2 and 4
- Snare, hand claps or cymbals
- Familiar from R&B and rock and roll
On the one
- Heavy emphasis on beat 1
- James Brown's funk groove
- Reggae's one drop silences beat 1
Quiz me
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Recap
The backbeat moves the accent from 1 and 3 to 2 and 4, and most pop drummers still hit the snare there.
💡 A trick to remember it · Clap where the song answers back: on 2 and 4, off the main beats.
Surprising fact · A hand-clapped backbeat was recorded in 1938 and Fred Maddox played a slap-bass backbeat by 1937, so Earl Palmer's 1949 claim is one among several.
Sources (3)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (18 claims) cites at least one of these.