What Is a Backbeat in Music? Beats 2 and 4, the Snare, and How It Differs from the Downbeat
· 5 min read
The backbeat is the accent on beats 2 and 4 of a bar in 4/4. Count "1, 2, 3, 4" and clap on the 2 and the 4: that is the backbeat, and on most records since the fifties it is the snare drum playing it. The downbeat is beat 1, the upbeat is the beat that leads into the next 1, and the backbeat is the pair of beats in between that give rock, blues, soul, funk and pop their push.
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What the backbeat is
In theory books beats 1 and 3 of a 4/4 bar are the strong beats and 2 and 4 the weak ones. A backbeat turns that on its head: it puts the accent on the weak beats. Wikipedia's definition is a syncopated accentuation on the off beat, which in a simple 4/4 rhythm means beats 2 and 4. The bass drum usually holds 1 and 3, the snare answers on 2 and 4, and the two together are the pattern almost everyone can play along to without thinking.
The feel comes from the contrast. Beat 1 tells you where the bar starts; beats 2 and 4 tell you to move. Take the snare away and the same bar sounds like it is standing still.
Where the word comes from
The word is older than rock and roll. Pete Johnson's Roll 'Em Pete from 1938 and Harry James's Back Beat Boogie from 1939 are the early recorded examples usually cited. The drummer Earl Palmer said he pioneered the emphasised rock and roll backbeat on Fats Domino's The Fat Man in 1949, and that he took the idea from the final chorus of a Dixieland jazz tune, where the whole band leans into 2 and 4. A few years later Chuck Berry wrote the backbeat into the title line of Rock and Roll Music, and the word has belonged to rock ever since.
Downbeat, upbeat, backbeat, offbeat
The four words describe four places in one bar of 4/4:
| Where | Name | What plays it in a rock groove |
|---|---|---|
| Beat 1 | Downbeat | Kick, and the crash on the first bar of a section |
| Beats 2 and 4 | Backbeat | Snare |
| Beat 4, leading into the next 1 | Upbeat | Whatever pulls you over the bar line |
| The "and" between beats | Offbeats | Hi-hat, or the guitar in reggae and ska |
So the downbeat and the backbeat are not rivals. The downbeat is where the bar lands, the backbeat is where it kicks. The full comparison, with the downbeat explained from the ground up, is in what is a downbeat.
The delayed backbeat
Drummers rarely play the backbeat exactly on the grid. Playing the snare a touch late, behind the beat, relaxes the whole band; this is the delayed backbeat of late sixties and seventies rock and soul, and Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones is the name most often attached to it. Push it the other way, slightly early, and the song feels urgent. The place of the backbeat against the pulse is a large part of what people mean by a drummer's feel.
That is worth knowing if you ever build a click for a song that was recorded without one. The click has to follow the pulse, not the snare, or it will sit late everywhere the drummer leaned back.
Why a count-in accents the one, not the backbeat
A count-in exists to tell the band where beat 1 is. The backbeat is already there in the recording, loud and on the snare; nobody needs help finding it. So a count-in puts its accent on the downbeat and leaves 2 and 4 plain, and a click track through a song does the same: beat 1 tuned higher, the rest even. When the click track maker builds a click from a recording, it reads the pulse from the whole bar and marks the one; the snare's backbeat stays the drummer's job. Click tracks for drummers goes further into how the click and the backbeat share a bar.
Frequently asked questions
What is the backbeat in 4/4?
Beats 2 and 4. In most rock, pop, blues and soul the snare drum plays them, and clapping along to a song usually means clapping the backbeat.
Is the backbeat the same as the offbeat?
Not quite. Offbeats are the subdivisions between the beats, the "and" in "1 and 2 and". The backbeat is on beats 2 and 4 themselves, which theory calls the weak beats of the bar. Some writers use offbeat for both, which is where the confusion starts.
What is the difference between a downbeat and a backbeat?
The downbeat is beat 1, the start of the bar. The backbeat is the accent on beats 2 and 4. A song lands on the downbeat and drives on the backbeat.
Who invented the backbeat?
No single person. Recorded examples go back to 1938, and the drummer Earl Palmer claimed the rock and roll version on Fats Domino's The Fat Man in 1949, taking it from the last chorus of Dixieland jazz.
What is a delayed backbeat?
A snare hit played slightly behind the beat, so the groove feels laid back. It was the sound of a lot of rock and soul from the late sixties to the mid seventies.
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