blaise rascal posted:

A Few Words About A Certain Reggae
The BYOB Reggae, also known as "rznv" because of its tindeck url at https://www.tindeck.com/listen/rznv, is both emblematic of a particular period of early BYOB history, and also representative of BYOB as a whole. Yet, little is known about this unique forums song; for instance, did Pookaliscious AKA Midget Porn!, the poster responsible for making the BYOB Reggae, use premade sound loops, or record her own instrumentals? What makes the song so compelling? Some deeply inquiring souls have already examined this song:



But let's take a deeper look.

RZNV: A History
In February of 2007, less than a year after BYOB was first created, Midget Porn! posted a thread entitled • BYOB, it's REGGAE time containing a link to the reggae song we all know and love. In that thread, she then went on to create other original songs at the request of the other posters. All of her songs are still available to hear on her tindeck profile.

The only clue I could find about the creation process for the BYOB Reggae was a post by Midget Porn! in which she said that she made the song using Audacity and Acid Pro.



Audacity is an open source sound recording program with no functionality specifically for music. Audacity lets you do things like record sound from a microphone, or universally change the pitch up and down, but it does not, for instance, let you add individual notes in a piano roll. It also does not supply you with a library of premade music loops.



Acid Pro, on the other hand, is a program specifically made for creating music, especially using its library of premade loops.

Acid Pro 6 was launched in 2006, and Acid Pro 7 was made in 2008, making it likely that Midget Porn! used Acid Pro 6 to make the BYOB Reggae. I wonder; if I could find a copy of that program, would I be able to check the library of loops in it? Could I, perhaps, find the building blocks of the byob reggae? If I could, that would shed light on which parts she recorded, and which parts were premade.

Unfortunately, Acid Pro 6 appears to be legacy software that is impossible to buy now. I couldn't even find it on ebay. Rather than try to illegally download the program and risk facing the United States' ridiculous piracy fines, I will just leave question of the creation of this song as a mystery.

The Music Theory Analysis

In any case, let's take a look at the song itself. The first thing I look to look at when analyzing Afro-Caribbean music is the beat pattern. It is the heart of this music! As the Grammy-winning Latin jazz bandleader Eddie Palmieri put it:

"From the first album I recorded, the rhythmic structures have been there. You see, I don't guess I'm going to excite you; I know I'm going to excite you. It's because of the structures that I sacredly maintain, which are Afro-Cuban."

There are a lot of Afro-Caribbean rhythms. One way to classify them is in terms of what pattern the high-pitched percussion is playing. This is usually the pattern played by the claves, but in the case of the BYOB reggae, I believe it is played by the snare cross-sticks. This beat pattern is called the clave (confusing, right?).

Here, taken from the Latin Jazz Real Book published by Sher Music, are some common clave patterns:



As I hear it, the clave in the BYOB Reggae goes like this:



This clave may not have a name. If that's the case, then I dub it "BYOB Clave."

At 0:16, the organ and the xylophones come in. This is the defining moment of the song for me because it reveals the humorous nature of the song, and it is a pretty effective punchline. The xylophone establishes the chord progression, and by playing on the offbeats, it gives the song a humorous, groovy feeling. (Other genres that have chord hits on the offbeats include ska and cumbia.) The organ that sounds kind of like a Hammond B3 provides a catchy riff that combines with the drums to create a rich rhythmic texture:



Some of the notes line up, and some don't. To me, the fact that there is no easily identifiable "hit" - for instance, no downbeat when all instruments are playing - is characteristic of Afro-Caribbean music and very cool.

The chords of the song repeat in a vamp, and interest is generated as the rhythms change around. I find that often in reggae, the main melody (in this case the vocals) is very simple to provide contrast with the hectic percussion. This song is no exception; Midget Porn! mostly just sings eighth-notes on the C which is fifth of the chord - a boring but solid note. The occasional drum embellishment or electronic sound effect (such as a vocal echo) keeps things interesting.

The Verdict

It can be tough to remove a song from its context and judge it on its own terms, especially a song as meme-y as the BYOB Reggae, but I think this song is very good, and it innovates in several key ways:
-Midget Porn! correctly identified reggae as a genre of music that works well with BYOB (an innovation that spawned at least one emoticon)
-"hurf de durf" is a very funny nonsense-phrase. I sincerely don't think people appreciate how hard it is to come up with this kind of thing. (not actually sure if Midget Porn! came up with it though)
-The organ riff is simple but original. (again, simple stuff is deceptively hard to make from scratch because it must be distinct from all the other simple stuff that has already been made)
-The lyrics are imo a gem. They walk a great tightrope between praising byob and making fun of it. Midget Porn! even plays into her own lyrics with this song; when she says "It's all about threads, see how many you can make," she might as well have been saying "It's all about MUSIC, see how much you can make," in the sense that this song is a product of the exuberant spirit of creativity that is what I like most about BYOB.

Postscript: How to remix the BYOB reggae

I think the BYOB reggae is due for a remix, and here are some reasons why:
-There have been several new BYOB songs created over the years, but none is a remix with the same lyrics. There is great untapped potential here
-The vocal melody mostly stays on the same note, so it could be sung exactly as-is within a very wide variety of original chord progressions
-If you keep some of the same instruments (for instance, the highly characteristic organ voice) it would be easy to reference the original song even if you change everything else
-The original reggae style is quite old-fashioned. Modern, more dramatic musical styles, would provide an effective and humorous contrast

Maybe I will take a crack at it when I get done with this business trip and get back to my recording equipment. For now, though, there are other requests in this thread. Thanks cda (although I knew this one would come eventually). Perhaps it is time for me to take a look at snarky puppy and finally - FINALLY - try to wrap my head around bebop.