perfidy

Jeez... Steve den Beste could take lessons from me... especially since I actually know what I'm talking about *snark*. 

Anyway, it occurs to me that there are equivalents to the Truck Driver Gear Change in other genres: 

"Electronica": basically uses two beats for everything: the sound of the Roland 808 or 909, and the "Amen break." Need to spice up a boring track? Pull out the 808! Woo! Bo-RING.

Jazz: If I read ONE MORE DAMN CHART with ii-V-I all over it, I'm gonna go on a rampage. It's the laziest resolution in all of music and it makes me crazy. Even great songs like Take the A Train suffer-- at the end of the first 16 there's a damn DOUBLE ii-V-I! What I wouldn't give for people to begin reharmonizing these old charts in the parallel minor, with a plagal cadence at the end for added flavor.

Hip Hop/Rap: the i-VI-i movement, made popular by Irv Gotti & Murder Inc, the Neptunes, and about a million wannabe R&B divas. Seriously guys, there's other chords out there. Even Biz Markie did better than this. Biz Markie!

Hip Hop/Rap II: whenever some lazy baked-off-his-ass producer needs to kick it old-skool for some added flava, he reaches for the Funky Drummer break as played by Clyde "Funky Drummer" Stubblefield in the James Brown hit of the same name. It's EVERYWHERE. It's the one that goes "BOOM boom CHICK(adick)BOOM boomboom CHICK(adicka)" and repeats ad nauseum.

Hip Hop/Rap III: The Old Skool Heist: P-Diddy's specialty: Boosting the hook from Kool & The Gang's "Hollywood Swinging" for Mase's only hit; using the Police for that farewell song to Biggie. Also used by En Vogue, who turned James Brown's "The Payback" into not one, but TWO top ten hits. Homage is one thing. Imitation is another.

Hip Hop/Rap IIIa: The Old Skool Breakdown. A subset of the above. This happens when a track cuts out and an Old-Skool hit makes a five-second guest appearance. Recently heard used well in Missy Elliott's "Work It" and Nelly's video cut of "Hot In Herre." When not used well, it just underscores how out of ideas a producer is.

Kids these days! The music is noise! Television is crap! The cars are scaring the horses! Where's my back pills!