Thursday, April 11, 2019

Popcorn


I remember the 1972 version by Hot Butter.  I don't know if I'd ever heard the original and I certainly never saw this Top of the Pops video.  Something interesting is that the speed is much faster than rock and roll songs, so even good 1969 dancers are having trouble finding moves they can get in and out of quickly enough. A few of them are figuring stuff out by the end. Disco went at about 120 beats per minute, and this is right about there. Rock was as slow as 60 beats per minute in its earlier years.


When popular songs went much faster than that, up over 100 beats per minute, they tended to get remakes that slowed them down considerably, as in "You Keep Me Hangin' On," and "Layla."  If you are looking for an older song to create an interesting cover, check out ones that have that very quick tempo and see what happens when you slow it by half.

2 comments:

Sam L. said...

I remember that tune. How would I do this "slowing down"?

james said...

Holy cow. I've always like Popcorn, but it's almost cruel to ask someone to dance to it. Although that one girl gives it everything she's got.