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This word appear in the comment of a video of Bach in YouTube:

A: Which minute is the drop?
B: When he and Mozart have the rap battle

Clearly this is a joke, but I don't understand the meaning of the drop. I have looked up in Oxford Dictionary, but all the meaning only point to the drop of liquid, or the action of dropping. I have also looked at the Urban Dictionary, but the meaning of the noun of drop is an expensive car, which doesn't make sense to me.

Ooker
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3 Answers3

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"The drop" is a term specific to electronic music cultures such as dance or dubstep. It indicates a point in the song where the rhythm and pace change dramatically in order to enhance the energy of the song.

The question here is posed jokingly, as it is one that is often asked in the YouTube comments of relevant videos by those wanting to skip past the boring section and get to the exciting part.

Further reading (with some examples): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_%28music%29

Adam Starrh
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    Oh, I thought it meant that dubstep "music" was so awful that one was compelled to drop it in the bin. Perhaps I've turned into my parents and everything new is just noise nowadays lol. – Joe Dark Oct 08 '15 at 10:15
  • You'd not be far off impo. Unfortunately, the wider meaning is not that one! – JMB Oct 08 '15 at 10:19
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    @Joe Dark It is indeed noise by design. Its intended to sound frenetic and chaotic- and very noisy. – Adam Starrh Oct 08 '15 at 10:28
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    Better example (that Wikipedia bot doesn't like). – Cees Timmerman Oct 08 '15 at 11:32
  • Hah! Yes this is the perfect illustration I think :D – Adam Starrh Oct 08 '15 at 11:38
  • In the better example, what is it called when the music come back? – Ooker Oct 08 '15 at 11:42
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    @Ooker I believe the term is bliss – Gusdor Oct 08 '15 at 13:34
  • I want to make things clear. There is two changes in the music of the better example. One is when the music stops and the DJ pretends to have a strike. The second is when he press the BASS button and the music changes to another theme. Exactly which one is the drop? – Ooker Oct 08 '15 at 16:23
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    That video pokes fun of electronic dance music. In a typical electronic dance track, the song will have about a minute of buildup in which the music gradually gains energy. Most of that video is an exaggeratedly long buildup, making fun of many of the tropes used in dance music. This part of the video includes the DJ pretending to have a stroke. When he finally presses the "BASS" button, that's the drop. – Kevin Oct 08 '15 at 17:50
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    So the base "drop" here means for the moments when the base intensely kicks in. Correct? I initially thought the word "drop" would mean something like "descending", "lowering" which seemed to be mistaken. – 夏期劇場 Jun 16 '17 at 04:48
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    @夏期劇場 Yeah it's a bit confusing. I'm not expert enough to explain the etymology of the word, but I always picture it as if something was "dropped" on my head. In the same way, when the bass kicks in, it is being "dropped" suddenly onto everyone in the room and they react by dancing. – Adam Starrh Jun 17 '17 at 22:44
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"The drop" is an expression coined to describe the moment or moments in songs (chiefly in electronic music genres such as house/dubstep) where the music is focussed on the build-up to a crescendo of intense sound, usually featuring quite a lot of bass. It is normally the heaviest part of a track, and certainly the part where people on a dancefloor would dance/move the most in reaction to it. The phrase "the drop" led to "drop the bass" referring to musicians/DJs who include a "drop" in their tracks.

Here is an example of a build up to a drop (1:26) and the drop itself (1:43).

JMB
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For the most part everyone that has described the word 'drop' in music is pretty much right on Target. You're missing one area where drop comes in to play within any type of music... For example the band Queen has a song titled fat bottom girls There comes a point within the 1st 90 seconds of this song where the music and vocals stop for a good 2 to 3 seconds... They go right back To the same spot where they left off. This is a drop..!!!

Michael Osborn
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