Does anyone else find that consciously focusing on the bass in music makes them slightly uncomfortable?

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There are times when a bass line stands out, on its own, and I enjoy it. But I find that when I specifically tune in to the bass, it makes me slightly uncomfortable. I would much rather have it be in the background, at some semi-conscious level.

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 6 January 2003 16:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm completely opposite. The best songs are mostly bass - with some color on top...

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 6 January 2003 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

It's odd though, because there are extreme exceptions to the rule: for example, I will like some reggae and dub with very obvious bass.

I think that if the bass is quite obviously upfront it bothers me less than if I suddenly focus on bass that is normally in the background--or in the background for me, anyway. For instance, in salsa, the bass doesn't usually stand out for me, and if I focus on it, it sounds weird to me. But I'm not sure I can say "Bass is unimportant in salsa," since I know someone else who will hear the same salsa song I like for entirely different reasons and say, "Yeah, I love what the bass is doing."

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 6 January 2003 16:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Agreed Dave - the bass is often what ties it all up for me. Certainly, I find myself listening out for it. Gimme a little special bass desk to separate the channel built into my stererererio and I'd be a happy, happy bunny. In fact, the bass sound is usually what I get most irked about in the mix; it's either overlooked or underproduced, overproduced, ham fisted, tinny, la la la. But when it's right, it's something else (see 'A Northern Soul', 'Beggars Banquet').

― Roger Fascist (Roger Fascist), Monday, 6 January 2003 16:37 (twenty-two years ago)

i've allways wanted to start an all-bass band....upright double or contra-whatver....one short scale twangy one with thin body....a hoffner....a precision...a jazz bass...and one of them shiny metallic ones by i dunno who makes em but i was there when what's his name from rose royce bought his......boy can he fuckin play......anyways folks....stop contradicting yourselves....there are no rules in music!!.....compare sly and the family stone to prince to hank williams to beefheart....which i cant think of a single hummable bassline from old mr.eeB....it's either the sound of a bucket wobbling,somewhere near pitch...or a syncopated one-two octave thingy...boom-bip/boom-bip.......or....the sound of your own ego falling and hitting the ground.....which to me...is the loveliest bass sound of all(t..hhh uu .. d..)......well,correct me if i'm wrong

― georgia boy, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 02:08 (twenty-two years ago)

RS,

maybe it's the subsonic "brown noise" effect that's making your bowels uneasy. turn it down.

― gygax!, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 02:45 (twenty-two years ago)

gygax!, you may be on to something. It's a little more subtle than that, and yet there is a sort of physical uneasiness to my reaction sometimes, but it's not just when the bass is extremely loud.

― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 04:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I always used to focus quite closely on the bass in music, not turning it up or anything, just trying to catch hold of it. I've loved, especially dubby ones, basslines ever since I was 15 and got into Screamadelica and The Stone Roses after a couple of years of lisening to fraggley indie and dodgy heavy metal. I'm quite happy to dismiss bands on the basis of their bottom end being crap.

A lot of what puts me off recent pop/soul/rnb/hip hop music is the repetetive, two-note nature of the basslines that seem to be prevelant at the moment. I mentioned it to a friend of mine who's a musician and also works in a record shop, and he suggested that they were generally quite trance-like in their nature, which furthers my belief that someone somewhere is trying to control all of and make us miserable and depressed so we spend more money on pick-me-up gifts and psychotropic drugs and things and it's all a conspiracy. Or, possibly, that some producers of modern pop music ain't quite gfot the same grasp of funky rhythm as, say, I Want You Back by The Jackson 5.

Why do so many modern dance/pop etcetera producers stick to safe rhythms when in the past (and also now, thinking Timbaland, Neptunes etcetera), people have had massive hits with tunes with great basslines? Have they not read The Manual?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 10:22 (twenty-two years ago)

i've allways wanted to start an all-bass band

On Bass, Derek Smalls
On the bass drum, Rick Shrimpton
On Bass Synthesizer, Viv Savage
On Bass Guitar, Nigel Tufnel
I'm David St. Hubbins, Lead Bass.

..Also, Dianogah, Paisley Jungle, ...

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Rothko?

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

No. Not at all. The bass is the best part.

You forgot The Proper Girls, all girl, all bass, all the time. Both me and Katie G are members!

― kate, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 14:48 (twenty-two years ago)

The Proper Girls? Do you do a song called 'Dont Touch My Bum' then?

"we are the proper girls..."

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm with the bass loving crew. Especially when it's a tuba.

I heard some tapes last year of Bill Lee's (Spike's dad) bass choir, all bass players like Ron Carter, Richard Davis, etc. It was gorgeous.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

It sounds so incomplete when I focus on it. And it just sort of spreads out in a way that other sounds usually don't.

― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 18:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Rockist, don't you also have a problem with bop-style cymbals? You're like that kid in elementary school who was allergic to wheat!

― Clarke B., Tuesday, 7 January 2003 18:55 (twenty-two years ago)

heh. yes he was.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

don't you also have a problem with bop-style cymbals? You're like that kid in elementary school who was allergic to wheat!

I must have a more evolved nervous system or something.

I like timbales and cow-bells and congas and bongos, though.

I guess my condition is pretty rare.

― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:40 (twenty-two years ago)

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