The Click Machine

[CAVEMANager]

For many years hip hop and some pop records have contained a synthesized instrument that I call the "click machine". It sounds like a cross between hand clapping and finger snapping. Musicians probably have a name for this device. Unfortunately it is finding its way into country music. The new Lee Brice song called "Soul" features the click machine in its intro and also at the end. Sam Hunt songs also have it. Personally I don't like the sound and would rather hear the more conventional drum. Does anyone know what the actual name of this excuse for an instrument is? Does it belong in country music?

 

[CTListener]

It's probably not an instrument at all but some sort of synthesizer audio loop. I'm sure synthesized percussion has made its way into more than a few songs on contemporary country radio in recent years, but I'm OK with it as long as the singer and song are to my liking. I'm probably not your typical 60-something country fan, but I much prefer the instrumentation on "Soul" to all that syrupy string-section mush on all those '60s and '70s singles from Jim Reeves, Ray Price and the like.

Billy Dukes, on the Taste of Country website, calls "Soul" Brice's "funkiest single yet" and even surmises that it may be part of a push to get Brice some pop airplay/sales as well. Gabby Barrett has crossed over with "I Hope," which also features plenty of sounds that don't come from a "traditional" country instrument.
LISTEN: Lee Brice Pivots With 'Soul,' His Funkiest Single Yet

Dukes writes:

Word invention is as welcome to the old school country fan as drum loops, but it's these kinds of things that can elevate a star to new heights. If you keep it "country," then that's all you'll ever be.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Gabby Barrett has crossed over with "I Hope," which also features plenty of sounds that don't come from a "traditional" country instrument.

Not identifiable as country, in my opinion.

There was one group at the CMA awards whose song started out good but as soon as the one Black guy started singing, it was like "Old Town Road". I assume that's what people are referring to.

 

[TheBigA]

For many years hip hop and some pop records have contained a synthesized instrument that I call the "click machine". It sounds like a cross between hand clapping and finger snapping.

This is a conversation that's happening within the country format itself right now. It began about ten years ago when a number of successful LA-based writers began collaborating with Nashville writers. It began in the songwriting process. The writers create the song demos that are pitched to the artists and label A&R departments. Those people hear the demos with the click tracks, and like that it brings tempo into music that might not naturally have tempo. It was getting very popular. Then covid happened. Writers couldn't collaborate in person, and they started to so "zoom writing." Because it's done on the internet, there is a delay in the zoom track. That caused the writers to stop using the synthesized track and instead write more acoustically. Some of those songs are finding their way on radio now. So the pendulum may have swung back to acoustic writing as a result of the pandemic.

How Songwriters Are Creating Music on Zoom

Award-winning singer/songwriter Jon Nite is keeping busy during the pandemic by collaborating with music stars using Zoom.

blog.zoom.us

Does it belong in country music? Keep in mind there was a time when drums were not allowed at the Opry.