5 Things That Make a Song Awesome - Part 3

Dramatic Pause - Is the song over... well that seems like a silly place to stop... Awesome, the song started again.  I love listening to a song that suddenly stops, and has you salivating for more.  Once you get to know this song you start to naturally know how long the pause is, but not before you accidentally rock out to it in front of your friends a little too soon.  This kind of break can be used many ways, in a pop song video it gives the singer the opportunity to mug to the camera, in hip hop songs it allows the band to have "party sounds" in the background, and in metal songs it gives you time to catch your breath after all that head banging.  It's really a great tool for both performer and listener alike.

The video above is one of the most rockin' songs to use a break like this.  While the Beastie Boys use many things that I would consider for this list, I think that their use of the dramatic pause is one of the best in music history.

Later