Dub, Bass and Rhythmic Transcendence

Partridge (2012) identifies the non-cognitive dimension of music as an undervalued and understudied relationship existing between popular music and religiosity. The article acknowledges the bias towards content analysis of musical lyrics and the dimension of the musician and their respective religious and ethical influences yet outlines the absence of evaluating music and its relationship between, what the author identifies as, effective space. The author focuses upon the aural component of music and how emotions, feelings and states can be elicited through simple listening, dancing and outward and inward acknowledgements of the song (Partridge 2012).

Partridge (2012) uses dub and bass as examples of how emotional and psychological states can become enhanced through the progressive rhythmic enchanting state of musical repetition. Partridge states in relation to dub, “The use of echo on the offbeat, it would appear, opens up spaces that encourage states of mind very similar to those induced by cannabis use” (Partridge 2012). The emphasis upon the particular “weight” of the bass within the bass style becomes relative to meaning making and allows for elevation above mere aural pleasure to a state which is spiritually meaningful (Partridge 2012).. The article identifies directly the power in which music, particularly in its purely aural capacity, can hold upon the individual and the ability for the sound alone, in the absence of meaningful lyrics, to invoke powerful emotional responses. It is these emotional responses which become significant in a spiritualist context whereby the music invokes the emotional response through which the emotions lead to a transcendent state and through this musically induced state the other is experienced.

Partridge C. 2012. Popular Music, Affective Space and Meaning. In Lynch G. and J. Mitchell with A. StrhanEds., Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader. 182-193. London and New York: Routledge.