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Engaging The Audience
Last night I read a great blog post by John Gillette about how one of Eminem’s biggest secrets to success is how he uses cadence.
Basically Eminem switches up cadence constantly as an extension of storytelling and to keep the audience engaged. It’s not something that’s recognized when people listen to his music, but it is something that they feel and respond to. From the blog post:
This is Eminem’s bread and butter. Most, if not every other MC, stays within a certain cadence on each verse. It doesn’t change much. Eminem rarely stays in the same cadence on any verse on this album. Every verse switches and moves from 16ths to 32nds and 8ths. It’s quite amazing to witness how he can constantly keep you entertained with the ability of cadence.
The crazy thing about it is most of us don’t even realize it unless you’re really starting to pay attention to it. It’s THAT good. All you know is that you’re constantly entertained, and you can’t explain why.
Cadence In Storytelling
This got me thinking a lot about cadence in storytelling. One of the first things that you’re supposed to do after you write something is to read it out loud so that you can feel how the sentences flow…or don’t. Change a few things and all of a sudden the flow is different. It’s like reading a normal sentence out loud. And then! Reading! One with! Exclamation points! Everywhere!!
Cadence is important in all forms of storytelling not just stories that deal with words. Cadence is fundamental in telling the story in The Flight Of The Bumblebee:
And in storytelling through things like movies or music videos, cadence of edits have a strong hand in setting the feel of the story at each point. Shorter clips + no transitions = fast moving, high intensity, dramatic, heart beats faster. Longer clips + cross dissolves = slower pace, more relaxed, an even feel, heart beats slower.
Getting The Cadence Right
So storytelling is basically expressing a story to an audience using whatever medium you’ve chosen (words, musical notes, moving pictures, etc.) I think getting the cadence right throughout a story requires an understanding and sensitivity to both story and audience.
If you’re telling a story about a kid who’s tiptoeing ever so carefully down a long creaky staircase …at midnight …to sneak a piece of chocolate cake from the fridge …then you don’t want to rush through those words. You want to get the audience holding their breath along with the kid as he ever so lightly eases his toes into each step.
And if you’re telling a story to people at a senior center then you probably don’t want to emulate Eminem’s gunshot ratatatat cadences or you might give somebody a heart attack. Just sayin.
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Great post.
I wondered why I liked that punk;-)
btw, check out Jason Mraz. He is a master of cadence, as well.
I’ve heard of him but I haven’t listened to any of his music yet…will check it out when I get a nice hour to sit and listen to some good stuff :).
glad u liked the blog !
It was really good, I definitely recommend it to anybody interested in music or storytelling. I listen to Eminem completely differently now too…