Beyond memorizing song titles, keys or BPM, great artists and DJs maintain a strong awareness of track structure and electronic music composition. It provides a blueprint that can turn your selections into meaningful components in building your DJ set.
Breaking apart the building blocks of a production — such as the introduction, verse, chorus, break, and outro— can give you valuable insight into a track’s unique rhythmic nuances and emotional peaks; serving to better inform your mix placements and transitions. To that end, in this article, we’ll focus on basic aspects of electronic music composition and track structure for DJs.
Table of Contents
The Intro – Setting the State
Track Structure for DJs: Track Names Indicate Intended Audience
The introduction kickstarts a track – establishing its basic mood and tempo – its also the first beachhead for understanding track structure for DJs. For radio or streaming tracks, it’s short and catchy to create a hook that pulls the listener in. You can identify these types of tracks on platforms like Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music with the title suffixes ” Radio Edit” or “Radio Mix”. The goal of these tracks is to get played over these interactive and non-interactive broadcast, rather than mixed in a DJ set (although they can be).
DJ versions of tracks, on the other hand, have longer introductions. They have a steady beat which makes it easy to get up and running in a DJ mix without jumping too far into the meat of the track. You can identify DJ oriented tracks by their track titles as well. Specifically, title suffixes of the form “Original Mix” or “Extended Mix” typically offer a generous runway for beat-matching which is helpful for intro-outro mix placement*.
(Interested in learning about different types of mix placements? Checkout our course on Intermediate DJing)
The Flavours of Introductions show us Different Electronic Music Compositions
Introductions come in different flavours. In general, I’ve observed two basic forms of introductions in track structure;
- Groove Setting Introductions
- Dramatic Introductions
We’ll discuss them in the following sections below.
GROOVE SETTING INTRODUCTIONS
The majority of track introductions are lower in energy showcasing the main “groove” that will pulsate throughout the playback. When it comes to electronic music for DJs, the basic introductory beat is a stripped down rhythm of the main refrain or musical idea, and can be helpful for blending and splicing in overlays. Let’s look at DJ Sneak’s Show Me The Way as an example.
From the get-go, you get a sense of the main rhythmic groove; Show Me The Way’s characteristics chirping shakers and rim hits are audible throughout the entire playback. The introductory kick at 0:16 gives just enough time for the would-be DJ to get their beats matched in time.
DRAMATIC INTRODUCTIONS
Dramatic introductions are an altogether different and unfortunately dying breed in some cases. Dramatic introductions feature a slow build and courageous unveiling of the musical idea often lacking a signature beat in full force – instead preferring emotion and melody to rhythm. These types of tracks are true treasures to the DJ’s crate: they offer endless opportunities to re-set energy and create cinematic experiences in sets.
To get an intuition for this type of track structure for DJs and DJing purposes, let’s listen to Frankie Knuckle’s masterful classic 12″ mix of The Sounds of Blackness’ Pressure.
The Verse – Unveiling the Narrative
A track’s introduction leads in step to The Verse. The Verse, in a typical musical composition, might give the first taste of a vocalist’s words in combination with slow introductions of instruments and rising tension. In dance music, it’s not uncommon for tracks to be instrumentally driven so The Verse’s entry can be subtle.
Why and How DJs Identify the Verse
You can identify the Verse from a continual layering of melody, new percussion and enhancement of the introductory groove. Looking at electronic music for DJs, the verse introduces the musical idea in parts preparing the audience – beginning the musical narrative. From an instrumental electronic music perspective, the Verse fits neatly between the first build up of a track leading into the Drop/Chorus. The Verse is where the crowd starts to get into the groove and “feel” the track and where its going.
The Build Up – Anticipation and Tension
The build up is a progressive house production pattern that has become a relatively common feature in dance music regardless of genre. Its defined in contrast to the main energy point of a track (defined next) – the Drop. The build up functions to increase tension and create anticipation for the Drop of a track. The genre of the track will determinate the length and intensity of this section. For example, Progressive House (and later Big Room) tracks have lengthy build ups and come downs, whereas House may have smaller interspersed regions differentiating from the main groove.
Examples of Build Ups in Tracks
To best understand the build up, its usually best to listen to a few tracks. Below we will explore some progressive house oriented tracks.
MRE – THE DEEP EDGE
In The Deep Edge, we hear the first build ups occurring at 3:05, there is a temporary drop in energy to build the contrast in preparation for the chorus.
In the older variants of Progressive House (UK specifically) there is more subtlety; the “BIG” build up became emphasized and supersized with the growth of EDM and Big Room / Dutch-style House / Electro House (you can a hear an example of this in Sidney Samson’s Tomahawk)
EDDIE AMADOR – HOUSE MUSIC (SHARAM 2.5 MIX)
Let’s look at a more modern progressive house build up looking at Eddie Amador – House Music (Sharam 2.5 Mix) – you can hear the length of the build up starting around 3:05 lasting up to 3:45.
REVOLUTION 909 (Roger & JUNIOR SANCHEZ MIX)
For one final example, we can observe the build up pattern in a House track and how it differs from the Progressive types explored above. Listen to Roger Sanchez’ mix of Daft Punk Revolution 909 – we can hear the build up starting at 1:25 lasting to about 1:45.
The Chorus (or Drop) – The Pinnacle of Energy
The chorus (and in dance music typically called “The Drop”) is the climax, bursting with energy and featuring the main musical idea. It’s repetitive and memorable, often including or relating in some way to the title of the track. It emphasized the main musical idea desired to expressed or meaning via the spoken refrain.
Examples of Choruses & Drops
The Drop is where the party gets down. You can see it in the way an entire crowd in unison changes their movements from a tension anticipation to release to total groove patrol. It is the main “focal point” of the track which has the highest energy and most memorable aspects.
If we were to consult (and paraphrase) Chuck Robert’s wisdom In The Beginning:
[The Drop] is an uncontrollable desire to Jack your body
In The Beginning… Chuck Roberts 1987
Let’s take a look at some chorus’ to get a feeling for this area of the track.
ERIC PRDYZ – CALL ON ME
Starting with Eric Prydz’s Call On Me, a memorable track that hit the billboard in 2004 (Fun fact: there is a ton of drama behind this track include Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk notoriety & DJ Falcon creating edits of it, and Red Kult). Anyway, we can hear the club classic begin its ascendancy and build up around 4:00 with the tension completion and Drop entering at 5:49.
TOMMY HOUSECAT – JOYFUL EXPANSIONS
Let’s take a listen at another tune – here’s an example from Tommy H (aka. yours truly) in Joyful Expansions. The build up in progress at 3:45 and the Drop hitting at 4:17, you can hear the main emphasized elements of the track in the strings, vocals and full groove.
Armand Van HELDEN – YOU DON’T KNOW ME
Three is a lucky number, so let’s listen to another bad boy, the main man Armand Van Helden’s You Don’t Know Me with that fresh as ever disco sample. The verse is in full effect at 1:45, and the build up starts around 2:10 and the chorus hitting at 2:25. No wonder Henry Street signed him.
The Break – A Pause for Reflection
The break provides a pause, introducing contrast with unique elements to come off the high of the Drop. Breaks and breakdowns are quite common across a variety of musical genres but in the electronic variety it serves a moment to reset before diving back into the energy of the track. It is once again dependent on genre for intensity and length but is easy to spot with its redirection of energy and introspective elements.
Examples of Breakdowns
Made by peter – Horizon RED (BLACK COFFEE MIX)
We will take a listen to a more modern production here with Black Coffee’s Mix of Made By Pete’s Horizon Red, we hear the tension of the come down around 5:30 with an melancholic piano and finally what we might consider the full breakdown at 5:40. The emotion, the reset, the introspection is an incredible twist of fate from the Drop which climaxes at 7:40.
From the above example, you can hear that the breakdown follows naturally into a build up sequence and final act of the track with a subsequent Drop.
The Outro – Adieu
The outro concludes the track, gradually winding down and bidding farewell. It’s emotionally resonant, it says “goodbye”, adieu – and (if done properly) leaving listeners longing for more. In similar manner to the introduction section, the Outro can come in more radio friendly or DJ oriented versions. The latter being used as an opportunity for the DJ to beat mix into the next track.
Spotting the Outro
The outro strips various percussive and melodic elements out bit by bit until the only audible items remaining in the playback are an essential beat. For example, a kick drum and a set of closed hats, or maybe some shakers and a clap. This removal of elements in the Outro says to the audience:
It’s over, no more, I’m done
Giving a satisfying conclusion to a beautiful journey
Conclusion
So, in this article we discussed how great DJs must pay attention to compositional details, despite themselves not being producers, in order to both appreciate and prepare their mix placements. The reality is: DJs, and even dancers for that matter, already grasp these concepts at a kinesthetic level – but modern dance music depends on these patterns to create intuition for the audience to know where the track is moving next. That being said, understanding these basic functional elements that bring a track together into a musical narrative informs your judgements for opportune (or inopportune*) mix placements.
Review
So let’s review at a high level:
- Introduction – sets the stage for the track, composed of a basic beat in DJ variants and a quick hook in radio edits
- Verse – the initial taste of the musical idea; highlighting the essential melody or providing the first vocal introduction to the narrative of the song
- Build Up – the tension building component of the track which creates maximal energetic acceleration to the drop
- The Drop (or chorus) – the tension release point (or climax) of a track setting a crowd free in rhythmic ecstasy
- Breakdown / Break – the point in a track to reset and regroup usually followed by another build up and drop
- The Outro – the farewell and goodbye to the listener and opportunity to mix out for the DJ
* If you’re looking for more on that topic checkout this free preview video from the beginner to intermediate DJ course on Youtube: