What makes Meet the Grahams sound scary? | Q+A

Summary by Krater

An analysis of why Kendrick Lamar's song 'Meet the Grahams' sounds so scary, breaking down tuning, upper-register piano ostinatos, diminished and half-whole diminished pitch collections, and lyrical content.

From the video

Answers: Why does 'Meet the Grahams' by Kendrick Lamar sound so scary?

• song tuning and A-440 vs A-450 Hz
• piano ostinatos and upper register timbre
• diminished and half-whole diminished pitch collections
• lyrical content in hip hop
• sharp vs flat enharmonic spelling in music theory
• audio and click-to-photon latency in internet jamming
• pedal point chord progressions
• negative criticism in music

What it concludes

• The sample in 'Meet the Grahams' has been pitched up about 40 cents, requiring an instrument tuned to approximately 450 Hz to play along.
• Sharp and flat enharmonics provide context to the composer and performer about where a note wants to resolve.
• Humans are sensitive to audio latency in the millisecond range, making real-time internet music jamming restricted by the speed of light.
• Pedal point chord progressions keep you grounded even when the chords aren't functionally related.