But Every Other Beat Is Removed

Submission 31,909

Part of a series on Replacement Remixes. [View Related Entries]

About

But Every Other Beat Is Removed is a series of video replacement remixes in which songs are edited so that specific portions are strategically removed, typically every other beat, which in music is the basic measure of time.

Origin

The earliest known example of remix type was published by Tumblr user PaulsUltimateArchive in 2013,^[8] a remix of The Proclaimers "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" with every other beat removed, though the post has been deleted.

On April 29th, 2017, Tumblr^[4] user sherbies published an acapella version of the mix, gaining more than 145,000 notes in one year.

Precursor

On January 27th, 2007, the now-defunct blog for the independent freeform radiostation WFMU announced "The Sixty Second Song Remix Contest." The challenge required contestants reduce songs to sixty seconds, which resulted in remixes that removed specific beats.^[5]

Spread

On May 23rd, 2017, YouTuber András Fogarasi published "All Star but every second 15/52 second is removed." Within one year, the post (shown below) received more than 3,400 views.

The following year, on February 6th, 2018, YouTuber Topic – Topic published ""We Are Number One":/memes/we-are-number-one/ Except Every Other Beat Has Been Removed. The post (shown below) received more than 10,000 views in four months.

Two weeks later, YouTuber Sarah Welch uploaded "If 500 Miles had half the beats taken out." The post (shown below) received more than 175,000 views in four months.

The following day, Tumblr ^[1] user spudislander published a remix of the Oasis song "Wonderwall" entitled "Wo er wal" in which every other beat is skipped. The post (shown below) received more than 42,000 notes in four months.

The user continued to post a series of these remixes using the hashtag #EverySecondBeat.^[2] Additionally, on February 24th, they uploaded a version Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal."^[3] The post received more than 479,000 notes in less than four months.^[3]

Several months later, on May 18th, YouTube channel EveryOtherBeat published another version of "Smooth Criminal." The post (shown below) received more than 400,000 views in three weeks.

Several media outlets published articles about the meme, including The Daily Dot, ^[6] The AV Club^[7] and more.