Riff

Author Rikky Rooksby states: "A riff is a short, repeated, memorable musical phrase, often pitched low on the guitar, which focuses much of the energy and excitement of a rock song.

One explanation holds that "most rock musicians use riff as a near-synonym for musical idea" (Middleton 1990, p. 125), but the etymology of the term is not clearly known.

[9] The riff from Charlie Parker's bebop number "Now's the Time" (1945) re-emerged four years later as the R&B dance hit "The Hucklebuck".

The term "riff-driven" is used to describe a piece of music that relies on a repeated instrumental riff as the basis of its most prominent melody, cadence, or (in some cases) leitmotif.

Riff-driven songs are largely a product of jazz, blues, and post-blues era music (rock and pop).

A few examples of classic rock riff-driven songs are "Whole Lotta Love" and "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin,[13][14] "Day Tripper" by The Beatles,[15] "Brown Sugar" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones,[16] "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple,[15][17] "Back in Black" by AC/DC,[15][17] "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana,[15][17] "Johnny B Goode" by Chuck Berry,[15][17] "Back in the Saddle" by Aerosmith,[18] and "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks.

Ostinato from Radiohead 's " Creep " features modal mixture , common tones between adjacent triads (B between G & B, C and G between C + & C−), and an emphasis on subdominant harmony (IV = C in G major). ^{[

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