Examples of Double Bass in Pop Music (1,089 views)

[Baronessa]

I've come to accept that I just love the sound of double bass so much that it can improve literally every song. Even if the song is average in terms of the songwriting level, if it has double bass the chance of me liking the song is doubled. So, here's a thread for sharing examples you've found of double bass in popular music. For me to endlessly gorge on them obviously.

And yes, we know Charles Mingus used a double bass. We're not out to just hear a double bass but to explore the range of techniques producers use to fit them into a context divorced from jazz. Like here's a great driving song featuring a double bass.



And here's a particularly watery effect, making the notes sound bowed in a way (and to the best of my knowledge they weren't).



I wish I could link Kate Bush's "Babooshka" here but no matter how much she's hugging that double bass in the music video it won't make that song a double bass song.

[Steingrim]

Jul 24, 2023 20:41:57 GMT Baronessa said:

I've come to accept that I just love the sound of double bass so much that it can improve literally every song. Even if the song is average in terms of the songwriting level, if it has double bass the chance of me liking the song is doubled. So, here's a thread for sharing examples you've found of double bass in popular music. For me to endlessly gorge on them obviously.

And yes, we know Charles Mingus used a double bass. We're not out to just hear a double bass but to explore the range of techniques producers use to fit them into a context divorced from jazz. Like here's a great driving song featuring a double bass.



I wish I could link Kate Bush's "Babooshka" here but no matter how much she's hugging that double bass in the music video it won't make that song a double bass song.

I know someone who is a double bass player in a band. He absolutely loves it when he gets to play that instead of the standard bass guitar. I think the song above is a good example of how the double bass can be more expressive, it's almost as if there's a second voice there in addition to the singer. 

[senatorsenpai]

My first thought

[Rodney Blazershorts]

Oh this could be fun.
I love the way these deep bass notes just ring from time to time.


Really a lot of contemporary folk and old country features double bass, though the recording quality may not favor it in a satisfying way.

[Bink]

Short answer about the fact that double bass makes things better: You were right.

[Baronessa]

Aug 6, 2023 23:45:54 GMT Rodney Blazershorts said:

Oh this could be fun.
I love the way these deep bass notes just ring from time to time.


Really a lot of contemporary folk and old country features double bass, though the recording quality may not favor it in a satisfying way.

I love this one. The double bass adds a lot of bounce to that laid-back feel. The guitars also have a slightly overproduced sound, but in a good way if you know what I mean. Brings out the 'ring' in that bass.

Another example of how double bass can really change the texture of an arrangement:



The guitar-bass unison just wouldn't growl that way with just a normal electric bass.

[イ𝑜ⳏⲁ𝑧 𝑅𝑜𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒]

Somehow I thought that Money, Money, Money by ABBA had double bass in but re-listened after ages and it didn’t (but Frida certainly has a lovely voice 🎶)

I know that Enya's 2015 song Even In The Shadows features double bass, played by musician Eddie Lee of an 80s band called Those Nervous Animals (and tweeted about it here)


🎶🎼

[Baronessa]

Been listening to this song for ten years and I only now realised there's a double bass in it.