Pivot Mixing: Tempo Modulation in Electronic Dance Music

Abstract Electronic dance music is usually produced and played at fixed tempi. However, tempo modulation occasionally appears within a recorded track or DJ performance. This article explores tempo modulation in electronic dance music production and performance, maps out how the technique operates, and explores the technique’s wider potential. Pivot mixing, where a tempo shift is created by reinterpreting a pivot loop as different note values, can be particularly effective in an electronic dance music context when the pivot is expressed as repetitive material carried across the tempo shift. Many modulations between familiar dance music tempi are possible with conventional note values and can serve as DJ tools yet are largely underutilized. Tempo modulation is not a prevalent characteristic in electronic dance music but when it does occur the technique is highly effective and temporally engaging. Pivot mixing expands the temporal vocabulary of electronic dance music from beatmatching in temporal unisons to temporal intervals.