When I wrote this question to cecil@straightdope.com, the webmaster suggested that I post it here to same time. I have a long-standing one about where a particular musical style comes from, namely the rhythm of Native American/Indian drums as depicted in motion pictures. Usually the rhythm on the drums is DUM-dum-dum-dum, repeated as long as needed. But whenever I have heard natives beat drums live or on recordings, the rhythm is a steady beat without any one stressed except at the very end to signal the end of the dance or session. So, I was wondering where this particular rhythm came from and how it happened to be associated with Native Americans in various media.
I’m curious, have you gone on YouTube and searched for Native American music?
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Since this is about music and motion pictures, let’s move it to Cafe Society (from GQ).
Yes, there is Native music as heard at dances and other gatherings of Native Americans, more modern interpretations such as this, and the stereotypical Hollywood usage. I was wondering where the Hollywood variety comes from, it dates from early in the sound era, but I have never been able to find a corresponding rhythm in the examples of original Native music that I have encountered.
Thank you, this is my first post and I had no idea where to put it.
Frequently the Hollywood music appears to make use of a harmonic style earlier than polyphony called organum in which the notes move evenly at spaced intervals. The original Native music that I have heard never makes use of Western harmony.
I think you’re just hearing what a non-Native American played drums like, even when they were trying to play without any accent or downbeat. The downbeat is pretty ingrained into Western music and has been for a very long time, to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if people were heading a downbeat even when none was actually present.
That’s my WAG.
Quite possibly, though there is definitely a stress on the first of four beats as done by Hollywood movies. The piece that comes to mind is at the end of the Indian attack in How the West Was Won, but it doesn’t seem to be on YouTube.
The rhythm was also used in popular songs, such as Running Bear from the early 1960’s. War whoops and everything. This is the rhythm that I’m wondering where it came from, since I have never heard it used in Native music.
And I’m wondering how this rhythm came to be associated with American Indians. Sorry for the multiple posts, but editing previous posts doesn’t seem to work.
Native Americans singing and beating drums definitely have no stressed beat, except at the very end to indicate the finish of the song.
Welcome to the SDMB, fritzkep! One of the board policies is that there’s a five-minute edit window on posts; after that, they can’t be edited further.
Welcome. I am sorry I can’t answer your question. My WAG would be that some Hollywood composer equated an tom tom drumbeat with “savage Other folks” and the Native Americans got folded into that. I doubt anyone was paying attention to ethnology recordings.
As for your question about the emphasis on the first beat, perhaps they were progenitors of funk? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IHE6hZU72A4 ;). 
Ah, thank you.
Entirely possible! 
On second thought, describing the harmony as organum is not correct; rather, a lot of the stereotypical music made use of the tritone, an interval of three adjacent whole tones, one which in early music was considered evil. No doubt a reason why this interval was used in depicting Native Americans at the time.
No, a tritone is C and F#, for example. It’s what you get when you split an octave in half (in Western music, anyway).
If you want to investigate this, a good starting point might be to see if you can find an example in prewar cartoons (Popeye, etc.)
[quote=“fritzkep, post:10, topic:808257”]
Native Americans singing and beating drums definitely have no stressed beat, except at the very end to indicate the finish of the song.
[/QUOTE]That one appears to have lyrics. What about the ones where they’re just singing ‘HEY-yay-yay-yay, hey-yay-yay-yay…’ Is that a Hollywood thing? Or is it the Native American version of ‘La-la-la’?
I believe that’s what he was saying. Starting on C, go up three whole tones and you’ll arive at F#.
I think fritzkep just phrased it inelegantly. The interval in your example, C to F#, comprises three whole steps.
ETA: Actually, the “three adjacent whole tones” phrasing appears to be quite common.