What Is Gridifcation

What the article says

The author says that over the last 25 years, recorded music has become very exact in its timing. He calls this change "gridification." To show it, he compares the top five songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart from 1975 with the top five from 2025. He focuses mostly on "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain & Tennille. He says its drums and bass are not perfectly lined up, and that modern producers would usually fix those small timing differences.

Key numbers from the 1975 song

• Average tempo (speed) of the song: 130.50 BPM (beats per minute).
• Typical variation from the average: 2.79 BPM.
• Speed range: from 124.51 to 137.83 BPM.
• Only 32.1% of the beats are within 1 BPM of the average.
• The tempo changes 83 times during the song.

Why timing matters in music

Older records were often played live by real musicians. Their small timing changes are natural. In modern studios, producers often use a "grid," which is a set of fixed time marks. They can move notes to fit the grid. This is called grid correction. The article says this makes the music very precise, but it also removes the human feel.

Why this matters

The author argues that fixing small timing differences takes away the human feel of music. He also uses strong words, like calling it a kind of "epistemic violence," which means treating human experience as if it were wrong. Readers may agree or disagree, but the article invites us to listen closely and think about what makes a song feel alive.

What to watch

• Whether more songs in the charts use strict timing or keep natural human timing.
• How producers balance perfect sound with a live, human feel.
• The author promises more about the stakes of this change in later articles.