riff

The origin of riff is uncertain. It appeared in American jazz slang in the 1920s, possibly as a shortening of 'refrain,' possibly from 'riffle' (to shuffle through quickly), possibly from an imitative or slang coinage that left no paper trail. What is clear is that by the late 1920s and early 1930s, jazz musicians were using 'riff' to describe a short, repeated melodic or rhythmic pattern — a musical figure that could be played over and over while the harmony moved underneath it.

Kansas City jazz in the 1930s made the riff a compositional principle. Count Basie's band built entire arrangements from layered riffs — saxophone riffs against trumpet riffs against rhythm section riffs, each voice repeating its own short phrase while the soloists improvised on top. 'One O'Clock Jump' (1937) is built almost entirely from riffs. The technique was economical: instead of complex arrangements, you needed a handful of catchy patterns and the groove to sustain them.

Rock and roll inherited the riff and made it the center of the form. Chuck Berry's guitar riffs in the 1950s became the templates. The Rolling Stones' 'Satisfaction' (1965), Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love' (1969), and Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man' (1970) are songs defined by their opening riffs — remove the riff and the song ceases to exist. The riff became the hook, the identity, the thing you hummed walking out of the arena.

Hip-hop sampled riffs. Electronic music looped them. The word expanded beyond music: 'riffing on an idea' means improvising variations on a theme. A comedian riffs. A writer riffs. The jazz term for a repeated pattern became a general verb for creative variation. The word of uncertain origin named the most basic unit of musical catchiness and then escaped music entirely.