Musical Style
Beck's musical style has been considered alternative and indie. He has been known to play many of the instruments in his music himself. He has also done some remixes for fellow artists, notably David Bowie and Björk. Beck has been known to synthesize several musical elements together in his music, including folk, country, Latin music, hip hop, funk, many types of rock and blues. He has also taken music from Los Angeles as a reference point in his songs.
Beck has an irreverent style of sampling, often using such sources as obscure films to splice together cuts of people talking in the background of his music, or various other found sounds to create sound collages in the background of his music.
Pitchfork Media applauded Midnite Vultures, saying, "Beck wonderfully blends Prince, Talking Heads, Paul's Boutique, 'Shake Your Bon-Bon', and Mathlete on Midnite Vultures, his most consistent and playful album yet." The review continued to comment on Beck, saying that his mix of goofy piety and ambiguous intent helped the album. A Beck song called "Harry Partch," a tribute to the composer and his "Corporeal" music, employs Partch's 43-tone scale.
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