Period/Style: Minoan. Location: Crete, Greece. Material: fragment of a fresco. Function: The walls of Minoan palaces and houses, both on Crete and the island of Thera, were painted with frescoes showing various aspects of Minoan life and images taken from nature.
guitar riffs. A riff is a cluster or sequence of notes or chords. A riff is used in a song. It can be repeated over and over again, but it may only be heard once, say for instance, in a lead guitar solo. Riffs can be minor decorative elements or they can be the basis of a song.
The term 'riff driven' describes a piece of music that relies on a repeated instrumental riff as the basis of its most prominent melody, cadence, or (in some cases) leitmotif. Riff-driven songs are largely a product of jazz, blues, and post-blues era music (rock and pop). The musical goal of riff-driven songs is akin to the classical continuo effect, but raised to much higher importance (in fact, the repeated riff is used to anchor the song in the ears of the listener).