Summary of This Janet Jackson BASSLINE breaks laptops

00:00:00 - 00:15:00

The video discusses how Janet Jackson's song Rhythm Nation can break laptops due to the resonant frequency of the bassline. The video explains how this issue was solved by adding a filter to the audio pipeline.

• 00:00:00 Janet Jackson's song Rhythm  Nation is a cyber security threat because it contains a frequency which breaks laptops. In Part I of this video, the author discusses the music theory behind the song and explains why it shouldn't work but does because of blues harmony. In Part II, the author explains that the frequency in the song is caused by resonance between the bass synth and the guitar hammering out the low E string over and over again. This resonance is specific to the 5400 rpm hard drives that the laptops used and is not present in any other tune. Bedroom metal guitarists are the real cyber security threat, not Janet Jackson.
• 00:05:00 In the video, Ray Chen explains how vibrations from exciting natural resonant frequencies of hard drives can cause laptops to fail, and how this effect can be mitigated by increasing the pitch of a recording. He also touches on the phenomenon of pitch inflation, which refers to the increasing of the pitch of a sound over time. In the 1970s, when sound engineers began using varispeed to increase the pitch of recordings, they discovered that Rhythm Nation, which at the time was being played at a higher pitch than 440 Hz, was not really an E. Part III of the video discusses how varispeed can be used to increase the pitch of a recording, and how using this technique can make the music more intense and exciting.
• 00:10:00 Raymond Chen discusses the Resonance issue with Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation bassline, which caused laptop hard drives to fail. A blog post on the matter was made by Raymond Chen and it was solved by the manufacturer adding a filter to the audio pipeline. Curiosity Stream has a vast library of documentaries that are educational and supported by another streaming service, Nebula.
• 00:15:00 This Janet Jackson BASSLINE breaks laptops. This video is a compilation of clips from Janet Jackson's music videos, which are known for breaking laptops. By watching this video, viewers are supporting the creator, as well as all of the other creators on Nebula.