The pattern
| Instrument | Beat 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Beat 2 | Step 6 | Step 7 | Step 8 | Beat 3 | Step 10 | Step 11 | Step 12 | Beat 4 | Step 14 | Step 15 | Step 16 | Beat 5 | Step 18 | Step 19 | Step 20 | Beat 6 | Step 22 | Step 23 | Step 24 | Beat 7 | Step 26 | Step 27 | Step 28 | Beat 8 | Step 30 | Step 31 | Step 32 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | hit | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
| Snare | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | hit | hit | hit |
| Clap | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
| Closed hi-hat | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
| Open hi-hat | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
| Crash | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
How to play it and where it comes from
“Stage” groove in the SM style (H.O.T., TVXQ, Super Junior, SHINee, EXO, NCT 127, aespa): the first bar is hip hop/new jack with syncopated kick (1, “1 a”, “2 e”, “3 e”) and clap on 2 and 4; the second bar breaks apart: after 2 the kick plays an ensemble accent on the “2 and” with a crash (step 23 = the choreography accent), then the drums stop and a sixteenth-note snare fill (steps 25–32) is left to launch the next section. This is the stop-break described by Yoo Young-jin: set up a flow and then break it. Variants: the same pattern in half time at nominal BPMs of 140–170 (Kick It, 167); ensemble accents with brass and cymbals on 1, “2 and”, 4; a bar of total silence with a spoken phrase before the chorus; a groove change mid-song (from hip hop to house or new jack swing).