'Tight' meaning 'good'

Question

This is something I remember from school (during the mid-to-late 90s, UK): people describing things they like as 'tight'.

Some usage examples:
1. 'Cablez - The Movement' hip-hop album review "a beat thatâ??s catchy, raw, dark, and tight"
"dropping a tight hard verse"
"East meets west in this tight song."
2. Urban Dictionary

There's plenty more if you Google 'tight beat'.
In school, it was not just people referring to songs as tight but all sorts of things (fashion being the exception, obviously).

Anyone know where this came from? I'm guessing that it probably comes from hip-hop and the programming of beats being 'tight'.

Tom Morris

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]In school, it was not just people referring to songs as tight but all sorts of things (fashion being the exception, obviously). Anyone know where this came from? I'm guessing that it probably comes from hip-hop and the programming of beats being 'tight'.[/nq]
With a lot of street slang, you'd be guessing about origins.

Stevie Wonder had a hit in 1965 with "Uptight (Everything's Alright)", and I always heard that as 'up tight' - uptight tended to mean stressed out, in 60s slang. Wonder's album was actually 'up-tight'.

She says baby everything is alright, uptight, clean out of sight. Baby, everything is alright, uptight, clean out of sight. Baby, everything is alright, uptight, ah ah ah ah, Baby, everything is alright, uptight, clean out of sight. Baby, everything is alright, uptight, clean out of sight.

I interpreted it as 'no loose ends' all settled, sorted and neatly tied up.

Realtionships - especially friendships - were also 'tight', which I see as secure, trusting ... etc.
Either way, it was around before hip-hop (as we know it now) was big.
Andrew
http://www.wordskit.com/
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"If A is success in life, then A = x + y + z.
Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut." ~ Albert Einstein

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]This is something I remember from school (during the mid-to-late 90s, UK): people describing things they like as 'tight'.[/nq]
(snip)
"A tight little ship" was a 19th century British usage, certainly, implying approval.
With best wishes,
Peter.

Peter Young, (BrE), Consultant Anaesthetist, 1975-2004. (US equivalent: Attending Anesthesiologist)
Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK.
Now happily retired.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Tom Morris wrote This is something I remember from school (during the mid-to-late 90s, UK): people describing things they like ... know where this came from? I'm guessing that it probably comes from hip-hop and the programming of beats being 'tight'.[/nq]
'Tight' as a term of approval in music doesn't start with hip-hop, it goes way back further than that. In musician speak 'tight' refers to playing that is rhythmically together. If you watch a really good band - doesn't matter what genre it is - who've grown up together and been playing and practicing for years, and who have an almost telepathic ability to move along the music together, you might say they were tight.
In a way it's ironic to apply 'tight' to hip-hop; I mess around a lot with programmed beats, and while it's a lot of fun it's also frustrating; you can't catch a computer's eye the way you can a human drummer's when you want to drop the tempo or go into a bridge. A 120 bpm drum loop is always going to be a 120 bpm drum loop, there's no virtue is saying it's tight, in fact a lot of the time the creative process is about trying to introduce a bit of sloppiness to achieve a more human feel. But I suppose muso slang moves on, and gains new meanings...
DC

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@mid.individual.net:
[nq:1]Anyone know where this came from? I'm guessing that it probably comes from hip-hop and the programming of beats being 'tight'.[/nq]
As Django Cat says, it's much older than hip-hop but it is to do with music, and it means rhythmic togetherness. It's the opposite of 'loose', which musicians also use. It was certainly around in the 70's and I would guess it came from jazz; probably twenty or so years earlier. It doesn't simply mean 'good'. Handclaps often sound better if they're loose - not quite in sync. Fast music is more impressive when it's tight. Slow stuff sometimes feels better if it's loose. (Playing it fast and loose is frowned upon!)
Peter

'Tight' meaning 'good'

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