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Drum and bass (drum n bass, DnB) is an electronic music style.Originally an offshoot of the United Kingdom breakbeat hardcore and rave scene, it came into existence when people mixed reggae basslines with sped-up hip hop breakbeats and influences from techno. Pioneers such as Fabio, Grooverider, DJ SS, Brockie, Mickey Finn, Kenny Ken, Goldie and other DJs quickly became the stars of drum and bass, then still called jungle.
1 Musicology of drum and bass
The breakbeat is what loosely speaking defines the music as drum and bass. Generally speaking, this rhythm stripped down to its raw bones is played using a kick drum sound and a snare, the tempo being at around 160 - 180 beats per minute with the beats on the 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 7th quaver (or eighth note) beats, alternating between the kick and the snare.
A crucial element of mixed drum and bass is the " drop ". The drop is the point in a track where a switch of rhythm or bassline occurs and usually follows a recognisable build section and " breakdown ". Frequently the drop is used to switch between tracks, layering components of different tunes. Some drops are so popular that the DJ will "rewind" or "reload" by spinning the record back and restarting it at the build. This is a technique which can easily be overused as it breaks the continuity of a set.
There are many views of what constitutes "real" drum and bass as it has many scenes and styles within it, from heavy pounding bass lines to liquid funk and downright 'chilled out' elevator music. It has been compared with jazz where the listener can get very different sounding music all coming under the same music genre, because like drum and bass, it is more of an approach, or a tradition, than a style. Drum and bass, however, progresses at a rapid pace, tunes sounding old and of dated style after only a few years.
1.1 Relationship to other electronic music styles
Recently the drum and bass genre, evolving in the same manner as other electronic music sub-genres such as house, and Goa trance, has become much more specific as a genre and minimal. For example, whereas many rhythms and samples were utilized in older drum and bass (such as the " amen breakThe amen break is one of the most-used sampled drum loops in jungle and drum and bass music, together with the " funky drummer" drum loop. It originates from the song "Amen brother" by the 1960s funk/ soul outfit The Winstons, more specifically from two b"), most modern drum and bass features exclusively what is known as the funky drummerThe funky drummer break is one of the most used sampled drum loops in hip-hop and drum and bass genres together with the amen break which is more related to drum-and-bass. The original song from which the break is sampled is James Brown's song "Funky Drum rhythm, and distorted bass lines with less melodic elements.
Intelligent dance musicIDM short for intelligent dance music or intellectual dance music is an electronic music genre which began as a style of techno in the early 1990s and moved on to include the textures and sound manipulation methods of Musique concrete and early,"true" ind (also known as "IDM"), popularized by Aphex TwinAphex Twin (born Richard David James 1971) is a UK-based electronic music artist, credited with pushing forward the genres of techno, ambient, IDM, acid, drum and bass (specifically drill n bass). Recent experimentation on his album drukqs included use of, features many of the same types of rhythms used in drum and bass and is generally focused on complexity in programming and instrumentation. Amongst its main proponents include SquarepusherSquarepusher the stage name of Tom Jenkinson is a British electronic music artist (born in Chelmsford, Essex) signed to Warp Records. A trained bass guitar player and drummer, his style of extremely fast, cut-up beats mixed with fusion jazz and interlaced.
2 History
Drum and bass started in the UK cities of LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri and BristolThis article is about the English city of Bristol. For other uses please see Bristol (disambiguation). Bristol is a city in south-western England, on the River Avon. It borders on the Unitary Districts of Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and S around 1992 and mainly came out of the house/ hardcore music scenes with predominant musical influences being dub music and hip-hop.
The drum and bass genre has gone through numerous mutations and sub-genrefications, making it one of the most diverse styles to rise out of the rave scene of the 1990s. It is played all over the world and is considered by some to be at its most progressive and cutting edge in London.
