Big beat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Big Beat | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins: | Techno, Acid House, Electronic art music, Industrial |
| Cultural origins: | Early 1990s, Europe, particularly UK, mid 1990's USA, Australia |
| Typical instruments: | Synthesizer, Keyboard, Drum machine, Sequencer, Sampler, Distortion Effects |
| Mainstream popularity: | Low |
| Subgenres | |
| Nuskool Breaks, Tek Funk, Ragga Jungle | |
| Other topics | |
| Notable artists and DJs - Breakbeat - Electronic Music | |
Big beat (sometimes called chemical breaks) is a term deployed in the mid 1990s by the British music press to describe the work of artists such as The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, and The Prodigy.
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[edit] Style
Big Beat tends to feature distorted, compressed breakbeats at moderate tempos (usually between 90 to 140 beats per minute), acidic synthesizer lines and heavy jazz loops. They are often punctuated with punkish-style vocals and driven by intense, distorted basslines with conventional pop and techno song structures. Big beat is also characterised by a strong psychedelic influence stemming from the influence of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin's breakbeats, and the acid house musical movement. Particularly in the style of Fatboy Slim, the genre features a heavily compressed, thunderous drum sound (hence the name).
[edit] History
At the beginning of the 90'ies several local UK electronic music genres bordered at certain points. The disco scene at that time was very straight and promoted glamour and beauty. Out of many clubs in London a subculture emerged which opposed the pop scene but at the same time wanted to dance to electronic music. Sampling became an integral part of standard studio equipment and made the fusion of many genres easier. Norman Cook first defined the word Big Beat named after his club Beat Beat Boutique. The music played there combined Breakbeats, Rock, Funk, Industrial Jazz, Acid House, manchester rave, Hip Hop and Trance. The term caught on, and was subsequently applied to a wide variety of acts, notably Bentley Rhythm Ace, Lionrock, Monkey Mafia, Meatbeat Manifesto, Lunatic Calm, Death in Vegas and David Holmes.
Other notable 'Big Beat' acts include The Crystal Method, Overseer, Adam Freeland, many artists signed to Brighton's Skint label and London's Wall Of Sound label, and to some extent the later work of The Prodigy. By the time of the latter's successful 1997 album The Fat of the Land, the music press were increasingly drawn to using the catch-all term 'electronica' to describe the big beat sound, and the term 'big beat' itself is now rarely used.
[edit] Notable big beat artists
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[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The DJ List's Big Beat artists
- Discussions, music and news from Sirius radio station for big beats, Boombox
| Breakbeat/Breaks |
|---|
| 2Step - Big beat - Breakcore - Broken beat - Drill n bass - Florida - Hardcore - Hardcore Breaks - Nu skool - Progressive |
| Other electronic music genres |
| Ambient | Breakbeat | Drum and bass | Electronica | Electronic Art Music | Hard Dance | Hardcore | House | Industrial | Synthpop | Techno | Trance |
