Breakbeat is a term that combines the certain electronic music genres based on the breakbeat drums. Today the term «breakbeat» is replaced by «breaks».
Birth: 1989 Bloom: 1996
The breaking of beats is achieved by offset downbeats to upbeats (syncopation) or simultaneous combinations of two and more independent rhythms (polyrhythms). Breaks is typified not only by regular structure (permanent using a drum pattern - break), but also irregular structure with combinations of various drum patterns. Usually breaks are sampled from old records of funk and disco or created with drum machines.
Kool Herc (a Jamaican-born American and hip-hop DJ) was the founder of this ideology. In the 1970s he first began to use breaks from the funk records as a drum base for rap. One of the most popular breaks from then until now is Amen break, the title of which comes from the track «Amen, brother» by The Winstons.
In the 1980s, DJs from the USA started to mix the hip-hop drums with house and techno creating some kind of an electronic breakbeat, but only from the early 1990s British DJs began to create accelerated to 150-170 BPM «techno» with already embedded breaks and later breaks became the only component of the rhythmic base. The style was given the name «hardcore», featured by the most notable representatives such as The Prodigy, Altern-8, 2 Bad Mice and others. By 1992 hardcore had split into several sub-genres, with drum’n’bass as a leader due to a complex pattern of drum loops.
Today, the word «breaks» is often used a synonym to music with a strong emphasis on drum loops and 150 BPM tempo, for example, nu skool breaks with its sub-genres and big beat (The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, Fatboy Slim), etc.
Also read: Drum & Bass
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