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Big beat is an
electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...
genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to
acid house Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...
/ techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as
the Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboardist, and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured Rapping, MC and vocalist Maxim (musician), Maxim, dancer and occasi ...
, the Chemical Brothers,
Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician and DJ who helped popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. His music makes extensive use of Sampling (music), samples from eclectic ...
,
the Crystal Method The Crystal Method is an American electronic music act formed in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada, by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in 1993. They were pioneers of the big beat genre and their music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, v ...
, Propellerheads, Basement Jaxx and Groove Armada. Big beat achieved mainstream success during the 1990s, and achieved its critical and commercial peak between 1995 and 1999, with releases such the Chemical Brothers’ '' Dig Your Own Hole'', the Prodigy's '' The Fat of the Land'', and Fatboy Slim's '' You've Come a Long Way, Baby'', before quickly declining from 2001 onwards.


Style

Big beat features heavy and distorted drum beats at tempos between 100 and 140
beats per minute Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of in ...
, Roland TB-303
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
lines resembling those of
acid house Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...
, and heavy loops from 1960s and 1970s
funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...
, soul,
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
, and rock songs. They are often punctuated with punk-style vocals or rappers and driven by intense, distorted synthesizer
bassline Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, and classical music, for the low-pitched P ...
s with conventional pop, house and techno song structures. Big beat tracks have a sound that includes crescendos, builds, drops, extended drum rolls, and sounds such as spoken word samples, dialogues from film and TV, additional instruments such as Middle Eastern strings or sitars, explosions, air horns, sirens (usually police sirens) and gunshots. As with several other dance genres at the time, the use of effects such as filters, phasing, and flanging was common in the genre. Celebrated pioneers of the genre such as
Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician and DJ who helped popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. His music makes extensive use of Sampling (music), samples from eclectic ...
tend to feature heavily compressed loud breakbeats in their songs, which are used to define the music as much as any melodic hooks and sampled sounds. Based on the primary use of loud, heavy breakbeats and basslines, big beat shares attributes with jungle and
drum and bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...
, but has a significantly slower tempo.


History


Earlier uses of the term

The term "big beat" traces its roots to the
Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...
in the 1960s. Unlike the 1990s genre, it did not cover
electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...
; rather, it was used to cover
rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
and its related genres as the terms were not approved by the authorities in the Eastern Bloc countries (the
USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and its satellite states in the
Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...
). By the 1980s, rock and roll and related terms were already accepted by the authorities, so the term fell into obscurity until its 1990s name revival.


Premise (late 1980s)

In 1989, Iain Williams from the English electronic duo
Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including th ...
coined the musical term "big beat" to describe the band's musical style. Williams explained the concept during an interview with the journalist Alex Gerry in an article published in the London magazine ''Metropolitan'' (issue 132, page 9, 6 June 1989) under the heading, ''Big Bang in Clubland – Could Big Beat be the 1989 answer to Acid House?'' The band was promoting their first record, a
Arabic-inspired dance version
of
ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...
's " Voulez-Vous" and their instrumental track "Cold Nights in Cairo" that had just been released on Swanyard Records. The single was produced by Big Bang and Steev Toth. Big Bang are Laurence Malice ( Trade nightclub founder) and Iain Williams (writer). The band's sound consisted of various experimental musical elements, including heavy drum beats and synthesizer-generated loops as well as an added suggestion of European influences that at times had a trance-like quality. The band used session vocalists on all their recordings. The concept of the big beat sound was later picked up on and adapted by many club DJs and went on to become widely used by many successful musicians throughout the 1990s.


Emerging (early 1990s)

In the early 1990s, in the midst of several popular musical subcultures, including the English rave scene,
British hip hop UK rap, also known as British hip hop or UK hip hop or British rap, is a music genre and culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. The development of UK rap was shaped by a distinct set of regional inf ...
, chillout or ambient, gestating subgenres such as
trip hop Trip hop is a musical genre that has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop and electronica with slow tempos and an atmospheric sound. The style emerged as a more experimental music, experimental var ...
and breakbeat, along with the emerging
Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s United Kingdom, British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. Musically, Britpop produced bright, catchy alternative rock, with significant influences from British guitar pop of the 1960s and 1970s. B ...
movement – a process of hybridisation and a taste for eclecticism was developing within English dance music generally. Sampling had become an integral part of dance music production and the fusion of genres appealed to DJs, producers, and fans keen on continued experimentalism within dance music. Record labels such as Junior Boy's Own and Heavenly Records demonstrated this broader-minded approach, releasing slower breakbeat-based music alongside
house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...
and
acid house Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...
singles, introducing DJ-turned-artists such as the Chemical Brothers (known then as the Dust Brothers) and Monkey Mafia in 1994. Norman Cook and Damian Harris first became associated with the term "big beat" through Harris's label Skint Records and club night the Big Beat Boutique, held on Friday nights at
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
's Concorde club between 1995 and 2001. The Heavenly label's London club The Sunday Social had adopted a similar philosophy with resident DJs the Chemical Brothers and their eclectic approach. The term caught on, and was subsequently applied to a wide variety of acts, including Bentley Rhythm Ace, Lionrock,
the Crystal Method The Crystal Method is an American electronic music act formed in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada, by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in 1993. They were pioneers of the big beat genre and their music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, v ...
, Lunatic Calm, the Lo Fidelity Allstars, Death in Vegas, and the Propellerheads among others.


International success (1990s-early 2000s)

Big beat achieved international success in the 1990s and early 2000s, as many artists identified with the genre released hit records. During the 1990s,
The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboardist, and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured Rapping, MC and vocalist Maxim (musician), Maxim, dancer and occasi ...
had several songs in the top ten of the UK Singles Chart with two of those songs reaching number one on the chart. Their album '' The Fat of the Land'' went to number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 in the US in July 1997 and to number one in many other countries, especially in Europe and Australasia. The Prodigy performed at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards winning the Viewer's Choice Award there. The Prodigy's song " Firestarter" went to number 30 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and was a number 1 hit in many other countries, including the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary and Norway. The Prodigy's song " Smack My Bitch Up" went to number 89 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. ''The Fat of the Land'' by the Prodigy sold 2,600,000 copies in the United States and was certified 2× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The Prodigy's single "Firestarter" was certified gold by the RIAA. Fatboy Slim also achieved international success in the 1990s. His 1998 album '' You've Come a Long Way, Baby'' was certified platinum in September 1999. Fatboy Slim's song " Praise You" peaked at number 36 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on May 22, 1999, and his song " The Rockafeller Skank" peaked at number 76 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on January 15, 2000. "Praise You" and "The Rockafeller Skank" peaked at number 22 on the
Mainstream Top 40 Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/contemporary hit radio, CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played o ...
chart in 1999 and number 21 on the
Mainstream Top 40 Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/contemporary hit radio, CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played o ...
chart in 1999, respectively. In August 1998, The Crystal Method's song "Comin' Back" reached number one on the Dance Club Songs chart. The Chemical Brothers' 1997 album '' Dig Your Own Hole'' was certified gold by the RIAA and sold over 750,000 copies in the United States. The Chemical Brothers' song "Setting Sun" peaked at number 80 on the
Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...
in February 1997. Their mainstream success helped '' Exit Planet Dust'' (1995) and '' Surrender'' (1999) sell 331,000 and 402,000 copies in the U.S., respectively. Big beat also gained prominence in popular culture through its inclusion in major soundtracks. The platinum-certified soundtrack for '' The Matrix'' (1999) featured big beat tracks, selling over 1.4 million copies in the U.S. The genre has also appeared in films such as '' Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' (2001) and in the '' Wipeout'' video game series by Psygnosis. The original '' Wipeout'' (1995) and its sequels, '' Wipeout 2097'' (released as ''Wipeout XL'' in the U.S.) and '' Wip3out'', featured soundtracks with big beat artists such as The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, Propellerheads, and Fluke. This collaboration has been recognised as a pioneering example of cultural crossover between gaming and electronic music.


Decline (2001–present)

The big beat scene had started to gradually decline in popularity by 2001, due to the novelty of the genre's formula fading. The genre's most successful acts would further change their sound; more prominently, the Chemical Brothers releasing more material with direct house and techno characteristics (including " 4x4" beats which resemble those of
house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...
and synthesizer sweeps and noises, marking a departure from their big beat sound consisting of syncopated breakbeats and hip hop samples) inspired by the success of the Gatecrasher club and the trance movement, which would reach a commercial peak between 1999 and 2002. However, big beat had left an indelible mark on popular music as an indigenous progression from rave music, bridging a divide between clubbers and
indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...
fans. Without this connection, some have reasoned that it would not have reached the heights that it did, or resonated with as many listeners as it did.


References


Further reading

*
The Little Big Beat Book
' by Rory Hoy, published 10/09/2018, by New Haven Publishing Ltd, - The book outlines the history of Big Beat as a musical genre and contains 120 interviews with bands and musicians that helped create and produce Big Beat music. * ''The Story of Big Beat'': Bookazine Paperback – 30 Jul 2019 by Rory Hoy, New Haven Publishing Ltd (30 July 2019),


External links

* {{Authority control Electronic dance music genres English styles of music Breakbeat genres 1990s in music