Big-beat (also called big beat, or bigbit) was a 1960s music scene made up of

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 ...

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 twist groups in

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 ...

countries. The term was coined as the name "rock and roll" was not approved by authorities in these nations.

Background

Genres of American origin, such as

, twist, and especially

were banned or at least hardly tolerated in Eastern Bloc countries in the mid-20th century. Such music was considered to be an element of American imperialism. Despite the official attitude, a number of jazz bands formed in the Eastern Bloc. In the 1950s, these bands included rock and roll elements in their performances. The first Polish band that played rock and roll was , formed in 1959, and they were forced by the authorities to disband a year later. The manager of Rhythm and Blues, Franciszek Walicki, to avoid the term ''rock and roll'', coined the term "big-beat" to refer to the band's music. In Walicki's intention, it was a pure synonym of rock and roll, but the name became widely used in reference to any

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

with a strong rhythm and a simple melodic structure, such as

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

, madison, or twist. Walicki went on to form new bands, including Czerwono-Czarni and Niebiesko-Czarni, and rock and roll under the name "big-beat" became popular in Poland from the early 1960s. In Czechoslovakia and Hungary, it happened in the middle of that decade. The first rock and roll concert in the Soviet Union was performed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1966. However, in the USSR, rock was performed without a specific genre name, and rock groups were called "vocal and instrumental bands" ( VIA). In Poland and Czechoslovakia, the term "big beat" or "bigbit" was mostly used, while in Hungary, it was called "beat". In 1970s Poland, rock became called "young generation music", and it changed as

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

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 ...

emerged. In the 1980s, the name "rock" was already accepted by the authorities.

Later uses of the term

After genre names such as rock and roll were finally allowed in the Eastern Bloc, the term "big-beat" fell into obscurity. However, it made a return in the 1990s, this time on the international sphere. Rather than referring to rock genres, it became the name for a new style of

electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...

pioneered 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 ...

and

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 ...

, among others.

References

{{Rock music Rock music genres 20th century in Europe Censorship in the Eastern Bloc Eastern Bloc European political history History of Eastern Europe