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music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals.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

which developed in the 2010s that mixes elements of

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

and EDM trap with warmer, less abrasive rhythms. The genre was pioneered by producers such as

Rustie Rustie (born Russell Whyte, 4 January 1983) is a Scottish musician from Glasgow. He is associated with the Numbers label collective and first received attention for his 2007 EP ''Jagz the Smack''. He signed to Warp Records in 2009. His 2011 deb ...

Hudson Mohawke Ross Matthew Birchard (born 11 February 1986), better known by the stage name Hudson Mohawke, is a Scottish producer, composer, and DJ from Glasgow. He is known for his work in 21st century hip-hop and electronic music. A founding member of th ...

Lido Lido may refer to: Geography * Lido (Belgrade), a river beach on the Danube in Belgrade, Serbia * Venice Lido, an 11-kilometre-long barrier island in the Venetian Lagoon, Venice, Italy * Ruislip Lido, a reservoir and artificial beach in Ruisl ...

San Holo Sander van Dijck (born 26 November 1990), better known by his stage name San Holo, is a Dutch DJ, musician, songwriter and record producer from Zoetermeer. He gained international recognition for his remix of Dr. Dre's " The Next Episode", w ...

and Cashmere Cat, and it was popularised in the mid to late-2010s by artists such as

Flume A flume is a human-made channel for water, in the form of an open declined gravity chute whose walls are raised above the surrounding terrain, in contrast to a trench or ditch. Flumes are not to be confused with aqueducts, which are built to t ...

Martin Garrix Martijn Gerard Garritsen (; born 14 May 1996), known professionally as Martin Garrix (or Ytram and GRX), is a Dutch Republic, Dutch DJ and record producer who was ranked number one on ''DJ Mag''s Top 100 DJs list for three consecutive years—20 ...

Illenium Nicholas Daniel "Nick" Miller (born December 26, 1990), professionally known as Illenium (stylized in all caps), is an American musician, DJ, music producer, and songwriter. He has released five studio albums, his most recent being ''Illenium'', ...

Louis the Child Louis the Child (893 – 20/24 September 911), sometimes called Louis III or Louis IV, was the king of East Francia from 899 until his death and was also recognized as king of Lotharingia after 900. He was the last East Frankish ruler of the Car ...

and

Mura Masa Alexander George Edward Crossan (born 5 April 1996), better known by his stage name Mura Masa, is a Guernsey-born electronic record producer and songwriter. Crossan is best known for his 2016 song " Lovesick" (featuring ASAP Rocky), which pea ...

. 2016 was seen as the breakout year for the genre.

History

The genre was pioneered by Scottish producers

and

, who began producing future bass tracks in 2010. One of the first popularity-fueling releases in the genre was Rustie's album ''

Glass Swords ''Glass Swords'' is the debut studio album by Scottish producer Russell Whyte under his alias of Rustie, released by Warp (record label), Warp in 2011. The album was produced and recorded between 2008 and 2010 by Whyte, partially in his father's ...

'', released in 2011. Later, in 2013, the

remix of

Disclosure Disclosure may refer to: Arts and media Film and television *'' CBC News: Disclosure'', a television newsmagazine series in Canada * ''Disclosure'' (1994 film), an American erotic thriller film based on the 1994 novel by Michael Crichton * ''Dis ...

's song " You & Me" brought the genre into the mainstream, and through the mid-2010s future bass became popular in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Characteristics

The sound waves are often modulated using

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

low-frequency oscillation Low-frequency oscillation (LFO) is an electronic frequency that is usually below 20 Hz and creates a rhythmic pulse or sweep. This is used to modulate musical equipment such as synthesizers to create audio effects such as vibrato, tremolo ...

controlling the cutoff of an

audio filter An audio filter is a frequency-dependent circuit, working in the audio frequency range, 0 Hz to 20 kHz. Audio filters can amplify (boost), pass or attenuate (cut) some frequency ranges. Many types of filters exist for different audio ...

(typically a low- or high-pass filter), or the wave's

amplitude The amplitude of a periodic variable is a measure of its change in a single period (such as time or spatial period). The amplitude of a non-periodic signal is its magnitude compared with a reference value. There are various definitions of am ...

, to adjust the waveform (to create a ‘wobbly’ effect on its parameters). In addition, it is common to utilize a somewhat "twinkly"-sounding gradual rise in pitch during "risers" (gradual pre- drop buildups of

white noise In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used with this or similar meanings in many scientific and technical disciplines, i ...

), and arpeggio chords, vocal chops, or vocoders. Tracks commonly feature a 4/4 time signature with BPM set between 130BPM to 175BPM.

Subgenres

Kawaii future bass

Kawaii ''Kawaii'' is a Japanese cultural phenomenon which emphasizes cuteness, childlike innocence, charm, and simplicity. ''Kawaii'' culture began to flourish in the 1970s, driven by youth culture and the rise of cute characters in manga and anime ...

future bass (also known simply as kawaii bass) is a subgenre of future bass, known for its happy and cute

timbre In music, timbre (), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instrument ...

and strong

Japanese pop culture Japanese popular culture includes Japanese cinema, cuisine, television programs, anime, manga, video games, music, and doujinshi, all of which retain older artistic and literary traditions; many of their themes and styles of presentation can be t ...

influences. Often,

chiptune Chiptune, also called 8-bit music (although not all chiptune is 8-bit music), is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video gam ...

sounds, soft

square wave Square wave may refer to: *Square wave (waveform) A square wave is a non-sinusoidal waveform, non-sinusoidal periodic waveform in which the amplitude alternates at a steady frequency between fixed minimum and maximum values, with the same ...

s, samples from

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

s, and door and bed squeaks are incorporated into such songs. Snail's House and other producers have produced tracks of this subgenre, with the former being credited as the genre pioneer after releasing the extended play ''Kirara'' in 2015.

J-future core

J-future core (also known simply as Future core), refers to hardcore styles mixed with melodic content and the characteristic sound design of future bass. Its name comes from the "FÜGENE" compilation album on SoundCloud in the first half of 2017. Often,

sounds, active

s, edited vocals, samples from future bass and

Hardcore (electronic dance music genre) Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos (160 to 200 BPM or more) and a distorted sawtooth ...

s, make the genre sounds more like a Future products. The compilation led some music producers from Japan to recognize it as a new musical genre.

References