In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out, trance-like state that the standard, steady 4/4 beats of house

House music

House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...

 enabled.

Evolution

In recent times, the term breakbeat has become synonymous with the many genres of breaks music which have become popular within the global dance music scene, including big beat

Big beat

Big beat is a term employed since the mid-1990s by the British music press to describe much of the music by artists such as The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, and Propellerheads typically driven by heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns in...

, nu skool breaks

Nu skool breaks

Nu skool breaks is a term used to describe a sub-genre of breakbeat. The sub-genre is usually characterized by its darker and heavier bass lines that are normally dominant throughout the track...

 and progressive breaks. DJs from a variety of genres, including house and techno, work breaks tracks into their sets. This may occur because the tempo

Tempo

In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...

 of breaks tracks (ranging from 110 to 150 beats per minute) means they can be readily mixed with these genres, whereas the comparatively fast speed of jungle and drum and bass (160-180 bpm) may have restricted the utility of these subgenres to DJs playing slower-tempo music. Some artists well known for breakbeat include NAPT

NAPT (electronic music artist)

NAPT are a multi award winning British electronic dance music production and DJ duo consisting of Ashley Pope and Tomek Naden. NAPT's productions fall under the umbrella of their self coined N-Funk sound....

, DJ Icey

DJ Icey

DJ Icey, , is a DJ and electronic music producer, credited by Allmusic as having helped to "jump-start the increasingly fertile dance scene in and around Orlando, FL, during the '90s". E, the Incredibly Strange History of Ecstasy credits him as "the prime founder of the Funky Breaks and the Florida...

, DJ Marmik, Stanton Warriors

Stanton Warriors

Stanton Warriors are the breakbeat duo Dominic Butler and Mark Yardley. They are a DJ and producer team. Originally from the West Country, the pair now play sets at nightclubs such as Fabric and Ciros in the UK, and travel the globe with international work in Europe, Canada, America and Australia...

, Beat Assassins, Pendulum

Pendulum (band)

Pendulum is an Australian drum and bass and electronic rock band founded in 2002 in Perth by Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen, and Paul Harding.Swire and McGrillen were members of the rock band known as Xygen. After hearing Konflict's "Messiah" at a club, they were inspired to enter into the drum and...

, Krafty Kuts

Krafty Kuts

Krafty Kuts is an English electronic music, dance music and breakbeat producer and DJ.His Debut album - Freakshow was released in 2006 on his Against The Grain label and contains guest artists Tim Deluxe and Ashley Slater from the UK band Freak Power...

, The Freestylers, DJ Loopy & Dj G3NjUiCe, K-Swing

K-Swing

K-Swing, real name Katie Kabel, is an American DJ/Producer specializing in electronic dance music, specifically Rockbeat and electro house. She is from New Jersey, USA. In 2004 she was nominated for the Best Breakthrough DJ Award at the 2004 Dancestar USA: American Dance Music Award show...

, Soul Of Man, Deekline And Wizard, The Breakfastaz, Ctrl Z, DJ Sharaz

DJ Sharaz

Sharaz is a DJ and electronica producer in the Bradenton, FL area who is known for many national remixes, especially in the form of Florida breaks and breakbeat. He is originally from East Chicago, but in 1986 moved to Florida to attend College...

, Freq Nasty, Annie Nightingale

Annie Nightingale

Anne "Annie" Nightingale MBE is an English radio broadcaster. She is most commonly known by the more informal name of Annie...

, Plump DJ's and avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 performance troupe Lucent Dossier Experience

Lucent Dossier Experience

Lucent Dossier Experience is an interactive, avant-garde circus, electronic rock band, performance troupe and entertainment company...

.

Breakbeats are used in many hip hop, rap, jungle, and hardcore songs, and can also be heard in other music, from popular music to background music in car and jean commercials on the radio or TV. One of the largest Breaks nights north of London is Milton Keynes lead Beatcheck, set up in 2006.

Sampled breakbeats

With the advent of digital sampling and music editing on the computer, breakbeats have become much easier to create and use. Now, instead of cutting and splicing tape sections or constantly backspinning 2 records at the same time, a computer program can be used to cut, paste, and loop breakbeats endlessly. Digital effects like filters

High-pass filter

A high-pass filter is a device that passes high frequencies and attenuates frequencies lower than its cutoff frequency. A high-pass filter is usually modeled as a linear time-invariant system...

, reverb

Reverberation

Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air...

, reversing, time stretching

Time stretching

Time stretching can refer to:* Audio timescale-pitch modification, in audio* Time stretching, in video* Time dilation, in physics * Time stretch analog-to-digital converter, in electronics...

, and pitch shift

Pitch shift

Pitch shifting is a sound recording technique in which the original pitch of a sound is raised or lowered. Effects units that raise or lower pitch by a pre-designated musical interval are called "pitch shifters" or "pitch benders".-Pitch/time shifting:...

ing can be added to the beat, and even to individual sounds by themselves. Individual instruments from within a breakbeat can be sampled and combined with others, thereby creating wholly new breakbeat patterns.

The Amen Break

The Amen Break

Amen break

The Amen break is a brief drum solo performed in 1969 by Gregory Cylvester "G. C." Coleman in the song "Amen, Brother" performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons...

, a drum break from The Winstons

The Winstons

The Winstons were a 1960s funk and soul music group, based in Washington, D.C.. They are known for their 1969 recording of an EP featuring a song entitled "Color Him Father" on the A-side, and a song entitled "Amen, Brother" on the B-side. Half-way into "Amen, Brother", there is a drum solo The...

' song "Amen, Brother" is widely regarded as one of the most widely-used and sampled breaks among music using breakbeats. This break was first used on "King of the Beats" by Mantronix

Mantronix

Mantronix was an influential 1980s hip hop and electro funk music group founded by DJ Kurtis Mantronik , and rapper MC Tee...

, and has since been used in thousands of songs. Other popular breaks are from James Brown

James Brown

James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...

's "Funky Drummer

Funky drummer

"Funky Drummer" is a funk song recorded by James Brown and his band. The recording's drum break, performed by drummer Clyde Stubblefield, is one of the most frequently sampled rhythmic breaks in hip hop and popular music; indeed, it lays a strong claim to being the most sampled recording ever,...

" and "Give it Up or Turnit a Loose", The Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache", and Lyn Collins

Lyn Collins

Lyn Collins was an African American soul singer best known for working with James Brown in the 1970s. Contrary to some reports, she is not related to Bootsy Collins, nor Catfish Collins....

' "Think (About It)".

Legal issues

With the rise in popularity of breakbeat music and the advent of digital audio samplers, enterprising companies started selling "breakbeat packages" for the express purpose of helping artists create breakbeats. A breakbeat kit CD would contain many breakbeat samples from different songs and artists, often without the artist's permission or even knowledge. One example of this is the Amen Break

Amen break

The Amen break is a brief drum solo performed in 1969 by Gregory Cylvester "G. C." Coleman in the song "Amen, Brother" performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons...

, from a song by The Winstons

The Winstons

The Winstons were a 1960s funk and soul music group, based in Washington, D.C.. They are known for their 1969 recording of an EP featuring a song entitled "Color Him Father" on the A-side, and a song entitled "Amen, Brother" on the B-side. Half-way into "Amen, Brother", there is a drum solo The...

, who hold the copyright. However, a company named Zero G released a "jungle construction kit" containing an exact copy of the Amen break, slightly sped up, to which Zero G claims copyright. The Winstons have not received royalties

Royalties

Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...

 for third-party use of samples of the break recorded on their original music release.

Acid Breaks

In electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

, acid breaks is a fusion between breakbeat, acid

Acid house

Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...

, acid techno

Acid techno

Acid techno is the term used to describe a style of techno that developed out of late 1980s Chicago Acid house. Acid house was essentially house music made with a specific sound, obtained by using very distinctive instruments created mainly by Roland, such as the TB-303 for bass and lead sounds,...

 and other forms of electronic dance music

Electronic dance music

Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...

 (EDM). Its drum line usually mimics most breakbeat music, lacking the distinctive kick drum of other forms of EDM. One of the earliest synthesizers to be employed in acid music was the Roland TB-303

Roland TB-303

The Roland TB-303 Bass Line is a bass synthesizer with built-in sequencer manufactured by the Roland corporation from late 1981 to 1984 that had a defining role in the development of contemporary electronic music.-History:...

, which makes use of resonance cutoff filters to emphasize the harmonic

Harmonic

A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...

s of the sound. The first acid breaks track is credited to Zak Baney

Zak Baney

Zak Baney started a new genre of techno music in 1987 called acid breaks using various synthesizers. Combining Chicago's acid sound with Florida's breakbeat, it was a completely different sound....

 in 1987 for his track "Acid Break".

See also

• Big beat
  Big beat
  Big beat is a term employed since the mid-1990s by the British music press to describe much of the music by artists such as The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, and Propellerheads typically driven by heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns in...
  
  
• Breakbeat musicians
• Breakdance
• List of electronic music genres