History of drum and bass

Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated to DnB, D&B, Drum n Bass and Drum & Bass) is a type of electronic dance music. This article deals with the history of this musical style.

Drum and bass began as a musical paradigm shift of the United Kingdom breakbeat hardcore and rave scene of the mid 1990s; and over the first decade and a half of its existence there have been many permutations in its style, incorporating elements from dancehall, electro, funk, hip hop, house, jazz, pop-created fusion of hardcore, house and techno (with a strong accent of both the UK industrial and Belgian New Beat sounds), pioneered by Joey Beltram, L.A. Style, CJ Bolland, Richie Hawtin and others. This scene existed briefly from approximately 1989-1993, a period of cross-pollination with the UK hardcore sound. This sound did survive in various forms in its mother countries - primarily Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany - beyond 1992, but by then the general scenes in these countries had moved forwards to trance, industrial techno or gabba (with happy hardcore/hard house being the equivalent 'Belgian Techno' - derivative sounds in the UK). London and Bristol are the two cities which are most associated with Drum and Bass.

Returning to the UK, drum and bass (as jungle) has its direct origins in the breakbeat hardcore part of the UK acid house rave scene. Hardcore DJs typically played their records at fast tempos, and breakbeat hardcore emphasised breakbeats over the 4-to-the-floor beat structure common to house music. Breakbeat hardcore records such as The Prodigy's "Experience" (1992) Top Buzz 'Jungle Techno!' (1991), A Guy Called Gerald's 'Anything' (1991), Shut Up and Dance's "£10 to get in" / "£20 to get in" (both 1989), the Ragga Twins' "Spliffhead" (1990) & '18 Inch Speaker' (1991), Rebel MC's 'Wickedest Sound' (1990), 'Coming On Strong' (1990), 'Tribal Bass' (1991) & 'African' (1991) Nightmares on Wax's 'In Two Minds' (1990), Genaside II's "Sirens of Acre Lane" (1990), DJ Dextrous' "Ruffneck Biznizz" (1992), Noise Factory's 'Be Free' (1992), Demon Boyz 'Jungle Dett' (1992) and LTJ Bukem's "Demon's Theme" (1992) are generally credited as being among the first to have a recognizable drum and bass sound. The very first record would arguably be Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon", recorded in 1989, and is still recognisably 'drum and bass' in sound today.

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