Breakbeat is a term that refers to two distinct musical styles. Breakbeat can refer to a variety of electronic music genres. It can also refer to the sampling of certain beats in hip-hop and rap music.
In the 1970s, some forward-thinking DJs began juggling two copies of the same record back and forth between beats, resulting in a new, longer break. The break in soul songs was often the most danceable, or at least wildly danceable, part of the song, and DJs began to notice that when the break came, people would truly let loose on the dance floor.
This prompted DJ Kool Herc to play two copies of the same record at the break, seamlessly switching between them to lengthen the break and give dancers more time to let loose on the floor. Other DJs were probably thinking about something similar around the same time, and within a few years, DJs all over the world were using the breakbeat technique to create a new type of dance music. DJs like Grand Wizard Theodore and Afrika Bambaataa expanded on DJ Kool Herc’s original breakbeat style.
With the elongated breaks, the wild, rhythmic dancing that took place during the break evolved into its own form of dancing. It was appropriately dubbed simply breakdancing, and its popularity boosted the popularity of breakbeat. The Winston’s “Amen, Brother” is widely regarded as the most popular break ever. It has appeared in thousands of songs and is instantly recognized most hip-hop listeners.
As electronic music experimented with a wide range of techniques in the 1990s, some producers began experimenting with breakbeat samples. These samples would be looped to create high-impact music, also known as breakbeat hardcore or rave. This spawned a slew of new genres, including drum and bass, which delves deep into the complexities of sampled drums, and jungle, which is darker and more primal.
Breakbeat is distinguished from most electronic music its departure from the standard 4/4 time signature. Many people predicted that as breakbeat became more and more funky, it would eventually collapse in on itself and die as a genre because the broken meter didn’t lend itself to the trance state that electronic music had become famous for. Breakbeat, on the other hand, has grown in popularity and has become a mainstay of electronic music in the modern era.
Breakbeat has become much easier to incorporate into songs thanks to modern sampling techniques and computers, and there has been a proliferation of breakbeat. Composers can achieve incredible complexity with their breakbeats thanks to the fine-tuning capabilities of computers, essentially creating new beats from the bottom up.