| Big beat | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Early 1990s,London, England |
| Typical instruments | |
| Other topics | |
Big beat is anelectronic music genre that usually uses heavybreakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common toacid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such asThe Prodigy,the Chemical Brothers,Fatboy Slim,the Crystal Method,Propellerheads,Basement Jaxx andGroove Armada.[1]
Big beat achieved mainstream success during the 1990s, and achieved its critical and commercial peak between 1995 and 1999, with releases such the Chemical Brothers’Dig Your Own Hole, The Prodigy'sThe Fat of the Land, and Fatboy Slim'sYou've Come a Long Way, Baby, before quickly declining from 2001 onwards.[2]
Big beat features heavy and distorted drum beats attempos between 100 and 140beats per minute,Roland TB-303synthesizer lines resembling those ofacid house, and heavy loops from 1960s and 1970sfunk,soul,jazz, androck songs. They are often punctuated withpunk-style vocals or rappers and driven by intense, distorted synthesizerbasslines with conventional pop, house and techno song structures. Big beat tracks have a sound that includescrescendos, builds,drops, extendeddrum rolls, and sounds such as spoken word samples, dialogues from film and TV, additional instruments such as Middle Eastern strings or sitars, explosions, air horns, sirens (usually police sirens) and gunshots. As with several other dance genres at the time, the use of effects such asfilters,phasing, andflanging was common in the genre.
Celebrated pioneers of the genre such asFatboy Slim tend to feature heavilycompressed loud breakbeats in their songs, which are used to define the music as much as any melodic hooks and sampled sounds. Based on the primary use of loud, heavy breakbeats and basslines, big beat shares attributes withjungle anddrum and bass, but has a significantly slower tempo.
The term "big beat" traces its roots to theEastern Bloc in the 1960s. Unlike the 1990s genre, it did not coverelectronic music; rather, it was used to coverrock and roll and its related genres as the terms were not approved by the authorities in the Eastern Bloc countries (theUSSR and its satellite states in theWarsaw Pact). By the 1980s, rock and roll and related terms were already accepted by the authorities,[3] so the term fell into obscurity until its 1990s name revival.
Big Bang were a combination of everything prior and a signpost for what lay ahead.
In 1989, Iain Williams from the English electronic duoBig Bang coined the musical term "big beat"[5] to describe the band's musical style.[6][7][8] Williams explained the concept during an interview with the journalist Alex Gerry in an article published in the London magazineMetropolitan (issue 132, page 9, 6 June 1989) under the heading,Big Bang in Clubland – Could Big Beat be the 1989 answer to Acid House?[9][10] The band was promoting their first record, anArabic-inspired dance version ofABBA's "Voulez-Vous" and their instrumental track "Cold Nights in Cairo"[11] that had just been released on Swanyard Records. The single was produced by Big Bang and Steev Toth. Big Bang are Laurence Malice[12] (Trade nightclub founder)[13] and Iain Williams (writer).[14] The band's sound consisted of various experimental musical elements, including heavy drum beats and synthesizer-generated loops as well as an added suggestion of European influences that at times had a trance-like quality. The band used session vocalists on all their recordings. The concept of the big beat sound was later picked up on and adapted by many club DJs and went on to become widely used by many successful musicians throughout the 1990s.
The name came from our club, the Big Beat Boutique, which I'm tremendously proud of. I always thought the formula of big beat was the breakbeats of hip-hop, the energy of acid house, and the pop sensibilities of the Beatles, with a little bit of punk sensibility, all rolled into one. People like the Prodigy and theChemical Brothers – we saw it as very similar to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, who grew up listening to soul records and blues records and then sold an English version of it back to America.
In the early 1990s, in the midst of several popular musical subcultures, including the Englishrave scene,British hip hop,chillout orambient, gestating subgenres such astrip hop andbreakbeat, along with the emergingBritpop movement – a process of hybridisation and a taste for eclecticism was developing within English dance music generally.[16]
Sampling had become an integral part of dance music production and the fusion of genres appealed to DJs, producers, and fans keen on continued experimentalism within dance music. Record labels such asJunior Boy's Own andHeavenly Records demonstrated this broader-minded approach, releasing slower breakbeat-based music alongsidehouse andacid house singles, introducing DJ-turned-artists such asthe Chemical Brothers (known then as the Dust Brothers[17]) andMonkey Mafia in 1994.
Norman Cook andDamian Harris first became associated with the term "big beat" through Harris's labelSkint Records and club night the Big Beat Boutique,[16] held on Friday nights atBrighton's Concorde club between 1995 and 2001. The Heavenly label's London clubThe Sunday Social had adopted a similar philosophy with resident DJs the Chemical Brothers and their eclectic approach.[18] The term caught on, and was subsequently applied to a wide variety of acts, includingBentley Rhythm Ace,Lionrock,the Crystal Method,Lunatic Calm, theLo Fidelity Allstars,Death in Vegas, and thePropellerheads among others.
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Big beat achieved international success in the 1990s and early 2000s, as many artists identified with the genre released hit records. During the 1990s,The Prodigy had several songs in the top ten of theUK Singles Chart with two of those songs reaching number one on the chart.[19] Their albumThe Fat of the Land went to number one on theBillboard 200 in the US in July 1997[20] and to number one in many other countries, especially in Europe and Australasia.
The Prodigy performed at the1997 MTV Video Music Awards[21] winning the Viewer's Choice Award there.[22] The Prodigy's song "Firestarter" went to number 30 on theBillboard Hot 100 and was a number 1 hit in many other countries, including the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary and Norway. The Prodigy's song "Smack My Bitch Up" went to number 89 on theBillboard Hot 100.[23]The Fat of the Land by the Prodigy sold 2,600,000 copies in the United States[24] and was certified 2× platinum by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[25] The Prodigy's single "Firestarter" was certified gold by the RIAA.[26]
Fatboy Slim also achieved international success in the 1990s. His 1998 albumYou've Come a Long Way, Baby was certified platinum in September 1999.[27] Fatboy Slim's song "Praise You" peaked at number 36 on theBillboard Hot 100 on May 22, 1999, and his song "The Rockafeller Skank" peaked at number 76 on theBillboard Hot 100 on January 15, 2000.[28] "Praise You" and "The Rockafeller Skank" peaked at number 22 on theMainstream Top 40 chart in 1999 and number 21 on theMainstream Top 40 chart in 1999, respectively.[29]
In August 1998, The Crystal Method's song "Comin' Back" reached number one on theDance Club Songs chart.[30] The Chemical Brothers' 1997 albumDig Your Own Hole was certified gold by the RIAA[31] and sold over 750,000 copies in the United States.[32] The Chemical Brothers' song "Setting Sun" peaked at number 80 on theBillboard Hot 100 in February 1997.[33] Their mainstream success helpedExit Planet Dust (1995) andSurrender (1999) sell 331,000 and 402,000 copies in the U.S., respectively.[34]
Big beat also gained prominence in popular culture through its inclusion in major soundtracks. The platinum-certified soundtrack forThe Matrix (1999) featured big beat tracks, selling over 1.4 million copies in the U.S.[35] The genre has also appeared in films such asLara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)[36] and in theWipeout video game series byPsygnosis.[37] The originalWipeout (1995) and its sequels,Wipeout 2097 (released asWipeout XL in the U.S.) andWip3out, featured soundtracks with big beat artists such as The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, Propellerheads, andFluke. This collaboration has been recognised as a pioneering example of cultural crossover between gaming and electronic music.[38][39][40]
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The big beat scene had started to gradually decline in popularity by 2001, due to the novelty of the genre's formula fading.[41] The genre's most successful acts would further change their sound; more prominently, the Chemical Brothers releasing more material with direct house andtechno characteristics (including "4x4" beats which resemble those ofhouse and synthesizer sweeps and noises, marking a departure from their big beat sound consisting of syncopated breakbeats and hip hop samples) inspired by the success of theGatecrasher club and the trance movement, which would reach a commercial peak between 1999 and 2002. However, big beat had left an indelible mark on popular music as an indigenous progression from rave music, bridging a divide between clubbers andindie rock fans. Without this connection, some have reasoned that it would not have reached the heights that it did, or resonated with as many listeners as it did.[42]
