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 Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, Propellerheads and The Prodigy, typically driven by heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns in common with established forms of electronic dance music such as Techno and Acid House.
Big Beat tends to feature distorted, compressed breakbeats at mode...
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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 Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, Propellerheads and The Prodigy, typically driven by heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns in common with established forms of electronic dance music such as Techno and Acid House.
Big Beat tends to feature distorted, compressed breakbeats at moderate tempos (usually between 90 to 140 beats per minute), acid house style synthesizer lines and heavy loops from 60s and 70s Funk, Jazz, rock and pop songs. They are often punctuated with punk-style vocals and driven by intense, distorted basslines with conventional pop and techno song structures. Big beat tracks have a sound that include: crescendos, builds, drops, dramatic sound effects such as explosions or sirens and extended drum rolls. As with several other dance genres at the time the use of effects such as cut-off, phasing and...
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