Drum and Bass

Drum and Bass, also known as drum'n'bass, DnB, or jungle, is a form of Electronic Music that first came about in England during the early 1990's.

The first thing you need to know about drum and bass is that it's fast. It isn't necessarily the fastest genre of electronic music, but the overwhelming majority of DnB is between 170 and 180 beats per minute. If a song isn't above at least 155, it's not drum and bass. The reason for this—and the second thing you need to know about DnB—is that the genre is built around breakbeats. The Amen break was the focal point of the genre's development, and producers have taken apart and rearranged that break in more ways than anyone can possibly count. However, it's certainly not the only break the genre has made use of.

Originally, DnB sounded pretty much like acid house and breakbeat hardcore, but with heavier bass and Reggae samples. Now, however, apart from the tempo, the breakbeats, and heavy emphasis on bass frequencies, there are few restrictions on what you can do within the genre. Drum and bass can be and has been combined with everything from jazz and RnB to funk, rock, and metal. Its intensity and mood can vary wildly from song to song, spanning from the lush, atmospheric sounds of LTJ Bukem, Fred V & Grafix and Roni Size to the intense, frenetic tracks of Shy FX, the Qemists and Pendulum.

The genre eventually faded out from mainstream popularity during the late 1990's, but still lingered on here and there. Most notably, the Nintendo GameCube demo discs and Nintendo e-Reader of all things prominently featured DnB soundtracks on their menus, helping introduce the genre to a new audience and giving it a new association outside of the club scene alone, while British DnB record label Hospital Records and its co-founders Tony "London Electrikity" Colman and Chris Goss^note London Electrikity is a double act before it became Colman's solo act became known for their appearances as the perpetual in-game label-based radio station in Playground Games and Xbox Game Studios' Forza Horizon series from Forza Horizon 2 onward,^note Degs replaced Colman for Forza Horizon 5, though, keeping DnB alive in the gaming world. This in turn would prompt a reemergence of the genre in the underground electronic music scene by the start of the 2020s, thanks to Gen Z artists such as Cacola and Sewerslvt having grown up during DnB's gaming-driven afterlife.

---

Tropes associated with drum and bass

• Amen break
• Common Time: For all its syncopation and intricate drumbeats, DnB is almost universally in 4/4.
• Everything Is an Instrument
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Brazil is second only to the UK in terms of its influence and prominence in DnB. It's even developed its own locally-flavored subgenre, commonly known as sambass.
• Serial Escalation: The early years of the genre were a musical arms race, as people kept pushing up the tempos and complicating their breakbeats. After a while, though, the tempos settled into their current range, and nowadays the complexity of a song's breakbeats can vary wildly.

---

Artists associated with drum and bass

• μ-Ziq
• 1.8.7.
• 2 Bad Mice
• 4hero (one of the Trope Makers)
• Art of Noise (during the late '90s reunion)
• A-Sides
• Adam F
• Alec Empire
• Alex Reece
• Amon Tobin
• Andy C
• Ant Miles
• Aphex Twin
  • 1996 - Richard D. James Album
  • 2001 - drukQs
  • 2014 - Syro
• Aphrodite
• Aquasky
• Artificial Intelligence
• Bad Company
• Bailey
• Bay B Kane
• B-Complex
• BCee
• Big Bud
• Billain
• Bizzy B
• Black Sun Empire
• Blame
• David Bowie (1996-1998)
  • 1997 - Earthling
• Bou
• Boymerang
• Break
• Breakage
• Breakbeat Era
• Cacola
• Calibre
• Calyx and Teebee
• Camo & Krooked
• Cause4Concern
• Chase & Status
• Coco Bryce
• Commix
• Concord Dawn
• Congo Natty
• The Correspondents
• Culture Shock
• Current Value
• Cyantific
• Danny Breaks
• Danny Byrd
• dBridge
• Decoder
• Degs
• Delta Heavy
• Dieselboy
• Digital
• Dillinja
• Dimension
• Distorted Minds
• DJ Crystl
• DJ Dara
• DJ Die
• DJ Fresh
• DJ Hazard
• DJ Hidden
• DJ Hype
• DJ Marky
• DJ Rap
• DJ SS
• DJ Starscream
• DJ Zinc
• Doc Scott
• Dom + Roland
• Drumsound and Bassline Smith
• Dylan
• Ed Rush & Optical
• Ed Solo
• Evol Intent
• Etherwood
• E-Z Rollers
• Fabio
• False Noise
• FFF
• Fierce
• Flava D
• Flytronix
• Foul Play
• Fred V. & Grafix
• Future Prophecies
• Ganja Kru
• Goldie
• Grooverider
• A Guy Called Gerald (another Trope Maker)
• Heist
• High Contrast
• Hive
• J Majik
• Joe Ford
• John B
• Jonny L
• Jumping Jack Frost
• Kemistry and Storm
• Kenny Ken
• Kings of the Rollers
• Klute
• Konflict
• Kosheen
• Krust
• Lemon D
• Lenzman
• Limewax
• Liquid Stranger
• Loadstar
• Logistics
• London Elektricity
• LTJ Bukem (yet another Trope Maker)
• M-Beat
• Machine Girl (mixed with Hardcore Techno, Hardcore Punk and many other genres)
• Macky Gee
• Makoto
• Mampi Swift
• Marcus Intalex
• Matrix
• Mefjus
• Metrik
• Mickey Finn
• Misanthrop
• Mollie Collins
• Netsky
• Nia Archives
• Nico
• Noisia (one of the genre's most famous groups in recent years - also thanks to their contributions for numerous video games; Trope Codifier for neurofunk)
• Nookie
• Nu;Tone
• Omni Trio
• Origin Unknown
• Original Sin
• The Panacea
• Paradox
• Pascal
• Pendulum (combined with Alternative Rock, and the genre's most commercially successful act by a country mile)
• Peshay
• Phace
• Photek (as well as many other genres like techno, lounge, and acid house)
• PinkPantheress (a more recent artist who combines the genre with many others)
• Polar
• Potential Bad Boy
• Prizna
• The Prototypes
• Q Project
• The Qemists (mixed with Alternative Rock, as well as Nu Metal in Warrior Sound)
• Raiden
• Ram Trilogy
• Randall
• Rawtekk
• Ray Keith
• Remarc
• Roni Size
• Rudimental
• Sci-Clone
• Seba
• Sewerslvt
• Shimon
• Shitmat
• The Shizit
• ShockOne
• Shy FX (one of the acts most outwardly influenced by reggae and dancehall, widely regarded as the Trope Maker and Trope Codifier for jungle music)
• Sigma
• Slipmatt
• Soichi Terada
• Sonohara
• Source Direct
• Spirit
• Spring Heel Jack
• Spor
• S.P.Y.
• Squarepusher (mixed with IDM and nu jazz)
• Stakka and Skynet
• State of Mind
• Stevie Hyper D
• Sven K
• Sub Focus
• T. Power
• Tantrum Desire
• Technical Itch
• Technimatic
• Telemetrik
• T>I
• Tim Reaper
• Total Science
• Trace
• Twisted Individual
• The Upbeats
• Urban Shakedown
• Utah Jazz
• Wilkinson
• Venetian Snares (also breakcore)
• XRS
• Zardonic — mixed with dubstep and Industrial Metal

---