British Music Scene: Jungle, Drum and Bass

Shedding light on a music genre from “Over the Pond”.

Booker Grass, Lifestyles Editor

There have been countless music scenes in American history. From the birthplace of Jazz at New Orleans in the 1900’s, the grunge sound that came from Seattle in the 90’s, to the Atlanta rap sound that has created the extremely popular artists, including Future and Childish Gambino.

Our original motherland, England, is not immune from this common event of music scenes development. Many of our favorite styles have came from England, including Punk Rock, Metal, and Progressive Rock. There is also a extremely large movement of electronic music that started in the 90’s, which Drum and Bass and Jungle are part of.  Jungle and Drum and Bass were and still are a form of cultural expression for London’s lower class urban youth. British youth are just like us in the way that we feel. Sometimes, we may not feel like we fit in, or that we are misunderstood.  Drum and Bass and Jungle reflected British teen feelings; it is a notably more dark, less euphoric style of music than many of the other popular British EDM styles.

Drum and Bass and Jungle are extremely similar, and their names are often interchangeable. They both consist of the “Amen Break.” This drum beat (seen below) has been used as the base of both genres.

The genres also consist of low, melodic bass lines, complicated breakbeats, Reggae influences, many samples from a multitude of genres (Jazz, Soul, Samba, Reggae), and a constant BPM (beats per minute) of 150-180.

The music is extremely interesting to listen to, and it is so different from many types of EDM. It would be perfect to listen to while doing a workout on the weight deck, for cramming that giant Bio test, or for driving late at night, pretending to be a background character in Tokyo Drift. The Tom Tom Spotify will have a playlist uploaded showing the best this interesting genre has to offer.