Frank de Buhr

.. The UK, its 1991, a new style is blowing up the spot all over the country - its name is hardcore. Hardcore was a totally new type of music that was nothing like anything before it events occurred in huge fields in the middle of nowhere or in warehouses that someone had just broken into. For these few years the rave/hardcore scene flourished and grew. However, who would have guessed that the scene was doomed. Tracks such as Urban Hype's "Trip To Trumpton" and the Prodigy's "Charly" gained chart success and hardcore music lost its underground culture - it became, some might say, "cheesy". Ravers all over the UK watched as the scene split. Born from the hardcore style were two new genres - happy hardcore and jungle/drum and bass. Happy hardcore is those people who are keeping the vibe alive with the manic pianos and chipmunk vocals. This scene still has a huge following all over the UK, Europe and Australia. The music is much more accessible by everyone than drum and bass, it is sub-divided into: gabber techno, 4-beat, breakbeat etc... Drum and bass is the style characterized by the breakbeat, at first these were sped up hip-hop beats, this sound was pioneered by the likes of DJ Hype and others. Soon DJs and artists were creating more complicated breakbeats and the jungle scene was born. The style passed through phases of ragga - i.e. M-Beat feat. General Levy - Incredible and hip-hop i.e. Ganja Kru - Super Sharp Shooter - before emerging as a style in its own right. The drum and bass scene now in the UK is growing and developing all the time. The house music masses have been served up undiluted drum and bass from Grooverider and LTJ Bukem in the Cream Courtyard, Liverpool, UK. Drum and bass can not only be the music of outdoor events but the refined rollers for UK clubland.