The Music Family Tree: A "Theory".

[EVLanche]

(Note: This post is based on my own personal research and it’s abridged in some parts for the sake of brevity. I encourage everyone to do the research on their own and if there are any errors, feel free to correct me!)

Hey everyone, E.V. here! 

About two weeks ago, I made this post asking you guys to help me with an experiment because I wanted to see something (and slightly promote my EP which is now on every major music streaming platform, btw :3). It’s now time to share with you some of my findings so far. I don’t have everything figured out yet, but I think I’m onto something! I’m not claiming to be some type of researcher or a big brained person, far from it, but I do like philosophy and doing research!

For starters, let me explain what I am trying to test out. Basically, I’m trying to see the different relationships between genres and why so many genre benders/genre mixes seem to work. The reason I asked you all to listen to my EP and give an opinion is to have as many unbiased opinions as possible and see what’s the first genre that comes to mind when presented with a seemingly unknown genre.  I know a lot of people don’t care about or believe in the concept of genres, but this is largely for people who like to categorize things so they won’t go insane and are also music nerds— just like me, I guess! So, without further ado…

• Let’s start with something (relatively) simple : Hip-Hop!

As you may or may not know, Hip-Hop isn’t just music, but a whole culture and lifestyle! It first emerged in the early 70s during a period of industrial, economic, social decline in the US. Once booming and thriving cities were left to rust and the comparatively richer white people left the decaying buildings behind to the less privileged and segregated black folk. This period left a general feel of depression which, unfortunately, drove the desperate to crimes and gang violence. However, some took a more colorful approach for remedying this depression via music and art! Some of those black folk were Caribbean immigrants, specifically Jamaicans and Puerto Ricans, who brought ideas like mobile sound systems, DJing & MCing, and elements from the Dub music scene which on its own took elements from Soul, Funk, Blues, and of course, Reggae. This helped inspire the black population in these less-than-fortunate areas to sort of “vent” and take to the streets to express themselves in their own unique way. Some took to fashion and going to clubs to have fun and showcase their new outfits, others saw an opportunity in the mute and decaying brick walls to draw beautiful murals and graffiti, some looked at a flattened cardboard box as a perfectly good dancing mat, while others looked at a battered speaker and a turntable that costs a year’s worth of allowance with some of grandpa’s records as a good opportunity to mix some good beats! Like I said, Hip-hop isn’t just about the music, it’s a culture— a culture of “make-do”!

Now, you might be saying “cool story bro, but what does that have to do with anything you?”. Well, think about it! The swagger and defiant culture of Hip-Hop brought to the (turn)table the use of samples which inspired countless genres across the music spectrum to use samples as well. For example, have you ever thought about where the word “break”, in the context of music, comes from?  Well, it comes from a “breakdown” or simply a “break” where in the context of Funk music, for example, the instrumentalists would take a break and allow the drummer to do a breakbeat solo. An example is easily seen in “Amen, Brother” by The Winstons which, speaking of, it can’t be denied that the Amen break is objectively the most sampled piece of audio in human history, which is a title it wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for the early Hip-Hop scene, which in return was heavily based on samples due to its “make-do” attitude, as I like to call it. Oh, and one more fun fact about the word, breakdancers (also known as B-boys and B-girls) get their name from the fact that they tend to leave their best moves to the breakbeat during a dance-off or a set!

From there, you can probably guess the rest of Hip-Hop’s history and its golden age in the 90s. It later spawned the art of rapping which mostly focused on storytelling and rhyming talent, gangster rap which stressed on the “thug life” attitude of Hip-Hop, Trap evolving the latter with a bombastic and defiant vibe, and so on. I can go on forever on how much the modern music industry owes to Hip-Hop culture and the artists involved with it, but this post would turn into a small book!

• But next: Dubstep!

Let’s break down the name: what the hell does “Dubstep” even mean? The Dub part is a little unclear from my research. However, here’s what I’ve got: the name comes from the act of dubbing or doubling where you add an audio track to a film/recording, but it later evolved and was adopted by the Jamaican recording industry to refer to temporary draft disks that a producer would use to test a production before committing to distribution. Those disks are usually called “soft wax” or “dub plates'' because of how they’re usually really delicate (some of which are made out of literal wax to less-than-legally copy a pre-existing record) and usually don’t contain a full traditional composition. With the rise of sound systems and DJing in the 60s and 70s, the technology allowed “Dub Music”, a subgenre of Reggae, to take form. In Dub music, an operator or DJ would take a pre-existing record or a dub plate, strip down and sample or copy essential elements from the disks (usually the drums and bass), and add or manipulate unique sounds like vocals or other instrumentation to a “riddim”, which is the name given to the drums and bass when separated or solo’d from a record.

The “step” part is relatively straightforward to explain. It comes from the fact that the genre heavily utilizes or relies on the 2-step pattern or a variation of it! The 2-step pattern can be seen today in countless genres on the music spectrum, including but not limited to: Drum and Bass, UK Garage, Reggae, Glitch Hop, Trap, Grime, and even Rock depending on the track. It’s a very simple pattern and it’s considered one of the first patterns a drummer ever learns which I believe contributed to its popularity. And thanks to its simplicity, it allows for infinite modification which can add syncopation and groove to an arrangement.

So, that’s all nice and good, but what’s the history of Dubstep and what does it have to do with Hip-Hop? Well, they both share a common origin with Reggae! The only difference is their date and point of origin: Hip-Hop emerging from the US during the 70s and Dubstep emerging from the UK during the early 2000s— but it doesn’t end here! I have a theory about (and proof for) why so many genres seem to just work together, but I will leave it for last. Now, for the history!

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As mentioned, Dubstep has its origins in the UK around the early 2000s and it emerged from the London underground. It took off from the backs of genres like Drum and Bass/Jungle, Garage, Grime, and of course Reggae, among others. It’s debated whether Happy Hardcore and/or Gabber had any influence as well, but it’s likely due to the connection between the Netherlands’ and Belgium’s underground scene and the UK’s at the time. Regardless, Dubstep first took off on pirate radio stations where it was advertised and played. Early pioneers of the sound include Kode 9, Mala, Benga, Coki, Zed Bias, and the figure often regarded as the godfather of early Dubstep and a certified GOAT, Skream. Each producer took their own unique spin on Dubstep as it was still in its infancy and ripe for shaping. Some initially took a “back-to-the-roots” approche and focused on the Reggae influence like Mala, others took a gritty and sinister sound like Skream. But then you have Burial who took Dubstep in a Garage-y direction and made it sound almost meditative and melancholic, which was a huge inspiration for my Slugstep EP! I can go at length on why Burial is a genius, but that would steer the topic of the post. I instead highly recommend you listen to his self-titled album and my personal favorite Untrue. You won’t regret it!

All of these producers wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for the highly influential “Forward>>” night hosted at the Velvet Rooms club and later moved to the Plastic People club. The event was managed by Ammunation Promotions who also held a number of what would be considered today as “Proto-Dubstep Labels”. The night’s goal was to help incubate and showcase up and coming artists and their music; a goal they majorly succeeded in! It’s unclear whether Ammunation is still holding these nights at Plastic People to this day based on my knowledge, but it’s unlikely due to the general decline of club goers and several pandemics passing over since its hayday. 

From there, Dubstep’s history is fairly well known. The popularity of Dubstep spilled over to the US and Skrillex stole the light with his iconic “Brostep” style, which on its own spawned countless microgenres like Drumstep, (modern) Riddim, Tearout, Color Bass, and arguably Future Bass too. Today, it seems things have gone full circle with listeners coming back to the original Dubstep sound with artists like James Blake and HAMDI helping its revival with a seemingly new, more distinct name: UK Dubstep/Post-Dubstep.

• One more genre: Drum and Bass!

Before I reach the conclusion of this post, let me cover one more genre which is close to me personally: Drum and Bass (hereafter referred to as DnB). The genre can trace its origin back to two older genres which on their own represent a generation or an era in the genre’s lifespan.These two genres are Breakbeat Hardcore and Jungle which are considered the grandfather and father of DnB respectively. Breakbeat Hardcore (hereafter referred to as BH) first spawned from the UK rave sense in the late 80s and early 90s which spilled over to the Dutch and Belgian scene where they would later evolve to genres like Gabber, Happy Hardcore, Hardstyle, and even some hybrid Techno genres. As the name implies, BH mainly utilizes manipulated and chopped up breakbeats from Funk, RnB, Soul, and even Hip-Hop records! Despite this, however, sometimes a breakbeat can take a supportive role and let a big, heavily distorted kick-and-bass pattern do the job of anchoring the rhythm and groove of a track. It’s also common to encounter iconic sounds in BH such as the Reese Bass, Hoover, FM Donk bass, Acid bass, the entirety of the 808 Drum kit, and many other sounds. We can’t also forget about the classic technique of pitching up MC vocal samples and using movie quotes! Hell, if you “asked Uncle Jack Sparrow for a copy of Ableton” at some point, or any other software, you’ve probably listened to a BH track in one of the keygens, though it largely depends. The genre was pioneered by artists like The Prodigy, Noise Factory, Ragga Twins, and Rebel MC which all have gone and developed their own signature style. Some would even move to producing Jungle eventually!

Speaking of which, Jungle would later develop as an offshoot of BH, focusing more on the breakbeat and bass aspects of the genre. But what makes Jungle unique from BH is its almost exclusive use of samples which is a trait likely inspired by Hip-Hop. While BH did utilize samples as mentioned earlier, it wasn’t as overwhelming as Jungle. The reliance on samples arguably helped Jungle become more popular and easier to produce especially with the advent of hardware like the “Akai S900/S950” samplers, which had a big part in shaping the techniques and sounds of Jungle. It’s unclear where Jungle got its name from, but a common theory suggests that it was originally used as a derogatory term to loosely describe music made by black folk. However, with its rise to popularity and unique name, it quickly caught on and became widespread among fans, ultimately reclaiming the name.

Being the father of DnB, Jungle come with what would you expect from its ancestor: Break-neck Breakbeats ranging between 160-170 BPM, syncopated 808s and/or bassline, sparse yet consistent ambience & FXs, Synths, and lots of samples which at the time were accessed digitally via CDs and Floppy Disks. Records were still used extensively in Jungle for the culture, but they were on their way out at this point thanks to early digitization efforts.

Now, I could list a whole page of influential figures in Jungle, but here are some of my favorites: Photek, DJ Ron, Origin Unknown, Shy FX, Intense, Tom & Jerry, Aphrodite, Renegade, and most notably Dillinja (Notice how most Jungle artists had their origins in BH). Each artist would develop their own style of Jungle from the Jazzy, to the dubby, to even the techy! Unfortunately, Jungle would decline with the advent of DnB, but it still holds a dedicated fanbase keeping it alive to this day, including myself!

Speaking of DnB, I think it doesn’t need any introduction! It basically takes the idea of Jungle and develops it further into something gritty, even faster, dark, and in-your-face— at least, initially. Thanks to big labels in the mid 90s and early 2000s like Metalheadz, Hospital Records, Rams Records, UFK, and most recently Liquicity, DnB has never been so diverse with so many subgenres and even microgenres. For example, you’ve got: Neurofunk, Liquid, Half-step, Techstep, Choppage, Breakcore, Drumstep (arguably), Jump-Up, Drumfunk, Drill n’ Bass, and much more! Early DnB artists include: Bad Company UK, Sub Focus, Noisia, Teddy Killerz, Nasty Habits, Konflict, IMANU, Ed Rush, Optical, among many others. I wish I could say more about DnB, but I don’t really have anything new to add! DnB just kind of kicked the door in the mid 90s and early 2000s so loud that its mere presence is enough to speak for it. Hell, I bet that even if someone doesn’t know what DnB is, chances are that they will instantly recognize it upon listening to an example. Which, hey, if that’s the case, no problem at all! I would be more than happy sharing some of my all-time favorites!

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• Grand Conclusion:

So, after laying down all the facts, we probably all can come to the conclusion that all of the three genres mentioned above share a “common ancestor” in Reggae. Which raises the question, would a modern genre like Neurofunk benefit from a Hip-Hop element like rapping, for example? Or would a House track benefit from Reggae and/or breakbeat samples? Well, considering everything we’ve established so far, it should work! And sure enough, it does! Tracks like “We Speak No Americano”, Noisia & Foreign Beggars’ “ShellShock”, and 100 Gecs’...entire discography all prove that it could happen. It’s just a matter of tracing the lineage of a genre, much like a family tree! That said, this implies the existence of “bastardization” between genres which in my opinion can be explained with the existence of “Hybrid Genres” like Nu Metal, Orchestral Dubstep, Rap Pop, Fusion Jazz/funk, etc. These genres can’t exist on their own and need a link between two preexisting, related genres in order to exist. You now probably know what I mean with “bastardization” in this context, but I won’t outright say it out of respect. Now, I’m not necessarily saying that Hybrid Genres are bad, far from it, but I’m using the word in a more literal sense because all music eventually had to stem from one nebulous common— which is the base for my entire argument here!

Now, I’m not necessarily proposing a “theory” here, as I almost guarantee you that it already exists somewhere, but this is just my idea of looking at music genres and how they can potentially develop. The most recent example of this idea working out is Phonk which almost immediately splintered to many subgenres like Phonk House, Drift Phonk, Brazilian Phonk, Phonkwave, among others. And based on this example and what we’ve established so far in this post, I now see no reason why a mixed genre won’t work and I hope you see that too! Though, I would love for this idea to be tested and see if it truly works or not. It would be fun to try and map out the stylistic origins of a genre!

Thanks for reading and I hope you’ve at least learned something new. And if not, I hope this article wasn’t too annoying or boring and I wish you a nice day and good luck with whatever you’re doing!

(Special thanks to @xXGothicFluttershyXx, @ADR3-N, @JuanDeAlbaXAS, @YendorBear, @OVERSCORE, @Karabast, and many others for motivating me to research this topic, even if it was indirectly!)