Talk:Big beat

Bad
Bigbeat is term from Czechoslovakia from mid 60s - It means Rock and roll, not alternative rock. Cistimsi (talk) 11:17, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Other uses of 'big beat'
on the Polish Wikipedia,Big beat, is being described as a 1960's rock-n-roll style, is the 90's term borrowed/reborn?

about the Electronica/Big beat dichotomy, I thought (and hear) Electronica being used much more as an umbrella term for alot of style of electronic music, usually either in the media, or by people who are not into a specific scene or genre, whereas bigbeat/dnb/etc resolution is much more common among fans and sceners. --80.178.219.17615:52, January 28, 2005


 * AFAIK Big Beat was a Polish term for Rock'n'Roll somewhere in the 50s and 60s. Dunno really who coined the name, but I agree that it tends to be confusing. --Karkinos 21:24, March 14, 2005


 * In Czech Big Beat was used to designate rock music in the 6Os and 70s, typical Big Beat (or bigbeat, bigbít as it was written) would be the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals and their czech imitators. --Georgius 19:32, 31 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, here in Eastern Europe term "big beat" was almost exclusively used for 60s music inspired by western bands. As for its origin, I suspect this name was used for rock and roll early, before its name established - see 1956 movie Rock,_Rock,_Rock_(film) about 28:00, song "Everybody shout for the big beat". Vid512 (talk) 12:34, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

I've always (like, since the late 80's) heard/used the term to refer to the minimalist sound behind songs like The Go-Go's "Our Lips Are Sealed", the Romantics' "What I Like About You", Thompson Twins' "Hold Me Now" (for a slower tempo version), characterized by arrangements (simple drum tracks, single-note bass lines, light keyboard/guitar melodies). I'm pretty sure we were calling it "Big Beat" even then. Men At Work, Flock of Seagulls, early Pat Benatar. Even Fleetwood Mac's "Hold Me". And compare Heart's "Barracuda" (definite rock beat, layered sound) to "What About Love" (we forgive you guys, we know you were being blackmailed by Sony/BMG) 67.183.66.132 (talk) 21:29, 29 July 2019 (UTC) grayaj23

Big beat (also Big Beat, or sometimes chemical breaks) is a term devised in the mid 1990s...
Uhm. Try 30s jazz.Yeago 20:03, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * I've created a disambiguation page for alternate meanings... Martin Hinks 19:06, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Just as a further note... isn't that Big band?

Big beat vs Chemical
There's a reasonable difference between Big Beat and Chemical Breaks. Just compare The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up or Overseer - Supermoves to say, Crystal Method or Überzone. // Gargaj 13:16, 2005 Jun 20 (UTC)
 * Crystal Method isn't considered Big Beat? I was going to add them to this page. How would you characterize the difference between Big Beat and Chemical Breaks? Alas, I'm not in a position to go out and buy a bunch of CD's to try to characterize the difference myself. :) --Jay (Histrion) 15:00, 6 August 2005 (UTC)
 * i was always under the impression that chemical breaks tracks had more of an acid house feel to them when compared to big beat tracks?--MilkMiruku 23:49, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

ishkur guide think that chemical and big beat didn't are the same thing.

Those are different subgenres of breakbeat. Chemical breaks (Hybrid, Crystal Method) are more artificial (thus the name) and a lot less funky, and big beat is way closer to Funky breaks and it usually features the most popular vocal samples used in Hip-Hop. P.S. When is somebody going to make a Funky Breaks page? - bombac.
 * Yeah, that's a fair assessment, but you also have to consider that almost every sub-genre in electronic music has direct cross over with another, so while Big Beat and Chemical may not be the same, they are close enough to be encompassed by either term properly. Another one that tends to have cross over with both of them is NuBreaks aka NuSkool. Although, my personal choice of describing the difference between Big Beat and Chemical is that Big Beat is more loop and sample oriented whereas Chemical is much more free synth based, but both of them rely heavily on the use of both. I find that most NuBreaks artists tend achieve a Big Beat sound using less loops and samples and more synth, so yet again just another variation. Xao Garrent (talk) 15:53, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

More other uses
I found this article while trying to clarify what "big beat" means after discovering that jazz-rock band the Sumerian Kyngs use the term to describe themselves (http://www.myspace.com/sumeriankyngs). They certainly have nothing in common with Fatboy Slim, apart from living in Brighton. I think what is described here is just one of many meanings.

BTW, "bigbít" (Czech spelling for "big beat") is still a commonly-used term in the Czech Republic, essentially meaning rock'n'roll.

BTW again, what did the Doors mean by "Texas Radio & The Big Beat"? HairyDan 00:20, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Big Beat dead??
"The Big Beat movement died by 2001, due to the genre's nature of playing out samples, and dumbing down the electronica wave of the late 1990s." Ah yes? To me, Kid 606´s "The Illness" sounds quite alive and really Big Beat. Isn´t Breakcore just a new name for sampler-only music? Just a thought. (195.46.251.253 20:07, 28 September 2007 (UTC))
 * Wait, what? Breakcore is just really hard jungle, and like anything with core in it's name, awfully repetitive. If you want to hear the difference between breakcore and big beat, look both up on shoutcast and sample them using the internet radiostations. Xao Garrent (talk) 16:23, 9 December 2007 (UTC) Is big beat still around after "The Big Beat Movement" in 2001? 86.143.29.41 (talk) 20:49, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Big Beat/Chemical NOT Dead
The Chemical Brothers recently put out a new album, which is very good in my opinion, and almost every major artist in the genre (including the Crystal Method with their legendary album Legion of Boom in 2004 and Fatboy Slim with Palookaville, also 2004) has put out at least one new album since the alleged 2001 date of death. I agree with pretty much everything the page says about Big Beat/Chemical except it being dead and the "Jungle's Retarded Cousin" remark. First off Big Beat and Jungle are actually fairly different, and Big Beat/Chemical is slower but much, much more stylized/less generic. I'm not going to edit out the claims of it's death and correct the "Jungle's retarded cousin" remark, but I know I'm not the only one here that can attest to both being incorrect, it sounds like those accusations were made by someone picky who doesn't like some of the newer sounds emerging in the genre. Xao Garrent (talk) 16:10, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

I remember The Chemical Brothers themselves declaring Big Beat dead when their single "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" was released (1999) and that Trance was the next thing.Tchoutoye (talk) 10:31, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Don't forget: That very title managed to get them topping charts again. If they did say that, which I must have missed because I don't remember it myself, they still managed to climb charts with the aforementioned song, meaning that such a statement was probably hasty. Personally I just think Big Beat has been going thru a rough patch, but with new(er) artists like the Rogue Element and Uberzone surfacing and older ones once again producing quality sound like We Are the Night it looks like they could be coming out of it. As for trance being the "next thing," trance has been around for quite some time itself, almost as long as big beat. While alot of Big Beat artists incorporate trance elements into their music (Crystal Method I'm looking at you) it in itself isn't really in competition with Big Beat. The impression I get is that while Big Beat may not be as clearly recognized as the more contemporary genres of music that you hear commonly playing on FM stations, it is still here to stay for quite some time and much like any other genre of music it's bound to go thru rough patches where most of the music being produced is fairly sub-par. As we speak rock is currently experiencing a "talent dry spell" as well, in fact it makes me wonder if they could be related somehow. Xao Garrent (talk) 13:35, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

The Doors and The Cramps irrelevant
"In 1971 The Doors released a song called 'The Wasp (Texas radio and the big beat)', where a reference is made to Big Beat music coming out of the Virginia swamplands. The psychobilly band 'The Cramps' also released an album titled 'Big Beat from Badsville'."

The mention of The Doors and The Cramps is highly irrelevant to this article. The words "Big" and "Beat" are very general and so is their combination. I'm going to delete the references.Tchoutoye (talk) 10:25, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Lineage from acid jazz
Defining music genre is inevitably a matter of perspective but I think the acid jazz side has been understated in the article. Coming from that background, I saw trip-hop emerge largely from that scene and represented by Mo-Wax, Ninja Tune and others. But the problem was that sub 100bpm (sometimes much slower)wasn't danceable so producers started making faster tracks in a similar mould. Listen to tracks like, London Funk Allstars - Can Ya Understand?, Illuminati of Hedfuk - The Worm Turns on Ninja Tune or Peachfuzz - Yer Love on Yo Mama's Nature for examples of 'proto big beat' The acid jazz label's Athletico compilation in 1995 contains music that is effectively big beat but before the term was used. Also, remember that Norman Cook, who came to exemplify the scene, came from an acid jazz background (former band Freakpower).

Around 1995, producers of house music and techno were starting to make music that wasn't 'four to the floor', most notably The Chemical Brothers. It sort of got thrown into the melting pot with what the more acid jazz/trip-hop producers were doing and nobody knew what to call it until the term 'big beat' was coined. The term Electronica was coined in the US, also looking for a label to define a broad range of dance music that wasn't four to the floor. Ullscarf (talk) 18:57, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Term used already in 1950s
Buddy Morrow wrote Heap Big Beat and issued a record The Big Beat already in 1953. It should be mentioned here, methinks. Zezen (talk) 22:40, 26 October 2015 (UTC)


 * This article is about a genre of electronic music which emerged in the 1990s. So, no. It's not intended to cover any historical instance where the common words "big" and "beat" have been used in combination. Also, why the medieval syntax? The construction "I think" replaced "methinks" in common parlance several centuries ago and would be clearer, I think. 62.3.74.142 (talk) 12:11, 4 August 2023 (UTC)

Another source
In Defense of Big Beat, the Annoying 90s Music Genre That Snobs Love to Hate (October 14, 2016) By Jonny Coleman, VICE Johnvr4 (talk) 23:53, 5 March 2017 (UTC) Johnvr4 (talk) 23:53, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

13 bastards?
What's with that reference with link text "13 bastards" and linking to "Peep Show (TV Show)"? Vandalism? Was introduced in https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Big_beat&oldid=904339642 194.94.134.90 (talk) 12:25, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

"Mainstream Success" = Record Sales in the USA?
There's a whole big section on "mainstream success" that apart from one reference to the UK is entirely made up of descriptions of record sales in one country (the USA). Fair enough as an approach for music originating in a particular country, but in this case the genre, and its main protagonists, were from the UK so there is no obvious reason I can see why the description of "mainstream success" should be defined by record sales in one particular, other, country? 62.3.74.142 (talk) 14:11, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

I've started editing this section to add information from other territories to make it less (exclusively) USA centred. I've also renamed it from "mainstream" to "international" since this section is about the genre becoming more successful outside the UK where it originated (and where it was already "mainstream" successful, see the pre-existing intro sentence acknowledging that The Prodigy had already had two number 1s in the UK before the genre became successful worldwide). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.3.74.142 (talk) 12:06, 4 August 2023 (UTC)