New Beat is a genre that emerged on Belgian soil which left a legacy for the contemporary electronic music scene. If EBM is gothic and foreboding, then new beat is its kinetic and mischievous offspring. This style of underground dance music took its predecessor, fused it with the rising techno and acid movements of the late '80s, and spat out a wrathfully rhythmic electro sound that inspired an entire subculture still prevalent today. Let's check it out...
Have a listen to some handpicked new beat tracks as you read on...
Recently I deconstructed the genre of EBM, touching on its precursory relationship to new beat. As legend has it, in 1987 a Belgian named DJ Dikke Ronny played the EBM track ‘Flesh’ by A Split Second (first track above) at a nightclub in Antwerp; though on this occasion he slowed the record from 45rpm to 33rpm, and brought the pitch fader up to +8%, igniting a previously unseen energy in the club (Lovett, 2014). The concept quickly spread and soon the infectious, slow-paced groove of new beat was born. The Belgians had created a new sound and carved out a place in musical history books.
Though it wasn't just Belgium's beloved EBM that heavily influenced the new beat sound. Towards the late '80s there was a growing flood of house and acid music coming from Chicago (Norris, 1991). The house movement can be characterised by a danceable 4/4 rhythm and uplifting, steady loops. Acid is a sub-genre of house, distinguishable by the squelchy sounds created by the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer (Snoman, 2014). Each of these styles were pivotal in the evolution of electronic dance music, and their influence is sprinkled throughout new beat tracks.
"There is something divine about it, like the divine synth loops that are reminiscent of Gregorian chants. The quest for God in the shape of music" - Geert Sermon, 2012
Interestingly, it was during the '80s that MDMA began making its way into popular culture. It had gained a small following among psychiatrists, believed to enhance communication and insight with patients (Passie & Benzenhöfer, 2016). Simultaneously, the public discovered other side-effects, and towards the end of the decade it became more widely available on the street. It is possible that the emergence of this drug in the dance scene further contributed to the cult-like success of new beat. "Ecstasy" samples in 101's song Rock to the Beat (above playlist) tend to indicate so (this song also features a good example of the early acid influence).
The rapidly growing scene saw numerous establishments around Belgium grab onto the new beat movement, assisting its permeation throughout the nation. Perhaps the most well-known was Antwerp's shiny new club at the time, Ancienne Belgique. Home to DJ Dikke Ronny, and consequently the birthplace of new beat, AB became synonymous with the sound, with a lot of people initially referring to it as 'AB music' (Norris, 1991).
The burgeoning culture led to an explosion of artists creating their take on the sound, flooding labels with an overwhelming amount of new music (Dhoedt, van Berckelaer, & Deville, 2012). This prompted the emergence of several now-prolific record labels catering specifically to the style (as well as numerous independent ones essentially run out of somebody's garage). Subway Records and R&S Records are two such labels that come to mind, pushing the sound from the beginning.
"The club scene is very big here, with thousands of young people going to clubs every weekend, yet the national radio just plays mainstream rock and pop. The press has only been picking this up for a couple of months because it's such a big scene - they can't just keep on ignoring it. If you can find 50,000 people buying one record without any press or radio pushing it, something definitely must be going on" - Roland Bellucci, 1991
Though for all the success of record sales, being distributed throughout Europe, particularly the UK, and regularly shipped over to the US, the scene remained heavily in the underground. In an early interview with London-based record producer Richard Norris, one of the game-changing new beat producers Roland Beelen (aka Roland Bellucci) proposed that this had a lot to do with the media. Erotic samples, risqué film clips, condoms being handed out with a particular record; all of this contributed to the national media steadfastly ignoring "the most popular musical force ever to darken its doorstep" (Norris, 1991). A good example of new beat's adult themes can be noted in Erotic Dissidents' popular film clip below:
However, Patrick de Meyer of T-99 commented "I think it's good for new beat... (people) play the records to escape from reality - there's still some darkness and mystery in it. If it was always in the press or on TV the mystery would disappear. There is some tension, some voltage. It keeps New Beat alive."
Alive it was... and alive it stayed. Ultimately, new beat is the immediate precursor of hardcore electronic dance music. At the time this was known as rave, though new beat is also considered the inspiration for rave's sister, trance. It is further understood to have greatly influenced techno, particularly the European styles popularised by places like Germany. Over time, very different types of new beat emerged: a very commercial style with a catchy melody, but also a moodier, underground variety (Donskaia, 2011). Due to each track being derived from an eclectic mixture of sources, it’s often very difficult to pin them to a specific new beat genre. It seems during the 90s, electronic music truly exploded in all its forms, and the intertextual nature of this music became very apparent.
Initially, new beat was inflicted with an industrial vibe (coming from its direct EBM influence), with hints of acid and a somewhat dark, yet melancholic electro sound. As was standard at the time, the drum patterns were almost exclusively created with electronic drum machines TR-808 or TR-909.
The sound was slow and rhythmically metronomical, resulting in a typical 4/4 time signature, and a bpm between 90-110. Donskaia (2011) proposes "through its slow rhythm, this sound could put people in a state of a trance, yet still keep you in one steady loop at the same time". The repetitive nature of the contributing elements were instrumental in this fundamental feature, which in a faster form indicates techno.
Through the lens of recent techno and electro trends, the sharp and classic sounds of new beat tend to make a remarkable impact on modern dancefloors. Wrathful as it is deliciously dated, the music helps you embrace the angsty attitude of your inner techno-punk. Many followers have stayed incredibly faithful to the Belgian sound, and many artists are still out there creating a contemporary evolution of the new beat sound. Though, as always, its extremely wide range of influences (now more than ever) is still contributing to it being difficult to distinguish from other styles. Typically it is still identified by its slower 4/4 rhythms and synthesized sound whipping dancers into a trance-like state. The song below is a great example of how the sound still continues to thrive in the current market. The nostalgic drum machines and synths feature heavily, and the song structure remains consistent:
Who would have thought that merely slowing a record down could lead to such a hugely influential genre of music!
Stay Tuned
- TA
REFERENCES
Dhoedt, S. & van Berckelaer, G. (Producers), & Deville, J. (Director). (2012). The Sound of Belgium [Documentary]. Belgium: Visualantics.
Donskaia, A. (2011). New Beat: The Other Belgian Gold. Retrieved from http://strangesoundsfrombeyond.com/magazineitem/new-beat/
Lovett, B. (2014). Belgian House: A Brief History. Retrieved from https://defected.com/news/post/belgian-house-brief-history
Norris, R. (1991). New Beat: one nation under a (slowed down) groove. Retrieved from https://www.mit.edu/people/mattski/Grid/nation.html
Passie, T., & Benzenhöfer, U. (2016). The History of MDMA as an Underground Drug. Psychoactive Drugs, 48(2), 67-75. doi:10.1080/02791072.2015.1128580.
Snoman, R. (2014). Dance music manual. 3rd ed. London: Focal Press.
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