ABSTRACT
Trip-hop is, in the context of dance music, a relatively new genre that evolved out of Bristol in the early 1990s. During this time, American rap was the predominant musical style that was taking Europe by storm. Since this genre of music requires a heavy involvement in the entire hip-hop scene (hip-hop is actually a culture of which rap is only a part), British DJs and musicians contorted it further. The principle elements behind the construction of American hip-hop were fully embraced with the emphasis remaining on slow, laid-back heavy beats mixed with the gratuitous sampling of old records, but the vocals were left out. This resulted in a genre that was termed British hip-hop by the media, but at this stage it lacked any real diversity, consisting mostly of slow ‘tripped out’ beats and bass lines mixed in with samples of old jazz records.
