| UK bass | |
| Cultural Origins: | Mid-to-late 2000s, United Kingdom |
UK bass, also called bass music, is club music that emerged in the United Kingdom during the mid-2000s under the influence of diverse genres such as house, grime, dubstep, UK garage, R&B, and UK funky.[1] The term "UK bass" came into use as artists began ambiguously blending the sounds of these defined genres while maintaining an emphasis on percussive, bass-led rhythm.[2]
UK bass is sometimes conflated with bassline or post-dubstep.[3] [4] It is not to be confused with the hip hop and electro-based genre Miami bass, which is sometimes called "bass music" as well.[5]
The breadth of styles that have come to be associated with the term preclude it from being a specific musical genre. Pitchfork writer Martin Clark has suggested that "well-meaning attempts to loosely define the ground we're covering here are somewhat futile and almost certainly flawed. This is not one genre. However, given the links, interaction, and free-flowing ideas… you can't dismiss all these acts as unrelated." Dubstep producer Skream is quoted in an interview with The Independent in September 2011 as saying:
The word dubstep is being used by a lot of people and there were a lot of people being tagged with the dubstep brush. They don't want to be tagged with it and shouldn't be tagged with it – that's not what they're pushing... When I say 'UK bass', it's what everyone UK is associated with so it would be a lot easier if it was called that."[6]
In the United Kingdom, bass music has had major mainstream success since the late 2000s and early 2010s, with artists such as James Blake,[3] Benga, Burial, SBTRKT, Sophie, Rustie, Zomby,[7] and Skream.[8] The term "post-dubstep" has been used synonymously to refer to artists, such as Blake and Mount Kimbie whose work draws on UK garage, 2-step, and other forms of underground dance music, as well as ambient music and early R&B.[9] [10] [11] [12] [13] Outside of nightclubs, UK bass has mainly been promoted and played on Internet radio stations such as Sub.FM and Rinse FM.[14] [15]