2. UK garage is a genre of electronic music originating
from England in the early 1990s. The genre usually features a
distinctive syncopated 4/4 percussive rhythm with 'shuffling'
hi-hats and beat-skipping kick drums. It combines four-on-the-
floor rhythms with breakbeats. Garage tracks also
commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-shifted or pitch-shifted
vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic
structure at a tempo usually around 130 BPM. UK garage was
largely subsumed into other styles of music and production in
the mid-2000s, including dubstep, bassline and grime.
3. Stylistic Origins Garage house, deep house, R&B, hip house, old school
jungle, electro
Cultural Origins Early to mid 1990s in England
Typical instruments Synthesizer, drum machine, sequencer, keyboard, sampler
Sub genres Speed garage, 2 step garage, breakstep, future garage
Fusion genres Dubstep, bassline, grime, UK funky
4. In the UK, where jungle was very popular at the time, garage was played in a second room at jungle events. After jungle's peak in
cultural significance, it had turned towards a harsher, more techstep influenced sound, driving away dancers, predominantly
women. Escaping the 170bpm jungle basslines, the garage rooms had a much more sensual and soulful sound at 130bpm.
DJs started to speed up garage tracks to make them more suitable for the jungle audience in the UK. The media started to call this
tempo-altered type of garage music "speed garage", 4x4 and 2-step's predecessor. DJs would usually play dub versions
(arrangements without vocals) of garage tracks, because pitch-shifting vocals could sometimes render the music unrecognizable
(although sped up and time stretched vocals were an important part of the early jungle sound, and later played a key role in speed
garage). The absence of vocals left space in the music for MCs, who started rhyming to the records.
