BPM and Genres:
From Hip Hop to Break-Beat, Techno to Trip Hop
by
Rob
Wegner
October 2004
The BPM of a
song is not only relevant to beat mixing, it's also strongly
related to music genre. For example, if a DJ raises the beats
per minute or BPM (i.e., the drum beats) of a hip hop song to
approximately 135 BPM, the song's beats become "break-beat."
Alternatively, if a DJ lowers the BPM of a techno or hard house
track to 90 BPM, the song becomes "trip hop."
"Trip hop,"
for example, is characterized as being downtempo jazz, funk,
and soul-inflected break-beats that includes experimental psychotropic
atmospherics (i.e, the "trip" part). Even though trip
hop is not downtempo "techno" and "hard house"
tracks per se, a DJ is able to create -- in a live performance
setting -- a trip hop-like track by simply slowing down the BPM.
A rough guide
showing the relationship between BPM and genre is provided below:
|
GENRE |
BPM RANGE |
|
Hip Hop/Rap/Trip-Hop |
60-110 BPM |
|
Acid Jazz |
80-126 BPM |
|
Tribal House |
120-128 BPM |
|
House/Garage/Euro-Dance/Disco-
House |
120-135 BPM |
|
Trance/Hard House/Techno |
130-155 BPM |
|
Breakbeat |
130-150 BPM |
|
Jungle/Drum-n-Bass/Happy
Hardcore |
160-190 BPM |
|
Hardcore Gabba |
180+ BPM |
As the chart
above shows, music genres are generally confined to a specific
BPM range. For example, a house track would not be considered
"house" (in the traditional sense) if it had a tempo
of 70 BPM. Likewise, a hip hop track would not be considered
"hip hop" (again, in the traditional sense) if its
BPM was pitched up to 140 BPM.
If you're a DJ
that is specialized in a specific genre such as "only tribal
house," it's very unlikely that you'll have to spend time
determining and labeling BPM for the tracks in your music library.
This is because these tracks are already near each other in terms
of BPM range. On the other hand, some genres -- such as hip hop
-- have a wider BPM range and may require a little time calculating
and sorting songs by BPM.
Industry News
Clubbers in Barcelona,
Spain are having microchips inserted in their arm to pay for
drinks. According to the BBC, the rice sized chip emits a low
range radio frequency that, when scanned, connects to the clubber's
personal information in a database. This enables the clubber
to have VIP lounge access and to pay for drinks. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3697940.stm
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