Breakbeats

Breakbeats are drum rhythm sections from musical recordings that are isolated, looped, and reused to create a new groove. They are a fundamental element in many dance-oriented genres, particularly hip-hop and electronic music, where producers and DJs manipulate a short drum break to extend and reframe a track.

Many early breaks come from funk and soul recordings of the 1960s and 1970s. The term "break" denotes the point in a song where the rhythm section is most prominent. Over time, certain breaks became widely sampled, notably the Amen break from the Winstons' 1969 track Amen, Brother, and the Funky Drummer groove from James Brown's 1969 recordings, both influential in hip-hop, breakbeat, and techno.

Techniques include looping a break on turntables or a sampler, adjusting tempo, applying filters, and layering additional sounds. DJs and producers may stack multiple breaks, engineer edits to align kick and snare hits, or re-slice a break to create new rhythmic variations. The term "breakbeat" is also used to describe music built around such percussion loops.

Breakbeats helped shape the development of genres such as breakbeat, breakbeat hardcore, jungle, and drum and bass in the 1990s, as well as later forms of electro, house, and techno that center percussion-driven grooves. They remain a practical and aesthetic cornerstone of many contemporary productions and live performances.

Copyright and sample clearance have long been considerations in the use of breakbeats, leading some producers to create original breaks, use royalty-free libraries, or rely on licensing to avoid legal issues. Advances in digital production have also facilitated the creation and manipulation of breakbeat-derived rhythms.