View source for Breakstep

{{Short description|Music genre}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2012}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name              = Breakstep
| stylistic_origins = {{flatlist|
* [[2-step garage|2-step]]
* [[breakbeat]]
* [[drum and bass]]
}}
| cultural_origins  = Late 1990s, [[London]], UK
}}

'''Breakstep''', or '''breakbeat garage''', is a genre of music that evolved from the [[UK garage]] scene and influenced the emergence of [[dubstep]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2008/nov/10/scene-heard|title=Scene and heard: Bring breakstep back|last=McDonnell|first=John|date=10 November 2008|work=The Guardian|quote=Long before dubstep became the popular fare of weed-addled students around the country, there was a genre that helped the transition from the sickly sweet sound of UK garage to the bass-drenched south London sound. That genre was breakbeat garage, now more popularly known as breakstep.}}</ref>

==History==
Breakstep evolved from the [[2-step garage]] sound. Moving away from the more soulful elements of garage, it incorporated downtempo [[drum and bass]] style basslines, trading the shuffle of 2-step for a more straightforward breakbeat drum pattern. The breakthrough for this style came in 1999 from [[DJ Dee Kline]]'s "[[I Don't Smoke]]" selling 15,000 units on Rat Records, until eventually being licensed to [[East West Records|EastWest]] in 2000 and climbing to number 11 on the [[UK Singles Chart]]. Following this came [[DJ Zinc]]'s "[[138 Trek]]", an experiment with drum and bass production at [[UK garage]] tempo (138 bpm). This instigated a dialog between breaks and garage producers, with Forward>> (a club night at Plastic People, London) playing host to [[Zed Bias]] and [[Oris Jay]] (a.k.a. Darqwan). They were mirrored in breaks by producers such as [[DJ Distance]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{UK garage}}

[[Category:20th-century music genres]]
[[Category:Breakbeat genres]]
[[Category:UK garage genres]]
[[Category:English styles of music]]
[[Category:Electronic dance music genres]]
[[Category:1990s in music]]
[[Category:1990s in British music]]

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