Music / Styles A–Z / Electronic and new · 33 of 35
Trip hop
Trip hop is a slow, atmospheric fusion of hip-hop and electronica, born in Bristol in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with dub-style bass under a laid-back, heavy beat.
- Where and when
- Bristol, England, late 1980s to early 1990s
- Tempo
- Slow, "down tempo"
- Played on
- Breakbeats, samples, dub bass, Rhodes piano, horns, strings
- Lesson
- Electronic and new →
What it is
Trip hop is a psychedelic fusion of hip-hop and electronica with slow tempos and an atmospheric sound, born in Bristol in the late 1980s and early 1990s as an experimental strand of breakbeat. The name was first used in Mixmag in June 1994, about DJ Shadow's 1993 single "In/Flux".
For the producer. Bristol's sound-system DJs drew on dub: a laid-back, slow, heavy drum beat with dub-style bass. Tracks often add Rhodes piano, saxophone, trumpet and flute, and sometimes theremin or Mellotron.
The records that made it
From the lesson Electronic and new, where the sources are listed · links open a search
- 1991Blue LinesMassive Attack
- 1994ProtectionMassive Attack
- 1994DummyPortishead
- 1995MaxinquayeTricky
Trip hop in this month’s records
New releases the press we read wrote about, tagged trip hop on MusicBrainz · updated with every build