New beat is a Belgian electronic dance music genre that fuses elements of new wave,

hi-NRG Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a music genre, typified by fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the ...

,Simon Reynolds: ''Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture.'' Routledge 1999, , p. 124. EBM and hip hop (e.g.

scratching Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to fade between two record ...

).Timor Kaul: ''Electronic Body Music''. In: Thomas Hecken, Marcus S. Kleiner: ''Handbook Popculture.'' J.B. Metzler Verlag 2017, , pp. 102–103. It flourished in Western Europe during the late-1980s. New beat spawned a subgenre called "hard beat" (a blend of EBM, new beat and acid house)Nikki van Lierop: ''Hard Beat 1st Compilation.'', 1989.
"Hard Beat is the perfect link between Electronic Body Music and New Beat." and became a key influence on the evolution of European electronic dance music styles such as

hardcore techno Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno or hardcore house) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorte ...

and

gabber Gabber (; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of hardcore techno, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as Hardcore, which is characterised by fast beats, distorted & heavier kickdrums, ...

History

New beat originated in Belgium in 1987, and was popular in several music clubs across Western Europe. Sometimes described as "new wave disco beat"Philipp Anz, Arnold Meyer: ''New Beat.'' In: Philipp Anz, Patrick Walder: ''Techno'', Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek, June 1999, , pp. 25–26. the genre has been characterized as a blend of new wave,

, EBM (which also developed in Belgium), and

acid house Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesiz ...

. New beat is the immediate precursor of hardcore electronic dance music, which developed in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany around 1990. Belgium's native form of hardcore that emerged from new beat is also known as

Belgian techno Belgian hardcore techno (also referred to as Belgian techno or rave techno) is an early style of hardcore techno that emerged from new beat as EBM and techno influences became more prevalent in this genre. It flourished in Belgium and influence ...

rave techno Belgian hardcore techno (also referred to as Belgian techno or rave techno) is an early style of hardcore techno that emerged from new beat as EBM and techno influences became more prevalent in this genre. It flourished in Belgium and influence ...

. The genre was "accidentally invented" in the nightclub Ancienne Belgique (AB) in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

when DJ Dikke Ronny (literally "''Fat Ronny''") played the 45

rpm Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

EBM record "Flesh" by

A Split-Second A Split-Second is a Belgian new beat and electronic body music (EBM) band established in 1985. The band is seen as one of the pioneers of EBM and their music influenced the creation of the new beat genre. History The project was born in 198 ...

at 33 rpm, with the

pitch control A variable speed pitch control (or vari-speed) is a control on an audio device such as a turntable, tape recorder, or CD player that allows the operator to deviate from a standard speed (such as 33, 45 or even 78 rpm on a turntable), resulting ...

set to +8. In addition to A Split-Second, new beat was also heavily influenced by other EBM acts such as

Front 242 Front 242 is a Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. Pioneering the style they called electronic body music, they are a profound influence on the electronic and industrial music genres. History Formation Fr ...

Signal Aout 42 Signal Aout 42, also known as SA42, is a Belgian electronic music band. Initially active in the 1980s, Signal Aout 42 became known for producing music in the EBM and industrial styles of electronic music, but into and through the 1990s also inco ...

and

The Neon Judgement The Neon Judgement is a Belgian new wave band, formed in Leuven in 1981 by Dirk Da Davo (born Dirk Timmermans, keyboards/vocalist) and TB Frank (born Frank Vloeberghs, guitarist/vocalist). They have often been cited, alongside fellow Belgian ban ...

, as well as new wave acts such as

Fad Gadget Francis John Tovey (8 September 1956 – 3 April 2002), known also by his stage name Fad Gadget, was a British avant-garde electronic musician and vocalist. He was a proponent of both new wave and early industrial music, fusing pop-structured ...

Gary Numan Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, he released his d ...

, New Order,

Boytronic Boytronic is a German music group that plays electropop. It was founded in 1983 by Holger Wobker and Peter Sawatzki in Hamburg, Germany as ''Kapitän Sehnsucht'' (Captain Desire). The original Boytronic released two synthpop albums: ''The Worki ...

and Anne Clark. Nightclubs such as the

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so we ...

soon made the genre a major success. In contrast to EBM, new beat records did not appear within a certain subcultural context and were mostly produced to enter the international music charts. In Belgium, compilations such as ''New Beat Take 1'' sold 40.000 units. The Belgian sound was re-introduced to the United States market in 1989 as compilation album known as ''This Is the New Beat'', released through Polygram Records. From 1988 to 1990, new beat spawned two short-lived subgenres with hard beat, a style that incorporated more elements of EBM (e.g. The Concrete Beat – ''I Want You''; Major Problem – ''I Still Have a Dream''; Tribe 22 – ''Acid-New Beat''), and skizzo, a techno-influenced style, considerably faster than the original slow new beat style. The most commercially successful new beat groups were

Confetti's Confetti’s was a Belgian new beat band from the 1980s. Producers were Serge Ramaekers and Dominique Sas, sometimes credited as The Maxx (not the same as Maxx, a shorter-lived German project from mid-90s). On stage Confetti’s was fronted by ...

and

The Lords of Acid Lords of Acid is a Belgian/American electronic dance music (EDM) group led by musician Praga Khan. They are best known for making songs with sexual lyrics and sexually explicit tracks, such as their hit " Pussy". History Lords of Acid debu ...

, who received heavy airplay on the MTV Europe show ''Party Zone''. A memorable

novelty song A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and w ...

was '' Qui...?'' (1989) by

Brussels Sound Revolution Brussels Sound Revolution was a Belgian new beat band who had a novelty song hit in their home country with the 45 tours single '' Qui...?'' (1989), which featured samples of the speech Belgian former Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants gave afte ...

, who sampled parts of a press conference speech by former prime minister

Paul Vanden Boeynants Paul Emile François Henri Vanden Boeynants (; 22 May 1919 – 9 January 2001) was a Belgian politician.
Rulers. Retrieved 30 August 2014.< ...

after he was kidnapped by the gang of

Patrick Haemers Patrick Haemers (2 November 1952, Schaerbeek – 14 May 1993) was a Belgian criminal who was member of a gang which carried out robberies of security vans and kidnapped former Belgian prime minister Paul Vanden Boeynants. Biography The son of a ...

. New beat bands include

, Ibiza,

Lords of Acid Lords of Acid is a Belgian/American electronic dance music (EDM) group led by musician Praga Khan. They are best known for making songs with sexual lyrics and sexually explicit tracks, such as their hit " Pussy". History Lords of Acid debu ...

, 101, Public Relations and

Technotronic Technotronic was a Belgian electronic music project formed in 1987 by Jo Bogaert, who originally gained popularity in Europe as a solo artist with various new beat projects, including Acts of Madmen and Nux Nemo. Together with rapper Manuela K ...

, while

Belgian hardcore techno Belgian hardcore techno (also referred to as Belgian techno or rave techno) is an early style of hardcore techno that emerged from new beat as EBM and techno influences became more prevalent in this genre. It flourished in Belgium and influence ...

bands that emerged from the hard beat and skizzo subgenres include Set Up System,

T99 T99 were a Belgium, Belgian music group best known for their song "Anasthasia", which reached number 14 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1991. T99 was initially Patrick DeMeyer, who released three solo works under this pseudonym. However, he hea ...

Channel X Channel X Productions is a UK comedy and entertainment company with a 22–year history of producing programmes for all of the major broadcasters. The company specialises in scripted broken and narrative comedy, comedy-entertainment formats and g ...

Praga Khan Maurice Joseph François Engelen (born 7 January 1959), known by his stage name Praga Khan, is a Belgian electronic musician. Khan is considered one of the leading pioneers of the new beat/acid house/techno electronic dance music scene that origi ...

Cubic 22 Cubic 22 were a Belgian electronic music project, made up of producers, Peter Ramson (AKA Jos Borremans), a veteran of the new beat era, and Danny Van Wauwe, who also went on to issue material under various pseudonyms. The duo were a part of the b ...

, Meng Syndicate and The Immortals.

Modern "new beat"

Modern new beat is known as midtempo bass. Modern artists described as "new beat" include

1788-L 1788-L is an electronic music producer. He rose to fame in 2018 with a remix of Virtual Self's "Particle Arts" uploaded onto his SoundCloud account. Other releases following this include "Multiverse" (with 4AM) and a remix of Daft Punk's "Rinzler ...

, and Rezz.

Notaker David Nothaker (born September 23, 1989), better known by his stage name Notaker (stylized as И O T A K E R), is an American DJ and producer based in St. Louis, Missouri. He is best known for his midtempo-progressive style and for breakout sing ...

described the subgenre as a "fresh sound that’s been generally unexplored in the mainstream electronic realm," further commenting on the versatility of the subgenre, stating "the range of which you can produce in this tempo range can be extremely gritty and heavy to really melodic and beautiful to calm, relaxing and atmospheric." Rezz's studio album ''

Certain Kind of Magic ''Certain Kind of Magic'' is the second studio album by Canadian electronic music producer Rezz. It was released by Canadian record label Mau5trap on August 3, 2018. It contains eight songs, including collaborations with electronic music produce ...

'' peaked at number 12 on the US ''Billboard''

Dance/Electronic Albums Top Dance/Electronic Albums, Dance/Electronic Albums (formerly Top Electronic Albums) is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine which ranks the top-selling electronic music albums in the United States based on sales compiled by ...

and her previous album ''

Mass Manipulation Crowd manipulation is the intentional or unwitting use of techniques based on the principles of crowd psychology to engage, control, or influence the desires of a crowd in order to direct its behavior toward a specific action. This practice is co ...

'' received the Electronic Album of the Year awarded at the

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

s. The Belgian band

Psy'Aviah Psy'Aviah is an electronic rock band from Antwerp, Belgium. Career The band were formed in 2004. Later that year, they won the Studio Brussel Demopoll with the song "The Future of the Sun". In 2007, they teamed up with Len Lemeire (from Imp ...

has opened for

a number of times, and shows New Beat influence in songs such as "In Silence."

Record labels

The rise of the new genre did not only launch new artists; a few new record labels also were set up, especially to release new beat records. They lived a golden era with, despite not being mainstream, massive sales, and not only in their home country Belgium but also in the rest of Europe and specifically Ireland and the United Kingdom. Roland Beelen (Bellucci of the above-mentioned

Morton Sherman Bellucci Morton (Jo Casters), Sherman ( Herman Gillis) and Belluci (Roland Beelen) were among the founders of the New Beat musical trend that started in Belgium and expanded to elsewhere in Western Europe in and around 1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, Fr ...

) and Maurice Engelen (of

) set up Antler-Subway Records. There was also

R&S Records R&S Records is an independent record label founded in 1983 in Ghent, Belgium. R&S represents the initials of Renaat Vandepapeliere and Sabine Maes, the couple that created the label. R&S Records has had several subsidiaries, most notably Apollo Re ...

, launched by Renaat Vandepapeliere and his wife. Other labels include ARS, PIAS, ZYX Records and Music Man.

External links

Belgian Pop & Rock Archives

New Beat Flashback
– Interviews and Information: V.J. Marcel Vanthilt from MTV Europe talks about New Beat and take interviews in English. The rest of the clip is in Flemish/Dutch
Radio Soulwax on New Beat

References

{{House music Electronic dance music genres Hi-NRG Belgian styles of music Electronic body music Industrial music

History

Modern "new beat"

Record labels

See also

External links

References