A style of breakbeat that arose in the early 1990s. Sometimes called the "stadium rock of electronica", Big Beat features loud, brash and often distorted drum machine and bass tracks, frequently combined with loops taken from funk or heavy metal songs from the 1970s. Most songs have vocals, which like the drums are often up in the mix, and either distorted or vocoded. Among the main purveyors of the style have been The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, and The Crystal Method. Fatboy Slim also does some work in the style.
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