Turn It Up: A Short History of Drum & Bass

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Music Uncovered: Turn It Up: A Short History of Drum & Bass: 3. D&B Pops

1. The Birth

3. D&B Pops

BBC - Music Uncovered, Turn It Up: A Short History of Drum & Bass, 3. D&B Pops

D&B steps into the spotlight with multi-platinum albums, awards, and major label love.

D&B steps into the spotlight with multi-platinum albums, prestigious prizes, and major label love. It’s a rags to riches moment. But the scene is torn apart by a devastating loss.

After a period of being shunned by the press, the mainstream makes its first step towards accepting the music. Goldie’s debut album is heralded as a masterpiece, Roni Size and Reprazent face off against the Spice Girls at the Mercury Music Prize, and D&B finds a new home on Radio 1. Suddenly, all the major labels want a piece of the action. It’s a rags to riches moment, but all that success comes at a cost. Then, on the brink of the new millennium, the scene is torn apart by a devastating loss.

Music Uncovered: Turn It Up: A Short History of Drum & Bass

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Music: Dance & Electronica: Drum & Bass

DJ Flight, Storm and other genre-defining contributors tell the story of D&B.

In the mid-1990s, beyond the antics of the Spice Girls and Britpop, an exciting subculture was blowing up. A futuristic kind of music that melded hip hop, rave and dub seemed to appear from nowhere and was suddenly everywhere: drum & bass. Multicultural crowds flocked, often from small towns and sleepy suburbs, to basements in Bristol, London and Coventry to dance to this thrilling new sound. DJ Storm and her partner Kemistry emerged from the Midlands to set up, with Goldie, Metalheadz, a club and record label that stood for D&B's after-hours vibe and the huge cultural influence it went on to have. With the help of fans who were there, she tells the story of a scene that represented the UK more than any 'Cool Britannia' magazine cover, that showed the way for many female DJs, that brought her unbearable tragedy as well as incredible success, and that keeps blowing up, again and again.

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