In my last few articles whereas I talked about beat creation, I mentioned some types of beats and I'll give a more distinct understanding about them in this article.

Let's take a recap. In my earlier posts I defined Beats "As the rhythmic movement or speed at which a sound is played". In this I also mentioned some types of beats as well so let's get a look at them.

1: Rock Backbeat

The Rock Backbeat is the founding platform of all other beats. It can be easily defined by an example from the early days of Rock and Roll music.

The Backbeats are the "2 and 4", just like when you're counting 1,2,3,4. The Backbeat is where the snare drum hits. This type of beat is usually a Downbeat as to where the audience claps along or tap their foot to the floor.

This beat is present in Blues, Rock, R&B, Country, Folk, Gospel etc...... The first Backbeat rythms go back to centuries and is traditionally from "Djembe Drumming" from the western part of Africa.

2: Techno Beats

Techno is a genre of EDM(Electronic Dance Music) that is characterised by a repetitive and hard Four On the Floor beat, which is usually produced for the use in a DJ set. This beat can be used as Dance, Disco, House or even pop beat, mostly depending on the beat pattern.

The tempo of the techno beat varies between 120-150 BPM. Music producers use electronic instruments such as sequencers, drum machines or synthesizers to make this type of beat.

This type of beat was first originated in the early 1980's in Germany. Following the UK release of "Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit" in 1988. The term came to be associated with a form of EDM produced in Detroit. The music produced in the mid 1980's by the Belleville three along with Eddie Fowlkes, James Pennington and others is seen as the first wave of techno from Detroit.

3: Reggaeton/Dembow

Reggaeton or Dembow is a musical rhythm that originated from Jamaica. In 1990 when Shabba Ranks released "DemBow" , it did not take long for the Dembow genre to form.

This type of beat takes the driving kick of the techno beat, slows it down and replaces the Backbeat with syncopated hits and ghost notes on the snare. You can hear the Dembow beat on many EDM's and pop songs.

The main elements of Dembow music is it's rhythm, which is somewhat a reminisce of raggaeton and dancehall music, but with a more constant rhythm; ryhtms and melodies in Dembow tends to be simple and repetitive.

4: Dancehall

Dancehall is a genre of Popular Jamaican Music that was made known in the late 1970's. Dancehall was a more sparse version of raggae, which had dominated much of the 1970's.

Major elements of Dancehall are the use of electronic instruments like the electronic keyboard, the drum machine and the use of riddims(Jamaican pronunciation of Rhythm), to which lyrics are added resulting in an unusual process of making music from very seperate components.

Dancehall has a very old history linked with the Jamaicans in the 1970's especially. Dancehall saw initial mainstream success in Jamaica in the 1980's and by the late 1990's it became increasingly popular in Jamaica diaspora communities.

5: Drum And Bass

DnB is a genre of EDM usually characterised by fast breakbeats that are usually around 170-190 BPM, with heavy basslines and sub-basslines, synthesizers and samples.

The genre was made popular in the UK's Jungle scene in the early 1990's. DnB is dominated by a relatively small group of record labels. Major international music labels had very little interest in DnB until BMG Rights Management acquired RAM on February of 2016. Ever since then, the genre has a significant growth in exposure.

The roots and origin of DnB is in the UK, with other fanbase located in the US, South Africa, Canada etc......

I would be writing more about these type of beats in the next article, seeing more depths of music production.