UK Garage Music Guide: Inside the History of UK Garage

UK garage, or UKG, is an umbrella term for an array of electronic dance music (EDM) and urban music styles that emerged from the United Kingdom’s club scene in the 1990s. The garage house music scene originating in New York in the late ’90s gave rise to several British variants, including speed garage and 2-step, which were all eventually labeled as UK garage for the sake of clarity. The unifying factors in all of these forms were syncopated basslines and percussion—either two kick beats to a bar, or “2-step,” or the 4/4 pattern of house music.

After producing hits by such artists as So Solid Crew, the Streets, and Craig David, UK garage was, like many forms of electronic music, usurped by newer styles, many of which it had helped create, such as dubstep, grime, and UK funky. However, the style enjoyed a semi-comeback in the 2010s, thanks to new music by many of its originators and new DJs and performers alike.

UK garage was a prominent musical genre in the ’90s. Here is a brief overview of its evolution:

• American beginnings: The history of UK garage begins in the United States, where DJs spun an eclectic mix of dance music from different genres, including pop-rock, disco, early hip-hop, and soul, at clubs like New York’s Paradise Garage. Songs played there were known as “garage music,” while more disco-friendly, synth-driven tracks were labeled “garage house” or “house music.”
• From the US to the UK: New Jersey DJ Todd Edwards refined the garage sound further through remixes that made heavy use of “chopped” or manipulated vocal samples. Edwards’s remixes made their way to North London, where DJs began playing them at a faster tempo, resulting in an early form of UK garage called speed garage.
• The rise of UK garage: While DJs like Armand van Helden crafted speed garage hits like his remix of the Sneaker Pimps’ “Spin Spin Sugar,” experimentation with the form by DJs like MJ Cole and Grant Nelson expanded its boundaries in new directions. Altering the beat to a 2/4 signature led to the creation of 2-step, which generated a huge chart hit with the Kelly G remix of Tina Moore’s “Never Gonna Let You Go, while speed garage.
• Entering the mainstream: Constant airplay on pirate radio stations and clubs made 2-step and speed garage tracks—now known collectively as UK garage—into the mainstream and up the music charts. Producers like van Helden and Artful Dodger, DJs like the Dreem Team, and performers like Craig David, Wookie, and So Solid Crew spun UK garage into gold in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
• Decline: UK garage fell quickly out of favor with dance music fans; by 2002, it had been supplanted by the harder breakbeats and darker tones of grime and dubstep. However, a revival of 2-step garage, spurred by early practitioners like Cole, Zed Bias, and Craig David, and newcomers like Disclosure and Jamie XX injected new life into the garage scene in the 2010s.

Listeners can hear the influence of UK garage in many modern genres and artists, including:

• Dubstep: The darker-sounding garage of artists like Wookie and El-B would set in motion both grime and dubstep. The British variant features spare production and elements of dub reggae and jungle, which helped separate it from the heavier American version known as brostep.
• Future garage: The popularity of dubstep was followed by variants on its core sound, including future garage, which pulls from all points on the evolutionary chart for UK garage by referencing 2-step, grime, and other inspirations. Its moniker is less of a label than an intended direction for UK garage by embracing new and old sounds.
• UK funky: A melting pot of UK jungle and breakbeats with African, Caribbean, and Latin influences, UK funky emerged in the mid-2000s and earned brief national acclaim when Crazy Cousins’ “Do You Mind” remix was sampled by Drake’s “One Dance.” Among its leading proponents are Funky Dee and Katy B and Ms. Dynamite’s Top 5 single “Lights On.”

Several distinct characteristics are common to all forms of UK garage, including:

1. 1. The bass: Deep, rolling basslines are a signature of UK garage, especially sub-bass lines, which can have an almost physical impact when heard in a club with a good sound system. On occasion, an organ will double the basslines.
2. 2. The beat: UK garage set itself apart from its predecessor in the dance music scene, jungle, with a slower but still insistent beat of approximately 130 beats per minute (BPM). Whether 2-step or 4/4 (or “four-on-the-floor,” UK garage percussion is defined by a heavy bass kick and a strong snare with open and closed hi-hats.
3. 3. The MC: Since DJs increased the tempo of early garage tracks to create speed garage, they would often play dub versions, which removed the sped-up and indecipherable vocals. As a result, MCs take a cue from Jamaican sound systems and pirate radio and rhyme along with the tracks.

There are many notable examples of UK garage music, including:

1. 1. Armand van Helden: Grammy-nominated DJ/producer Armand van Helden is considered one of the founding figures in UK garage, thanks to his remix of the Sneaker Pimps’ “Spin Spin Sugar,” which topped the UK dance chart in 1997. He has applied the garage sound to remixes for major pop artists like Katy Perry, Pharrell Willams, and Janet Jackson.
2. 2. Craig David: David’s vocal work on tracks by the garage duo Artful Dodger led to a lengthy and successful career as a solo artist in the garage vein, beginning in 2001 with the US Top 40 album Born to Do It. He has returned to garage on numerous occasions, most notably with 2015’s “When the Bassline Drops,” which reached No. 2 on the UK Dance chart.
3. 3. DJ Luck & MC Neat: Garage duo Joel Samuel and Michael Rose, who performed under the stage name DJ Luck & MC Neat (now just Luck & Neat), netted three Top 10 hits for garage in 1999 and 2000, including “A Little Bit of Luck.” A track with Luck and musician Shy Cookie called “Troublesome” is credited as a building block of the two-step sound.
4. 4. Sunship: Ceri Evans, a former member of the acid jazz act Brand New Heavies, took the garage route for his solo career as Sunship. He has netted Top 5 UK hits as a performer (“Cheque One Two,” featuring Anita Kelsey) and producer (Sweet Female Attitude’s “Flowers”).

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