Trip Hop in the 1990s

Trip hop is a musical genre which was created in Bristol, UK in the early 1990s. It fuses elements of hip hop and house music to create a downtempo electronica style. Although hip hop and house are the obvious influences, trip hop has also been influenced by the wide range of music and culture available in Bristol such as reggae, punk, techno, acid jazz and soul.

As American hip hop began to achieve more and more mainstream popularity, its influence spread from the USA to the rest of the world and Bristol was massively influenced by hip hop due to its association with black culture. Bristol had been used as a port during the slave trade and so had a large black population of African and Caribbean descent. Trip hop was not exclusive to any race however, due to the wide range of influences and its association with rave culture it attracted students, bohemians and fans of electronica, dub and many more genres which were thriving in Bristol.

Originally DJs and producers began creating trip hop to play at after parties of rave nights, for people who had been up and dancing all night to relax. In a similar way to that of rave culture, trip hop became associated with drug use which was common at raves in 1990s Britain. Where rave culture became associated with ecstasy, trip hop became associated with smoking cannabis and chilling out hence the term ‘trip’ hop. Similar to hip hop, the tempo of trip hop is often between 65bpm and 90bpm.

Trip hop production relies heavily on sampling and looping in a similar way to hip hop. Often trip hop producers sample single drum hits and then re use them to create new beats and rhythms – this gives trip hop an interesting mix of organic drum sounds and electronic sequencing. Trip hop often also incorporates hip hop stylistic elements such as record scratching and sample looping.

One of the main differences between trip hop and hip hop is melodic content – hip hop vocals rely on the rap style of fast rhythmic chatter, however trip hop vocals are often long melodic female vocal lines, complimented with orchestral sections such as strings and brass.

Trip hop also draw influence from dub music, a genre which involves experimental instrumental versions of reggae songs. Artist such as Lee Perry pioneered dub with a strange, eccentric style which definitely rubbed off on trip hop. Influences from dub can be heard in the spacious feel of trip hop and slow, laid back downtempo style. Also the heavily shuffled rhythms of dub with plenty of percussion can be heard a lot in trip hop.

The use of deep dubby basslines and spacious reverb and echo effects can be heard in Massive Attacks ‘Karmacoma’:



The use of samples from different records such as jazz, reggae and hip hop records is often used to create textures and build songs in trip hop, alongside drum sampling/programming and sometimes vocal lines and/or orchestral instruments. Portishead were known to layer samples from 60s and 70s records with their vocalist to create a unique sound. Because of the heavy use of sampling in trip hop, the music industry has had to reconsider the way samples are cleared for use and allowed in songs.

Trip hop production is often very lo-fi, with many sounds being made by using lo-fi equipment such as turntables and old records. This gives it an organic and ‘real’ sound which was not present in most electronica due to the use of computer sequencing and drum machines/synthesisers etc. Trip hop artists were known to record to tape and then to their computer, to get a grittier sound. The vinyl crackle was a common sound in trip hop and can be distinctively heard in Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrops’:



Elements of jazz drumming can be seen in the drum programming of a lot of trip hop, using samples of drums played with brushes and rimshots etc. Swung rhythms are also common.

Trip hop explore different harmonic methods such as using a major melody with the instrumentation in a relative minor key. This knowledge and understanding of rhythm and harmony established trip hop as a respected musical form.

Popular artists at the beginning of trip hop included Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. As the sound developed and increased in mainstream popularity, it spread to America and artists such as DJ Shadow began producing trip hop. Bjork has also been associated with trip hop (amongst many genres). Trip hop went on to influence popular artists throughout the 1990s and 2000s such as Kanye West, Kid Cudi, The Gorillaz, and U.N.K.L.E. Bands such as Ruby and Ilya became associated with the subgenre trip rock which involved more rock influenced ‘trippy’ music.