Drum and Bass wasn't born overnight — it evolved from chaos, technology, and community. What began in small underground clubs of early '90s London has become one of the most technically advanced and emotionally charged genres in electronic music.
Let's trace the story from jungle's raw beginnings to the modern precision of DnB and neurofunk.
Late 1980s – Early 1990s
Drum and Bass started with breakbeats — chopped-up drum loops from funk and soul records, especially the legendary "Amen Break."
When UK producers began speeding up these samples to 160–170 BPM and layering heavy basslines under them, jungle was born.
It was the sound of multicultural Britain — Caribbean sound system culture, hip-hop sampling, and techno futurism colliding on dancefloors.
🎧Key Track: Goldie – Inner City Life (1994)
→ A timeless anthem that bridged underground jungle with mainstream recognition.
Mid–Late 1990s
As production tools improved, the jungle sound began to evolve — cleaner, tighter, more precise.
The genre took a new name: Drum and Bass.
Producers started focusing on engineering as much as musicality — perfecting mixdowns, layering sub frequencies, and defining modern DnB structure.
soulful, melodic
High Contrast, Calibre, London Elektricity
darker, industrial, robotic
Ed Rush & Optical, Trace, Dom & Roland
playful, rave-inspired
DJ Hazard, Macky Gee
2000s
In the early 2000s, producers pushed sound design to a new level — birthing Neurofunk.
This subgenre took the structure of DnB and filled it with complex modulation, resampled basslines, and futuristic soundscapes.
Neurofunk became the mechanical heartbeat of Drum and Bass — a dark, cerebral style focused on movement, depth, and detail.
"If jungle was the rebel, neurofunk became the scientist."
2010s
By the 2010s, Drum and Bass was everywhere — from main stages to bedrooms.
Scenes exploded in New Zealand, Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany, where producers and labels built new ecosystems.
DnB had become a global language — precise, emotional, and deeply communal.
brought DnB to festivals and live acts
led the Southern Hemisphere wave
world's largest DnB gathering
Gydra, Teddy Killerz, Enei, Yehor, Warp Fa2e
2020s – Today
Today, Drum and Bass is stronger than ever.
Producers blend styles — liquid meets neuro, deep meets tech, organic meets digital.
AI tools, modular synths, and advanced DAWs have made production more creative than ever.
Drum and Bass has shaped film scores, video games, advertising, and club culture.
It's influenced genres from dubstep to techno and remains one of the few electronic movements where artistry, innovation, and underground spirit still coexist.
It's not nostalgia — it's evolution.
DnB no longer belongs to one sound — it's a spectrum.
What unites it is still the same force that started it all:
the drums and the bass
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"From jungle to neurofunk, from vinyl to digital — the history of Drum and Bass is a story of rhythm, rebellion, and reinvention."
— DnB Doctor