Dub music in the context of Errol Thompson (audio engineer)

Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, dub and electronic, traditional, and classical music, for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played (in jazz and some forms of popular music) by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, cello, tuba or keyboard (piano, Hammond organ, electric organ, or synthesizer).

In unaccompanied solo performance, basslines may simply be played in the lower register of any instrument while melody and/or further accompaniment is provided in the middle or upper register. In solo music for piano and pipe organ, these instruments have an excellent lower register that can be used to play a deep bassline. On organs, the bass line is typically played using the pedal keyboard and massive 16' and 32' bass pipes.

Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking composition, beat, and/or structured melody, ambient music uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening, and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre evokes an "atmospheric", "visual", or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and some works use sustained or repeated notes, as in drone music. Bearing elements associated with new-age music, instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer.

The genre originated in the 1960s and 1970s, when new musical instruments were being introduced to a wider market, such as the synthesizer. It was presaged by Erik Satie's furniture music and styles such as musique concrète, minimal music, Jamaican dub music and German electronic music, but was prominently named and popularized by British musician Brian Eno in 1978 with his album Ambient 1: Music for Airports; Eno opined that ambient music "must be as ignorable as it is interesting", however, in early years, there were artists that were pioneers in this genre, like Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Wendy Carlos, Kraftwerk, etc. It saw a revival towards the late 1980s with the prominence of house and techno music, growing a cult following by the 1990s.

Jungle is a genre of electronic music that developed in the 1990s out of the UK rave scene and Jamaican sound system culture. Emerging from breakbeat hardcore, the style is characterised by rapid breakbeats, heavily syncopated percussive loops, samples and synthesised effects, combined with the deep basslines, melodies and vocal samples found in dub, reggae and dancehall, as well as hip-hop and funk. Many producers frequently sampled the "Amen break" or other breakbeats from funk and jazz recordings. Jungle was a direct precursor to the drum and bass genre which emerged in the mid-1990s.

The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they are considered one of the most influential acts in the original wave of British punk rock, with their music fusing elements of reggae, dub, funk, ska, and rockabilly. The band also contributed to the post-punk and new wave movements that followed. For most of their recording career, the Clash consisted of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Joe Strummer, lead guitarist and vocalist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon, and drummer Nicky "Topper" Headon.

The Clash achieved critical and commercial success in the United Kingdom with the release of their debut album The Clash (1977) and their second album Give 'Em Enough Rope (1978). Their experimental third album London Calling, which was released in the UK in December 1979, earned them popularity in the United States, where it was released the following month. A decade later, Rolling Stone named London Calling the best album of the 1980s. Following continued musical experimentation on their fourth album Sandinista! (1980), the band achieved further commercial success with the release of Combat Rock (1982), which includes the US top-10 hit "Rock the Casbah", helping the album to achieve a 2× platinum certification there.

Drum and bass (D&B), also known as drum 'n' bass (DnB or D'n'B), is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s. It is characterised by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers.

Originating in the UK jungle scene in the early 1990s, drum and bass drew on elements of reggae, dub, hip hop, breakbeat hardcore, techno, and house. By the mid-1990s, it had become one of the most distinctive and technically innovative styles within the broader electronic dance music movement. The style of drum and bass often incorporates an array of influences from other genres including ambient, funk, jazz, soul, rock, and pop. The genre has since developed multiple subgenres and maintains both an underground and mainstream presence worldwide.

Trip hop is a music genre defined as a psychedelic fusion of hip hop and electronica with slow tempos and an atmospheric sound. The style emerged as a more experimental variant of breakbeat from the Bristol sound scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s, incorporating influences from jazz, soul, funk, dub, rap, as well as sampling from movie soundtracks and other eclectic sources.

Pioneering trip hop acts include Massive Attack, UNKLE, Tricky, and Portishead. The term was first coined in a 1994 Mixmag piece about American producer DJ Shadow. Trip hop achieved commercial success in the 1990s, and has been described as "Europe's alternative choice in the second half of the '90s".

In Jamaican popular culture, a sound system is a group of disc jockeys, sound engineers and MCs playing music such as ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub reggae, dancehall and ragga. Sound systems are an important part of Jamaican culture and history, especially with the Windrush generation in Britain. Sound clashes involve crew members from opposing sound systems pitting their DJing and MCing skills against each other in venues or at festivals.

UK rap, also known as British hip-hop or UK hip-hop or British rap, is a music genre and culture that covers a variety of styles of hip-hop made in the United Kingdom. The development of UK rap was shaped by a distinct set of regional influences, slang, and grassroots movements that differentiated it from American hip-hop.It is generally classified as one of a number of styles of R&B/hip-hop.

British hip-hop can also be referred to as Brit-hop, a term coined and popularised mainly by British Vogue magazine and the BBC. British hip-hop was originally influenced by the dub/toasting introduced to the United Kingdom by Jamaican migrants in the 1950s–70s, who eventually developed uniquely influenced rapping (or speed-toasting) in order to match the rhythm of the ever-increasing pace and aggression of Jamaican-influenced dub in the UK.

Post-punk (or postpunk) is a subgenre and era of rock music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. The concept was originally outlined by Jon Savage in his "New Musick" editorial for Sounds magazine in November 1977. The term has been noted for lacking a universally agreed-upon definition. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, adopting instead a broader, more experimental approach that incorporated a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-rock influences. Inspired by punk's energy and DIY ethic but determined to move beyond rock clichés, artists drew influence from German krautrock and experimented with styles such as funk, electronic music, jazz, and dance music; the production techniques of dub and disco; and ideas from modernist art, cinema, literature, and politics. They also established independent record labels, created visual art, staged multimedia performances, and produced fanzines. Among the early post-punk bands, only Siouxsie and the Banshees and Public Image Ltd. achieved commercial success in 1978, with debut singles reaching the top ten of the UK Chart.

Regional scenes developed across Europe alongside new wave music, the most notable being the Netherlands' Ultra movement, Germany's Neue Deutsche Welle, Spain's La Movida Madrileña, and the coldwave scenes in France, Poland, and Belgium, as well as the Soviet and Yugoslav new wave. The original post-punk era emerged in parallel with the no wave and industrial music scenes, and later provided a foundation for British new pop and the Second British Invasion in the United States. Post-punk also influenced the development of numerous alternative and independent music genres, including gothic rock, neo-psychedelia, dark wave, dance-punk, jangle pop, ethereal wave, dream pop, and shoegaze. By the mid-to-late 1980s, post-punk had largely dissipated.

Osbourne Ruddock (28 January 1941 – 6 February 1989), better known as King Tubby, was a Jamaican sound engineer who influenced the development of dub music in the 1960s and 1970s.

Tubby's studio work, in which as a mixing engineer he achieved creative fame previously only reserved for composers and musicians, was influential across many genres of popular music. He is often cited as the inventor of the concept of the remix that later became ubiquitous in dance and electronic music production. Singer Mikey Dread stated, "King Tubby truly understood sound in a scientific sense. He knew how the circuits worked and what the electrons did. That's why he could do what he did".

Hopeton Overton Brown (born 18 April 1960 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican recording engineer and producer who rose to fame in the 1980s mixing dub music as "Scientist". A protégé of King Tubby (Osbourne Ruddock), Scientist's contemporaries include several figures who, working at King Tubby's studio, had helped pioneer the genre in the 1970s: Ruddock, Bunny Lee, Philip Smart, Pat Kelly and Prince Jammy.

Lee "Scratch" Perry OD (born Rainford Hugh Perry; 20 March 1936 – 29 August 2021) was a Jamaican record producer, songwriter and singer noted for his innovative studio techniques and production style. Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s development of dub music with his early adoption of remixing and studio effects to create new instrumental or vocal versions of existing reggae tracks. He worked with and produced for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Marley and the Wailers, Junior Murvin, the Congos, Max Romeo, the Heptones, Adrian Sherwood, the Beastie Boys, Ari Up, the Clash, the Orb, and many others.

Horace Michael Swaby (21 June 1953 – 18 May 1999), also known as Augustus Pablo, was a Jamaican roots reggae and dub composer, performer, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He was active from the 1970s until his death. He was known for playing the melodica.

Clive Chin (born 14 May 1954 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Hakka Chinese Jamaican record producer whose work includes recordings by the Wailers, Dennis Brown, Lee Perry and Black Uhuru, among others. Chin was a pioneer in the establishment of dub as a standalone musical form. He is the eldest son of Vincent "Randy" Chin.

Fishmans (Japanese: フィッシュマンズ, Hepburn: Fisshumanzu) are a Japanese band formed in Minato, Tokyo in 1987. They were founded by vocalist Shinji Sato, guitarist Kensuke Ojima, and drummer Kin-Ichi Motegi. Bassist Yuzuru Kashiwabara joined the band in 1988, followed by keyboardist Hakase-Sun in 1990. Kensuke Ojima left the band in 1994, and Hakase-Sun followed suit in 1995. They are known for their unique psychedelic sound, dub rhythms, and dream-pop reverie. Their music is distinguished by the distinctive vocals of the late lead singer Shinji Sato, the textural drumming of Kin-Ichi Motegi, and rocksteady basslines of Yuzuru Kashiwabara.

In 1999, lead vocalist and songwriter Shinji Sato suddenly died, forcing the band to suspend activities. However, in 2005, leader Kin-Ichi Motegi's passion led to the band reuniting. The band continues to perform Shinji Sato's songs. While never achieving widespread commercial success during their active years, Fishmans gradually accumulated an international cult following and wider recognition.