Shortwave: The World’s Most Important 6-Second Drum Loop

A reposting by the blog Retro Thing drew Squally’s attention to this 2004 short video by Nate Harrison. Harrison looks at the history of the “Amen Break,” a four-bar drum solo which was found on the B-side to the Winston’s 1969 hit “Color Him Father.” With the advent of sampling technology in the 1980s, the break became widely disseminated. Slowed down and sped up, the breaks can be heard on tracks like Third Bass’s “Words of Wisdom,” NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton,” and even Oasis’s “D’You Know What I Mean.” The break has also been sliced up into its individual drum beats, which were then rearranged to form the rhythm beds for countless hardcore techno, ragga jungle and drum ‘n’ bass tracks.