UK garage, also called UKG, is a type of electronic music that started in England in the early to mid-1990s. It uses drum-like beats with offbeat hi-hats, cymbals, and snares. Some songs have a steady beat pattern, while others use a different rhythm called "2-step." Many tracks include vocal samples that are cut up, stretched, or changed in pitch to match the rhythm, which is usually around 130 BPM. This music was influenced by styles like garage house, jungle, Jamaican soundsystem, ragga, dancehall, gospel, R&B, and rave culture.

UK garage had subgenres like speed garage and 2-step. By the mid-2000s, it was absorbed into other music styles such as bassline, grime, and dubstep. As UK garage declined, a similar style called UK funky appeared. In the 2010s, the genre came back in popularity. In the early 2020s, a new version of UK garage, sometimes called "new UK garage" or "NUKG," became popular again. This revival is often linked to London-based producer Conducta and his record label Kiwi Rekords.

Origins

UK garage music began in London during the early 1990s. It mixed different music styles, including New York garage house, jungle, Jamaican ragga and dancehall, and R&B. The music was influenced by pirate radio, rave culture, gospel, Baptist churches, and the Black diaspora. MJ Cole once said, "London is a multicultural city… it's like a melting pot of young people, and that's reflected in the music of UK garage."

In the United Kingdom, where jungle music was very popular at the time, garage music was played in a second room at jungle events. After jungle music became less popular, it changed to a harsher, more techstep-influenced sound. This change made many dancers, especially women, leave the events. To escape the fast jungle beats, the garage rooms offered a slower, more sensual sound with a tempo of 130 beats per minute (bpm).

Garage music was often played on Sundays at events, such as at the Frog & Nightgown. This led to the creation of the "Sunday Scene," as promoters could only book venues on Sunday evenings (Friday and Saturday nights were still for faster jungle and drum and bass events). Later, larger nightclubs like Heaven in Charing Cross started dedicating space to garage DJs.

Early supporters of UK garage included DJs like DJ EZ, Dreem Teem, and Tuff Jam, as well as pirate radio stations such as London Underground, Magic FM, Upfront FM, and Freek FM.

An early UK garage track, "Feel My Love" by Justin Cantor and Matt Jam Lamont, was recorded in 1991. It was not officially released until 1993. Tracks that were popular in the breakbeat hardcore rave scene, such as We Are I.E., also began to appear in garage sets, played at a faster speed.

In 1994, DJ EZ started working at Freek FM. That same year, while DJing in a Greenwich nightclub, he played an American DJ Todd Edwards' garage house track "The Praise (God in His Hand)" at a faster 130 bpm instead of the 120 bpm popular in the US. This made the track closer to the tempo of UK hardcore and jungle music, helping to raise the visibility of garage house, which became known as speed garage.

Speed garage tracks had a fast house-style beat, along with rolling snares and reversed basslines that were popular with drum and bass producers. Speed garage already included elements of today's UK garage sound, such as sub-bass lines, ragga vocals, spin backs, and reversed drums.

In 1997, Armand van Helden's speed garage remix of Sneaker Pimps' "Spin Spin Sugar" helped make the genre more popular and is sometimes credited with bringing speed garage into the mainstream.

Todd Edwards' unique sampling style, which used chopped-up vocals and complex rhythms, influenced the genre. Instead of full verses and choruses, he used short vocal phrases and played them like instruments. He often reversed or changed the pitch of individual syllables.

As British producers created their own original tracks, combining elements of Black British, Caribbean, and rave music, they began calling their work "UK garage." The new genre became especially popular on pirate radio stations.

Throughout the 1990s, new garage clubs opened across the UK, with large scenes in Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, and other university towns. By 1996, the UK garage scene had spread to popular tourist destinations like Ayia Napa, Ibiza, and Faliraki.

Speed garage duo Industry Standard reached the top 40 with "Vol. 1 (What You Want What You Need)," which peaked at #34 in January 1998. The 1997 XL Recordings release of Somore featuring Damon Trueitt's "I Refuse (What You Want)" reached #21 in January 1998, with mixes by Industry Standard, Ramsey & Fen, R.I.P. Productions, and Serious Danger. Serious Danger had a chart hit with "Deeper," which debuted and peaked at #40 in December 1997. The Fabulous Baker Boys also had a chart hit with "Oh Boy," which peaked at #34 in November 1997 and sampled Jonny L's 1992 rave track "Hurt You So."

Over time, the 2-step garage sound developed with more funky elements, such as R&B-style vocals, shuffled beats, and different drum patterns. The most significant change from speed garage to 2-step was the removal of the 2nd and 4th bass kick from each bar.

One of the earliest examples of this transition was the 1997 Kelly G remix of "Never Gonna Let You Go" by Tina Moore, which peaked at #7 on the UK chart.

In 1998, Lovestation released their version of "Teardrops," which reached #14. Doolally (formerly known as Shanks & Bigfoot) also had a #20 hit with "Straight from the Heart" the same year. A re-release of this song the following year reached #9, due to the success of their #1 single "Sweet Like Chocolate."

With the support of pirate radio stations like Rinse FM, Ice FM, Déjà Vu, and Flex FM, UK garage became very popular in 1999, entering the mainstream and appearing on music charts. Venues such as Scala, The Colosseum, The Gass Club, Ministry of Sound, and Fabric became closely linked to garage music. UK garage was also popular in clubs in Ayia Napa and Ibiza.

Production duos Shanks & Bigfoot and Artful Dodger were very successful with tracks like "Sweet Like Chocolate" (the first UK garage track to reach number one in the UK) and "Re-Rewind," respectively. Both songs reached platinum status and became anthems for the 2-step garage scene. Other major hits in 1999 included the #1 house/garage anthem "You Don't Know Me" by Armand van Helden.

Da Click (Pied Piper, MC Creed, PSG, Unknown MC, and singer Valerie M) had a #14 hit with "Good Rhymes," while musical trio Dreem Teem had a #15 hit with "Buddy X 99," a garage remix of Neneh Cherry's 1992 song "Buddy X." DJ Luck & MC Neat also had a chart hit with "A Little Bit of Luck" in late 1999 into early 2000.

Many more UK garage artists released commercially successful singles, making UK garage and 2-step a regular presence on the UK charts for the next few years. Debut singles by various UK garage artists reached the number one spot on the UK charts. Craig David's debut solo single "Fill Me In," a mix of R&B and 2-step

Revivals

In 2007, several DJs helped bring UK garage back into the public eye, and producers began creating new versions of the music, called "new skool" UK garage or "bassline." By the end of 2007, "new skool" UK garage became popular again in the mainstream, with songs like T2's "Heartbroken" and H "Two" O's "What's It Gonna Be" reaching the charts. This revival was supported by DJ EZ, who released a collection called Pure Garage Rewind: Back to the Old Skool, which included three CDs of older UK garage music and one CD of newer tracks.

In 2009, a new style of music called future garage began to develop as artists used garage sounds in their work. In early 2011, 2-step garage started to become popular again. Producers like Wookie, MJ Cole, Zed Bias, and Mark Hill (who was part of the group Artful Dodger) returned to the scene, creating music with a stronger 2-step rhythm.

In 2012 and 2013, electronic music groups Disclosure and AlunaGeorge became successful. Their music often included elements of UK garage, and some of their most popular songs, such as Disclosure's "You & Me" and AlunaGeorge's "We Are Chosen," were entirely 2-step with a cleaner sound. Around this time, the original style of UK garage also returned, with producers like Moony, DJD, and Tuff Culture leading the way. Ice Cream Records, a well-known label that created famous UK garage songs like "RipGroove," "Out of Your Mind," and "My Love," began accepting new DJs into their team for the first time.

In February 2019, AJ Tracey's UK garage song "Ladbroke Grove" first appeared at number 48 on the UK Singles Chart. By October 2019, the song reached number three after being released as a single. In September 2019, the British Phonographic Industry certified the song as platinum for selling over 600,000 copies, making it one of the best-selling songs of 2019.

During the 2020s, UK garage and music inspired by it experienced another rise in popularity. Artists such as Fred again.., Interplanetary Criminal, Swimming Paul, PinkPantheress, Disclosure, and Bicep created music influenced by UK garage. In 2022, Eliza Rose's song "B.O.T.A. (Baddest of Them All)" was also recognized as a UK garage track.

Legacy

Before UK garage (UKG) became popular, ragga MCs faced challenges in the music scene but found success through garage music. Simon Reynolds wrote in Energy Flash: "The bold style of the ragga patois voice in fast-paced garage songs like Gant's 'Sound Bwoy Burial' likely helped protect the music from being seen as too sensual or feminine."

The role of the MC, a key part of UKG, comes from the Jamaican dancehall tradition of "toasting" and its lively sound system culture. Like Jamaican dancehall toasters, UK garage MCs are usually masculine and energetic. They interact with crowds, encouraging reactions and keeping their attention in a bold, engaging way. Reynolds described how audiences might shout "Bo!" when they love a song played by the DJ. The MC would then tell the DJ to stop the music, rewind to the beginning, and play it again.

In the late 1990s, producers like Wookie, Zed Bias, Shy Cookie, El-B, and Artwork (of DND) created a dark, intense version of garage music. This sound helped develop both grime and dubstep. Dubstep grew alongside grime, taking the instrumental, stripped-down style of dark garage and adding influences from dub reggae.

Some UK garage producers later shifted to a new sound called UK funky. This style blends elements from soulful house music, UK garage, and soca, along with tribal percussion from afrobeat, all played at a typical house music tempo.

Future garage is a type of electronic music that mixes influences from UK garage and softer parts of 2-step garage. It has an unusual rhythm pattern, with sounds like pitched vocal clips, warm filtered bass tones, dark atmospheres (such as synth pads, field recordings, and other ambient sounds), and the crackling of vinyl records. The tempo usually ranges from 130 to 140 beats per minute, though it can sometimes be slower or faster.