Trap music is a genre that is starting to gain quite a bit of momentum through the ever growing sub-genres of dance music culture. Although this new found hype towards trap music, or EDM Trap Music as some may call it, has recently emerged, there is a history behind the origin of the Trap genre that is all but new.
Trap music fist emerged coming primarily from the south, a genre filled with a hard attitude that you can feel in the sound of the brass, triangle, triplet hi hats, loud kicks, snappy snares and low end 808 bass samples that are used when composing tracks. The percussion samples of choice when making trap music are usually originate from the Roland TR-808 Drum Machine. When speaking of the “originators” in the trap music game, southern rappers like Waka Flocka Flame, Gucci Mane, Young Jeezy, Three 6 Mafia,and Manny Fresh come to mind. As well as some of the iconic trap music producers like Lex Luger, Zaytoven, and up and comer Young Chop.
However, the new “trap music movement” or “EDM Trap” genre that is evolving has seen the use of techno, dub, and dutch house like sounds incorporated with the inclusion of the original Roland TR-808 drum samples and vocal samples used by the originators. A number of stylistic offshoots of trap developed, which in the latter half of 2012 gained a rise in viral popularity and made a noticeable impact on dance music.
To simply break it down, Trap music would be best described as a combination of:
- 1/3 hip hop (tempo and song structure are similar, most tracks are usually between 70 -110 bpm) – with vocals sometimes pitched down
- 1/3 Dance Music – High pitched Dutch synth work, Hardstyle sampling, as well as a plethora of trap remixed of popular EDM songs
- 1/3 dub (Low frequency focus and strong emphasis on repetitiveness throughout a song)
Modern producers of the new trap music genre that have been emerging above the rest include artists RL Grime, TNGHT (Hudson Mohawke x Lunice), Flosstradamus, Baauer, DJ Sliink, Heroes x Villians, UZ, LOUDPVCK, gLAdiator, and Luminox. And the Trap Music genre continues to evolve as it progresses
