Evolution of Trap Beats

Trap music is characterized by its haunting, gloomy and rough lyrical content which differs across a large canvas according to various artists. The lyrical themes of trap beats typically cater around themes like poverty, harsh experience, imprisonment, street life, and violence.

The music of this kind of beats comes from the usage of different layered hard lined and well-tuned synthesizers which emit sounds which are grimy, crisp have a musical lure to it. Other instruments include usage of symphonic brass, deep 808 kick drums, keyboard instruments and woodwind which are the sole source for the gloomy and haunting tune to this beat. The tempo of a typical trap beat is around 140 BPM.

Trap music proves that music can describe any situation with the power of its tune and words and can literally penetrate the heart as well as the mind of the listeners. They are extremely popular in the western countries and have created a significant place in the hearts of the listeners. Some people are quite addicted to trap music and hardly care to share their ears listening to any music of different genre.

History of Trap Music

Well, the word ‘trap’ typically signifies the life of those people who are heavily involved in dealing with drugs and the difficulty they face in escaping such a lifestyle due to the danger of losing their life. The term trap beats took its birth in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the same place from where some of the most famous rappers like Ghetto Mafia, Dungeon Family, Outkast, Goodie Mob, and Cool Breeze made use of the term trap in their rap. These were among the first rappers who first introduced the term trap and made the world realize the lifestyle of the drug dealers and the world around them. It also throws light on the people who are addicted to drugs and are known to live in Trans. However, the music gained recognition in the 2000s and was considered as a different genre of mainstream music. Number of albums were released which portrayed the life of a drug dealer, poverty, violence and brutality through strong videos and music describing the theme of the album.

A gamut of Southern drug dealers with the rapper persona like Young Jeezy, Gucci Mane, Yo Gotti, and Rick Ross started releasing music albums based on trap beats across the globe and made it popular. More and more people started listening to this music. The actual drug dealers could very much relate their life along with wording and the tune of the music.

As the decade was about to end, a second wave of trap beats came into the music industry. Famous personalities like Kayne West, Jay-Z’s, 808 Mafia, Southside, Lil Lody, Young Chop, R&B (Mike WiLL Made It) and so on maintained a strong position in the Billboard Music Chart. Their songs gained a huge popularity and marked the birth of a new genre popular among the new the generation or youth. Later on trap beats or trap music started being used in dance performances to bring a cutting edge into the dance steps which are widely appreciated in the present time.