Trip hop is a music genre also known as the Bristol sound. The trip hop description was applied to the musical trend in the mid-1990s of downtempo electronic music that grew out of England's hip hop and house scenes. It is often rejected as a term by those artists to whom it is applied.

It has also been described as "Europe's alternative of choice in the second half of the '90s", and a one-up fusion "of Hip-Hop and Electronica until neither genre is recognizable." It is thus categorized as a fairly experimental genre, and sometimes with elements of Dance. The style is characterized by the reliance on breakbeats and a sample-heavy, often moody sound pioneered by Coldcut's remix of Eric B. & Rakim's "Paid in Full".

Trip hop gained notice via popular artists such as Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky, Thievery Corporation, Amon Tobin, and rock-influenced sound groups such as Ruby, California's DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Unkle, and the UK's Gorillaz, Howie B., Morcheeba, originating from Hythe in Kent, Londoners Glideascope, New York's Bowery Electric, and Seattle's Anomie Belle are also often associated with this sound. Massive Attack's debut album Blue Lines, is seen as the "blueprint" for the genre Trip hop originated in the mid '90s in Bristol, England, during a time when American hip hop started to gain increasing popularity in Europe along with the then well established House music and dance scene.[citation needed]British DJs decided to put a local spin on the international phenomenon and developed hip hop into a different style, marking the birth of trip hop. The name is meant to suggest the spacey, down-tempo feeling of trip hop music.

Originators in Bristol modified hip hop by adding a laid-back beat ("down tempo") – Bristol's signature sound in hip hop (trip hop's predecessor) was characterized by its emphasis on slow and heavy drum beats and a sound drawing heavily on acid jazz, Jamaican and dub music. Trip hop took root in Bristol partly because of its deeply rooted sound system culture and its relationship with a black identity. It is important to note that, as an important slave-trading centre in the 18th century, Bristol's black community has influenced black British identity for centuries.

Under the influence of American hip hop from the 1980s both black and white British youth became consumers of hip hop. Hip hop in the UK was immediately fused with black soul and elements of dancehall.

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