About

Amen Break is a six-second drum break from the 1969 song "Amen, Brother" by the funk/soul group The Winstons, which gained much notoriety in the 1980s when a sample was widely used in the breakbeat and jungle genres of electronic music.

Origin

In 1969, the funk-soul music group The Winstons released the song "Amen, Brother" as a B-side opposite of the track "Color Him Father." The drum beat occurs at 1:26 in the song and is separated from all other instruments (shown below).

In 1986, the six-second beat was compiled into the bootleg series Ultimate Breaks and Beats^[4] by Louis "Breakbeat" Lou, featuring a variety of clips to be used with the new sampler musical instruments. Throughout the 80's and early 90's, the sample was widely incorporated in the rapidly growing electronic dance movement, specifically in the breakbeat and jungle genres. On June 26th, 2002, JungleScene Forums^[8] member junglebastard submitted a thread about the sample.

Spread

On September 25th, 2003, Renoise Forums^[9] member Ledger posted a thread asking for advice on recreating the Amen Break. On July 4th, 2004, Urban Dictionary^[5] user karl submitted an entry for "Amen Break," defining it as "possibly the most used and sampled breakbeat of all time." On February 21st, 2006, YouTuber Landon Proctor uploaded a 2004 recording explaining the history of the Amen Break sample (shown below, left). Within nine years, the video received more than 4.8 million views and 8,300 comments. On March 23rd, 2008, YouTuber Jakersoxas uploaded footage of himself playing the Amen Break on a drum set (shown below, right).

On October 7th, 2009, YouTuber malminho uploaded a compilation of three versions of the Amen Break, with each playing at a different speed.^[7] On August 17th, 2011, YouTuber Jungleritter posted footage of himself performing the Amen Break on a drum set (shown below, left). On February 18th, 2012, YouTuber Beat Fed uploaded a 2011 BBC radio special on the sample (shown below, right). On September 30th, Redditor HugeSpaghettiMonster submitted the Landon Proctor Amen Break video to the /r/videos^[12] subreddit, where it received over 2,100 votes (86% upvoted) and 190 comments prior to being archived.

On August 10th, 2013, a page for the Amen Break was created on TV Tropes.^[10] On January 10th, 2015, Redditor N_DNB submitted a post about the sample to the /r/todayilearned^[11] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 3,000 votes (91% upvoted) and 370 comments in the first month. As of February 2015, the music sampling database WhoSampled^[6] lists over 1,450 tracks containing the Amen Break.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

^[1] Wikipedia – Amen Break

^[2] Youtube – Video explains the world's most important 6-sec drum loop

^[3] Youtube – History Of The Amen Break

^[4] Wikipedia – Ultimate Breaks and Beats

^[5] Urban Dictionary – amen break

^[6] WhoSampled – Amen Brother

^[7] YouTube – Amen Break

^[8] JungleScene – Amen Break

^[9] Renoise – Amen Break

^[10] TV Tropes – Amen Break

^[11] Reddit – TIL that exists a drumsolo loop

^[12] Reddit – The Worlds Most Important 6second drum loop