Of all the questions about the genre, the question of how to define it is the most difficult to answer, despite sounding simple and direct. In summary, trip-hop is basically electronic downbeat music. Its most obvious characteristic is its slower tempo, which is generally under 120 bpm. To many people, it is essentially a mix between electronic music and hip hop but generally a bit more experimental than each in that it uses drum breaks samples and ethereal elements. But it's not so simple as that. There can be many other influences as well, including ambient, jazz, acid jazz, underground, funk, soul, reggae, dub, new age, breakbeat and some of the other uptempo styles. However, not all trip-hop songs will have all of these influences. The numbers of influences are many and even the sounds of trip-hop groups vary greatly. The influences will concern much more the artist itself than the genre as a whole thing.

The term “trip-hop” itself was an attempt by the music industry in the mid-1990s to label this highly amorphous genre of music and confine it into absolute terms. However, the trip-hop sound has been around since the early 80s (read the next topic). The term was also closely related to just about groups that came out of Bristol, England. Many people still refer to it as just that, “The music of Bristol.” Trip-hop is contemporaneous music, urban, essentially experimental. There is no simple formula for creating it. It may have vocals or be instrumental, just as it may be jazz influenced or drum n’ bass influenced. The best way to get an idea of what trip-hop is would be to listen to many artists in the genre. After a while you’ll begin to get a feel for what constitutes trip-hop and what doesn’t. Even so, the idea of "what is" and "what is not" trip-hop brings a lot of personnal points of view. The concepts will change a bit depending on who's talking about it. But the main essence will bare reference to the same thing. To read a bit more about this and about the future (will trip-hop survive?) of the genre, read a comment by Rjay from Trippin' in the Dark Internet Radio.

Better than trying to define the genre, anyway, is to tell a bit of its history. The next FAQ will attempt to tell a bit more about the history of trip-hop rather than try to define it.