What is UK Garage?

UK garage emerged from London's mid-1990s club scene as a faster, bassier reworking of American garage house, blending jungle, R&B, and dancehall influences at around 130 BPM. Its 2-step variant — with a syncopated kick-on-1-and-offbeat-3 pattern — became the defining sound, championed by DJ EZ on Rinse FM. Artful Dodger and Craig David's "Re-Rewind" (1999), MJ Cole's "Sincere", and So Solid Crew's "21 Seconds" (2001) carried it to the UK charts before it splintered into grime and dubstep around 2002.