New jack swing

New jack swing, new jack, or swingbeat is a fusion genre of the rhythms and production techniques of hip-hop and dance-pop, and the urban contemporary sound of R&B. Spearheaded by producers Teddy Riley, Bernard Belle, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and Dallas Austin, new jack swing was most popular from the late 1980s to early 1990s.

New jack swing can be defined as "pop music usually performed by black musicians that combines elements of jazz, funk, rap, and rhythm and blues." New jack swing producers created synthesized tunes and sampled beats, using digital synthesizers (such as the Yamaha DX7 and Roland D50), drum machines (such as the Roland TR-808 and LinnDrum, and frequently the Roland R-8) and samplers (such as the SP-1200 and Akai samplers), to lay an "insistent beat under light melody lines and clearly enunciated vocals." The TR-808 in particular was sampled to create distinctive, syncopated, swung rhythms, with its snare sound being especially prominent.