"New Beat"
The term New Beat, first used in the U.S.A. during the early '80s. At the time, this New Beat music was a contemporary genre to techno and house music from Detroit and Chicago respectively, although not intrinsically linked. The Americans at the time used the term to describe those music styles that they never heard before. It was the new beat of the time, the new sound, very different from Hi-NRG disco, New Wave, Synth Pop, Rap or whatever. The term was soon replaced by other terms, so virtually any USA hits once described as "New Beat" are today considered a part of another music style, most of the time simply House or Techno.
The second time that the term New Beat used, was in Europe
First, appeared in Belgium, around 1987, to describe a local music style that mainly developed out of 'Bodybeat' heralded by the early formation of Front 242. When MTV Europe began in the summer of 1987, it bring the term to the UK. In the UK, the term New Beat was used in 1987-1988 for various local Acid House / Techno Rave productions, to point out that this was a new sound of dance music and a less commercial alternative to UK's Eurobeat. Eurobeat was at the time used in the UK for the Stock Aitken Waterman productions. Eventually, the term became mainstream, especially between the summer of 1989 and the summer of 1990, but faded fast after Euro House took over. Because of the relation of the "New Beat" and Acid House in the UK during 1988, the later commercial "New Beat" European productions, sported the Smiley as symbol of love in the British related markets. Various British "New Beat" productions, eventually migrated to the 'Bacalao' scene in Valencia Spain.
Before the term New Beat began to fade (during 1990-1991), it was used one last time to describe many Belgium and German dance groups like Technotronic, Snap, Confetti's, The adventures of Stevie V, McSar & the Real McCoy and Twenty4Seven on the minor European (and related) markets (Greece, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Southern France). The term in this case used again like the way it used in USA almost a decade before to describe the overall "new" dance sound of the time and not so much a music style. It was generally used to fill the "gap" between 80s Eurodisco and the 90s Euro-House).
*Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_beat*
"Acid house"
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, with samples or spoken lines usually used rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed by mid-1980s DJs from Chicago who experimented with the Roland TB-303 electronic synthesizer-sequencer. Acid house spread to the United Kingdom, Australia, and continental Europe, where it was played by DJ's in the early rave scene. By the late 1980s, copycat tracks and acid house remixes brought the style into the mainstream, where it had some influence on pop and dance styles.
*source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_house*
"303"
The Roland TB-303 Bass Line is a synthesizer with built-in sequencer manufactured by the Roland corporation from 1982 to 1984 that had a defining role in the development of contemporary electronic music.The TB-303 (named for "Transistor Bass") was originally marketed to guitarists for bass accompaniment while practicing alone. Production lasted approximately 18 months, resulting in only 10,000 units. It was not until the mid- to late-1980s that DJs and electronic musicians in Chicago found a use for the machine in the context of the newly developing house music genre.Phuture's "Acid Tracks" is widely acknowledged to have been the first Acid House recording to incorporate prototypical TB-303 sounds. Earlier recordings featuring the TB-303 can be traced back as far as the early Electro scene, including artists such as Ice T, Newcleus, and Mantronix, as well as pop musicians such as Heaven 17 and Section 25.In the early 90's, as new Acid styles emerged, the TB-303 was often overdriven, producing a harsher sound. Examples of this technique include Hardfloor's 1992 EP "Acperience", and Interlect 3000's 1993 EP "Volcano".The well-known "acid" sound is typically produced by playing a repeating note pattern on the TB-303, while altering the filter's cutoff frequency, resonance, and envelope modulation. The TB-303's accent control modifies a note's volume, filter resonance, and envelope modulation, allowing further variations in timbre. A distortion effect, either by using a guitar effects pedal or overdriving the input of an audio mixer, is commonly used to give the TB-303 a denser, noisier timbre--as the resulting sound is much richer in harmonics.The head designer of the TB-303, Tadao Kikumoto, was also responsible for leading design of the TR-909 drum machine.
*source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TB303*
