How Was the Word 'Breakbeat' Used In 1992?

Perhaps you are familiar with the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the de facto authority on the history of the use of the English language. This reference source, staple to every English major out there, documents usage of words, providing a chronology of a given word's entrance into the lexicon. (Yes, San Francisco Public Library subscribes to the OED!)

The Magazines and Newspapers Center was happy to support the OED in its quest in documenting word usage when we received an inquiry from one of its researchers concerning the word 'breakbeat.' Supposedly it appeared in a rock music magazine called Creem, which we have here at SFPL, in the November, 1992 issue. 

First step was to page the 1992 bound volume from off-site storage.

Then the fun began.

Watch the video above for some clips and images from 1992 issues of Creem.

Indeed the word 'breakbeat' appears in the Nov/Dec 1992 article, "Inside Techno: Raving Against the Night" by Tony Fletcher not once but twice!

"The music is a fiercely up-tempo barrage of breakbeat records." - pg 76, column 1

"The sheer pace of the techno scene—the volume of new releases, the rapidly increasing tempos, the divergence into reggae and tribal and breakbeat—all suggest that this music should be burning itself out." - pg. 76, column 2

We look forward to eventually seeing our contribution in the OED entry for breakbeat!