With names like PinkPantheress and Jorja Smith having incorporated the UK dance sound into their music, 2025 has been the year of bassline’s big bounce back — and the trend of today’s biggest stars drawing on the nostalgia of noughties classics to push the scene forward is set to continue into next year. But what has been driving the once-maligned genre’s current revival? 

What is bassline? 

Originating in the early 2000s in South Yorkshire and the West Midlands with pioneers Big Ang and Jamie Duggan, bassline emerged as a subgenre of UK garage and speed garage. With a sound characterized by a 4x4 rhythm, 130–140 BPM tempo, and distinctive rolling basslines created using an M1 organ, the genre broke out of the underground and into the mainstream in 2007. The key songs of bassline’s first wave — "Heartbroken’ by T2 (later sampled by DJ Khaled and Drake) and 2008’s ‘What’s It Gonna Be" by H “two” O feat. Platnum — both reached number two on the UK Top 40 Singles Chart. These tracks — along with DJ Q’s scene-starting hit ‘U Wot’ and Platnum’s "Love Shy (Thinking About You)’"— remain party classics almost two decades later.

The late 2010s and early 2020s revival 

While the late 2010s saw DJs and producers like Skepsis, Holy Goof, and Darkzy solidify bassline as a staple of British club culture, it wasn’t until the early 2020s that the genre fully returned to the mainstream. Introducing a new generation to the sound, Bradford rap group Bad Boy Chiller Crew gained popularity across age groups through social media posts and YouTube uploads. Appealing both to those who remembered the original bassline era and to younger listeners discovering it for the first time, their bassline-leaning track "Don’t You Worry About Me" broke into the UK Top 40 Singles Chart in March 2021. By November, their primetime reality series was airing on ITV. The following year, they scored their first top 10 hit when the bassline-infused "BMW" reached number seven.

2025 has been ‘biggest moment for bassline in 15 years’

With TikTok and Instagram playing a key role in connecting artists with new audiences and determining the popularity of new songs, bassline became one of 2025’s most popular dance music genres. Fuelled by a wave of nostalgia for the sounds of the early 2000s, and likely the carefree mindset of the new Millenium, the scene continued to thrive in warehouses and clubs. At the same time, it returned to the mainstream in a similar way to the renaissance of garage and drum’n’bass in past years.

In a recent Instagram post, DJ and broadcaster Mistajam shared his thoughts on the resurgence of bassline. “It's always been there on the underground,” he said, “but it seems that people are rediscovering the love of a wub bass, snappy drums and R&B vocals”. He added that, just like in its initial heyday, it's the North and Midlands of the UK leading the charge with the sound.

Denon Reed 

At the forefront of the 2025 bassline revival has been Birmingham-based DJ, producer and former rapper, Denon Reed. He started releasing his own music in 2022 and has recently been credited with bringing the original sound back into the charts and the broader music scene. Reed’s moment started in May 2025 when his track "I Need To Know" – which was actually released in September 2024 – had a resurgence on streaming platforms and became the first bassline track to appear on the UK Top 40 Singles Chart in 15 years. While the original peaked at number 49, an April-2025-released edit featuring guest verses from rappers Dizzee Rascal, Silky, MIST and KAV demonstrated the song’s vast appeal as it attracted a raft of UK grime MCs. 

Keen to capitalize on his growing popularity, Reed released another bassline banger, "Let Him Go", in July 2025. Alongside reaching number 36 in the same chart, it led to him featuring on the cover of Spotify’s Massive Dance Hits playlist and achieved more than 6M Spotify streams in just over a month. In late August, as the song was rising in popularity, a remix featuring Tinie Tempah and Bugzy Malone was released, again widening the audience by incorporating rap. 

In terms of Reed’s own growth, Chartmetric data reveals that, from July to September, his Spotify monthly listeners more than doubled – from 791.6k to 1.45 million. In the week of July 20-27, meanwhile, he saw a 400K increase in TikTok Likes, marking a 190.9% rise over the average weekly growth. Impressively, "Let Him Go" has grown far quicker than ‘I Need To Know’ in terms of Spotify streams, despite the length of time since their release: 15M v 11M.

Cru2

This led to Reed launching bassline event series Cru2, which has grown massively – from an audience of just 70 at its second party in December 2023, to welcoming 4,000 ravers to its Birmingham Halloween rave in 2025. During an interview with British radio station Kiss FM, he reflected on Cru2’s story so far. “The club scene was dying out in late 2023,” he said, “so I just wanted to start something new.” He added that, back then, “there wasn’t a place for bassline lovers to go to in Birmingham”.  

Curating and throwing parties has helped Reed – who is also part of the team behind Sound of Bassline Festival, which returned to Bristol and Manchester in late 2025 – to build a large fanbase. Reed and Cru2 also helped bassline go international last year as a new end-of-summer festival “Bassline on the Reef”  made its debut in Tenerife with a generation-spanning line-up. Unsurprisingly, the 2026 edition – which will be headlined by rappers ArrDee and Tinie Tempah – has sold out eight months in advance. 

Jorja Smith 

They aren’t the only big names from different scenes who have jumped on the bassline train. Having embraced bassline with her song "The Way I Love You", Jorja Smith surprised fans with a special guest appearance at Cru2’s Birmingham rave, performing the song (which Reed also remixed) with him. Boasting a music video that pays tribute to Sheffield’s recently-reopened Niche nightclub – which is widely known as the birthplace of bassline – the track broke into the UK Top 40 Singles Chart. 

PinkPantheress

Star-of-the-decade PinkPantheress achieved even greater success with her viral hit "Tonight", which was her "first production attempt of UK bassline". Though it also features orchestral strings and hyperpop vocals, the track reached number eight in the UK Top 40 Singles Chart, has clocked up 70M Spotify streams, and is a prime example of how UK bassline can be infused with pop.

Spotify’s ‘Bassline Bangers’ playlist 

In line with the genre’s resurgence, DSPs have seen their own editorial playlists grow as well. Spotify’s regularly updated Bassline Bangers playlist is stacked with the scene’s biggest current hits from its new wave of producers.

One of its most popular inclusions is "Where Have You Been" by Huddersfield-born DJ/producer REESE, whose high-energy bassline remake of Rihanna’s 2011 global hit single of the same name has clocked up 6M streams. Also high up on the playlist are "Fallin", TS7’s collaboration with Reed, and "Moment", the former’s team-up with popular UK dance vocalist Charlotte Plank.

It’s a similar story on Apple Music, with sceneleaders DJ Q – who released his first bassline-only album, ‘Foundations’, in November 2025 – and Niche resident Jamie Duggan mixing the Pure Bassline and Pure Bassline Anthems playlists. Meanwhile, on SoundCloud, the platform’s curated Step playlist provides a home for all things UK bassline, grime and garage; in a recent Chartmetric feature, SoundCloud’s data analyst told us that tracks tagged #bassline were up 37% in the last two years.

Bassline Symphony 

Beyond increased streaming exposure, bassline had a family-friendly overhaul in 2025; while the genre was once associated with crime, a government-funded event was held as part of Bradford City of Culture 2025. ‘Bassline Symphony’ saw pioneers Jamie Duggan, DJ Q and TS7 collaborate with Katie Chatburn and the Orchestra of Opera North in one of the UK’s oldest concert halls. In a feature for The Guardian, Duggan stated that this performance concept would have once been laughable. “For a while it felt like it was you against the world,” he recalled. “I wasn’t allowed to DJ in most cities. I got blacklisted. It was a terrible time.”

Though you would hope this has been left in the past, bassline DJs are still facing similar rejection. Leeds-based Harry Denton took to TikTok to share that he was unjustly told that he couldn’t play certain clubs because the genre wasn’t commercial enough. 

Future of bassline

However, with the bassline takeover showing no signs of slowing down — Bad Boy Chiller Crew recently returned alongside Dizzee Rascal and S Dog with the bassline anthem-in-waiting “660,” and Bradford producer ManLikeTwin’s viral hit “If You Don’t Want This” has already clocked  nearly 2M Spotify streams since its October 10 release — such outdated perceptions are quickly fading.

Electronic tastemaker Four Tet certainly seems to see a bright future for bassline. In an interview with The Guardian, he predicted that it could be the next dance genre to crack America. “There seems to be a huge crowd ready to experience UK garage and bassline for the first time,” he said. “[It’s] the perfect next thing for the tech house and EDM fans.” 

Whether this idea turns into reality remains to be seen, but there’s no denying bassline’s increasing stronghold on British dance music.