Drum and bass began as a musical paradigm shift of the United Kingdom breakbeat hardcore and rave scene of the late 1980s; and over the first decade and a half of its existence there have been many permutations in its style, incorporating elements from dancehall, electro, funk, hip hop, house, jazz, heavy metal, pop-created fusion of hardcore, house and techno (with a strong accent of both the UK industrial and Belgian New Beat sounds), pioneered by Joey Beltram, L.A. Style, Frank De Wulf, CJ Bolland, Richie Hawtin and others. This scene existed briefly from approximately 1989-1993, a period of cross-pollination with the UK hardcore sound. This sound did survive in various forms in its mother countries - primarily Belgium, Holland and Germany - beyond 1992, but by then the general scenes in these countries had moved forwards to trance, industrial techno or gabba (with happy hardcore/hard house being the equivalent 'Belgian Techno' - derivative sounds in the UK). London and Bristol are the two cities which are most associated with Drum and Bass.

Returning to the UK, drum and bass (as jungle) has its direct origins in the breakbeat hardcore part of the UK acid house rave scene. Hardcore DJs typically played their records at fast tempos, and breakbeat hardcore emphasised breakbeats over the 4-to-the-floor beat structure common to house music. Breakbeat hardcore records such as Lennie De Ice's "We are I.E" (1991), The Prodigy's "Experience" (1992), Rebel MC's "Comin On Strong" feat Tenor Fly (Rough Neck Mix) (1990), 'African' (1991), 'Wickedest Sound' (1991) and "Tribal Bass" (1991), Euphoreal's 'Jungle Music' (1991), Project One's 'Ferrari' (1990), Noise Factory's 'Jungle Techno' (1991), Top Buzz 'Jungle Techno!' (1991), A Guy Called Gerald's 'Anything' (1991) & '28 Gun Bad Boy' (1991), Shut Up And Dance's "£10 to get in" / "£20 to get in" (both 1989), the Ragga Twins' "Spliffhead" (1990) & '18 Inch Speaker' (1991), Genaside II's "Sirens of Acre Lane" (1990) and "Narramine" (1991), G Double E's 'Fire When Ready' (1991), DJ Dextrous' "Ruffneck Biznizz" (1992), Nightmares On Wax's "Aftermath" (1990) and LTJ Bukem's "Demon's Theme" (1992) are generally credited as being among the first to have a recognizable drum and bass sound.[1][2] The very first record would arguably be Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon", recorded in 1989, and is still recognisably 'drum and bass' in sound today.

Some hardcore tracks at the time were extremely light and upbeat; the most extreme example of this were the so called "toy-town" tracks such as Smart E's' "Sesame's Treat" which features the children's show "Sesame Street" theme song. This style of hardcore would many years later be known as happy hardcore.