Arthur Baker is perhaps most easily recognized as the father and guardian of the breakbeat in Dance music. Welding Krafterwerk's electronic music to the breakbeats of early Hip-Hop, Baker helped change the sound of the future of Dance music. No longer limited by the four-on-the-floor beat of classic Disco, Dance clubs embraced a range of new sound and emotion.
Arthur Baker entered the world of dance music via the route of club DJ in his native Boston. Although never considering himself a musician, he was intrigued by the art of creating records. This led to in-the-studio instruction in engineering and producing music. His first significant success was the recording Happy Days by North End featuring Michelle Wallace. It reached the top 10 of the Dance chart in late 1981. Groundbreaking success would follow quickly for Arthur Baker. Upon permanently locating himself in New York, Baker signed on to work for Hip-Hop pioneer label Tommy Boy Records as a record producer. One of his projects involved meshing Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express, already popular on the streets and in underground dance clubs, with the emerging Hip-Hop sound. Working with Afrika Bambaata, his group, Soul Sonic Force, and the production assistance of John Robie, Arthur Baker created Planet Rock.
The record was an instant sensation in New York. While making his way into the production field, Arthur Baker had also logged many hours as record store manger, and, through his connections in the retail music world, Planet Rock sold 50,000 12-inch singles in the first week of release. It would eventually become the first million-selling 12-inch single. The record reached the top 3 on the Dance chart in the summer of 1982. More major achievements followed in quick succession. The remake of Eddy Grant's Walking On Sunshine by Rocker's Revenge became Arthur Baker's first number one success on the Dance chart in the fall of 1982. He used the Planet Rock sound for Planet Patrol's Play At Your Own Risk, another top 10 hit. These recordings pioneered the Dance music genre Electro. All of these seminal recordings utilized a style known as breakbeat in which the typical 4/4 beat is broken in some way. The break could be syncopated rhythms, with emphasis on the second and fourth beats, or missing a beat entirely, or using accented half-beats.
By 1983, Arthur Baker was one of the most in demand Dance music producers. His success caught the attention of British group New Order. The result of their collaboration was the Electronic/Hip-Hop blend of Confusion, another top 5 hit. In 1982, Arthur Baker discovered the then-unknown group, New Edition, signed them to a contract, and produced their first album which featured the hit Candy Girl. The New Order and New Edition recordings were released on Arthur Baker's own Streetwise label which quickly became one of the hottest in Dance music. Baker's remix work with New Order caught the attention of other major pop artists. Soon, Arthur Baker would help bring the music of classic Pop and Rock artists to dance clubs across the country.
Arthur Baker remixed Cyndi Lauper's smash hit Girls Just Want To Have Fun and it topped the Dance chart in 1984. He also brought the Cars, Bruce Springsteen and Fleetwood Mac to the top 10 on the Dance chart with his remix skills. Due in part to Arthur Baker's efforts, mainstream Pop music and Dance music moved closer together in the mid-1980's than they had been since the peak of disco in 1978-1979. Never a producer to rest on his laurels, Arthur Baker was aware of the increasing popularity of the ultra-heavy 4/4 beat in the sound of House. Mixing the House beat with a variety of vocal effects, Baker's mix of the Rolling Stones Too Much Blood is often seen as a prototype for Acid House.
Many of Arthur Baker's production and remix projects were pieced together at his Shakedown Studios in New York. The studios not only gave birth to some of the best mixes of the mid-1980s, but also were a training ground for some of the future shining lights of Dance music including the Latin Rascals and Cevin Fisher, among others. One of Arthur Baker's key projects of the late 80's is the recording Put the Needle To the Record, created with the Criminal Element Orchestra. This recording was one of the first to utilize extensive sampling and was later extensively sampled itself in the hit Pump Up the Volume by M*A*R*R*S.
By the early 1990's, personal struggles interfered with Arthur Baker's production work. After taking time off from music production and mixing, Baker was lured back into active production by the new breakbeat revolution taking off in England. Now based in the U.K., Arthur Baker produced hits for the likes of Ash and Babylon Zoo (including a remix of their massive hit Spaceman). Baker also managed to bring the hard-rocking Babes In Toyland to the American Dance charts with their remake of Sister Sledge's We Are Family in 1995.
Recent years have continued to be productive for Arthur Baker. His two-disc Breakin compilation from 2001 is a brilliant combination of his more recent work on disc one and classic mix projects on disc two. A frequent recording collaborator in recent years has been Rennie Pilgrem, an acknowledged leader of the U.K.'s Nu Breaks movement, an extension of classic breakbeat. Arthur Baker's fourth record label, Whacked, debuted in 2002 with Baker's reworking of the 60's classic Hold Your Head Up by Argent.
