i did notice that ever since i started listening more closely to stuff featuring breakbeats, a lot of the way these samples are used can vary wildly when it comes to the genre, style, artist's choice, etc.
a lot of earlier 90s jungle and hardcore breakbeat has emphasis on having a strong rhythm while using breakbeats. some of the music of that era already experimented with lots of variation, slice-cutting, combining different breaks at once, pitch-shifting, etc.
then oldskool breakcore and associated genres like braindance (IDM is the most pretentious music genre name ever, so let's just call it braindance x3) started going crazy with the idea of what you can do with a breakbeat.... and this shit is still going on with this day as i see the ocassional musician on youtube using only breakbeat samples to make entire songs with them.
but then there's the more calm spectrum of breakbeat usage, for example mid to late 90s liquid drum and bass which tends to use them in a more relaxed way. it still has a pronunced rhythm, but it certainly feels less powerful than what preceded it (i don't mean this in a bad way, there are some songs in that genre and era that i love a lot. i'm just trying to describe what i'm seeing there.). they still did experiment with some stuff but it was less ambitious compared to jungle and hardcore breakbeat.
maybe the experimental side of breakbeats was relegated to early breakcore and braindance at that time... i could be wrong though since i wasn't alive when these events happen nor when the 90s hardcore rave scene was alive. feel free to correct me and elaborate more about this stuff.
about the calm side of breakbeat usage.. it's kinda interesting (and unfortunate according to oldskool breakcore fans' opinions) that the name breakcore went from being associated with the most batshit insane sample manipulation and intentionally complex shit, into being the polar opposite of that. idk when and how exactly did this consensus shift over the definition of breakcore happened (i do know that when sewerslvt happened that's when this consensus shift really became apparent though).
a lot of what's considered modern breakcore uses breakbeats that while sometimes distorted, for the most part aren't that varied and are just kinda there i guess. you can even tell sometimes that some of these musicians use canned breakbeat samples that are even memed upon. i can certainly spot that very specific form of amen break on many sewerslvt-inspired works.
i mean it's not necessary a bad thing. some of the modern breakcore musicians might intentionally use breakbeats in this way for their own reasons. i got told that one of the reasons it was done this way in this new form of breakcore is to portray the futility of a repetitive and shitty life that goes forever without changing much.
anyway sorry for rambling
(i'm aware about the numerous controversies involving sewerslvt/cynthoni, i just kinda had to talk about them and show one of their songs as a example since they were one of the people instrumental in the whole consensus change over what breakcore means for a lot of people, and i think it's relevant enough for this topic i wanna talk about)
