Big-beat (also called big beat, or bigbit) was a 1960s music scene made up of rock and roll, jazz, and twist groups in Eastern Bloc countries.
Genres of American origin, such as jazz, twist, and especially rock and roll were banned or at least hardly tolerated in Eastern Bloc countries in the mid-20th century.
The first Polish band that played rock and roll was Rythm and Blues [pl], formed in 1959, and they were forced by the authorities to disband a year later.
[5] After genre names such as rock and roll were finally allowed in the Eastern Bloc, the term "big-beat" fell into obscurity.
Rather than referring to rock genres, it became the name for a new style of electronic dance music pioneered by artists such as the Prodigy and Fatboy Slim, among others.