3 processes do the work, set out in the section below: radio support, a chart run, and a long afterlife. None of them produces a canon. No chart or archive certifies the best drum and bass songs of all time, so every such list is editorial opinion and this site publishes none.

One limitation belongs at the top rather than in a footnote. The only chart runs this reference can source are those of Danny Byrd, an English producer from Bath who released through Hospital Records, so every worked example below comes from his catalogue. That is a fact about this site's sources, not a claim that his records are the genre's classics: the records that matter most to drum and bass listeners may well be ones no page here can put a number against.

What makes a drum and bass classic

A drum and bass classic is made by 3 processes, in roughly this order.

• Radio support puts a track in front of an audience that does not follow the specialist scene; a national daytime playlist is the strongest form of it.
• A chart run converts that exposure into a recorded, dated fact: a UK Singles or UK Dance Chart position that stays checkable forever.
• Longevity confirms the verdict, when a track keeps appearing in compilations, films and games years after release.

Only the middle process produces a number, which is why a page that refuses to rank still leans on chart runs.

The genre these processes act on

Drum and bass is electronic dance music that emerged in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s, built on fast breakbeats at 165 to 185 beats per minute with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples and synthesizers. It originated in the UK jungle scene and drew on elements of reggae, dub, hip-hop, breakbeat hardcore, techno and house. By 1994 jungle, a style closely related to and often overlapping with early drum and bass, had entered mainstream UK youth culture, and by 1995 some jungle producers had begun to move away from the ragga-influenced style to make what would collectively be labelled drum and bass.

Classics accumulate across the whole of that field rather than in 1 corner of it. The subgenres the sources name are breakcore, ragga jungle, hardstep, darkstep, techstep, neurofunk, ambient drum and bass, liquid drum and bass, jump up, drumfunk, sambass and drill 'n' bass, and more melodic forms such as liquid funk emerged in the late 1990s, pioneered by artists such as High Contrast. Every one of those 12 styles has records its listeners would call classics, and this site can source a chart run for none of them. The bass drum, the percussion instrument, is a different subject and is not covered here.

The chart runs this site can source

The table below is the whole of the measurable material available here: 5 charting singles from Danny Byrd's catalogue on Hospital Records, released between 2009 and 2011, a sample of 1 producer's work rather than a survey of the genre.

3 details sharpen the table. Red Mist VIP took its UK Dance peak No. 1 in the week ending 25 July 2009. Sweet Harmony, at UK Singles peak No. 64 on 7 February 2010, was Byrd's first UK Singles Chart entry. Tonight also reached No. 75 in Flanders on the Ultratop chart, the one sourced chart placing outside the UK. Inside this sample the UK Dance positions sit far above the UK Singles positions for the same records, which is worth noticing and not worth generalising from 5 singles in 1 catalogue.

Radio support, the first process

Radio support is the process that gets a record heard beyond the specialist audience, and the sourced record shows it twice in this catalogue, a decade apart. In 2000, BBC Radio 1's Fabio championed Danny Byrd's remix of London Elektricity's Wishing Well. On 8 September 2010, Ill Behaviour (feat. I-Kay) was promoted to BBC Radio 1's A-list, with support from MistaJam, Annie Mac and Sara Cox; released on 26 September 2010 digitally and 27 September 2010 on 12 inch vinyl, it reached UK Singles peak No. 36 and UK Dance peak No. 7. Both facts are dated and checkable; neither measures how much the broadcast contributed to the chart position, and this page does not guess at it.

Longevity, where a classic is confirmed

Longevity is confirmed when a track outgrows its release, and Red Mist VIP is the worked example this site can source: after its UK Dance peak No. 1 in 2009 it appeared on Hospital's compilation Sick Music, in the film Dead Man Running and in the games Midnight Club LA and DJ Hero, 4 placements across 3 kinds of medium. Lineage runs backwards as well as forwards: Ill Behaviour's lyrics are based on One For The Trouble by A.D.O.R., and jungle, the scene drum and bass came out of, built its own foundations on the Amen break, among the most sampled breakbeats in that style. A track other records keep touching is the durable definition of a classic.

Why this page names no best-of list

The honest answer to a search for the best drum and bass tracks of all time is that no sourced list exists to give: the genre keeps no register of classics, and the charts record positions rather than merit.

The album side of the same question shows the processes running out of step. Rave Digger reached UK Albums Chart peak No. 68 after its release on 10 October 2010 digitally and 11 October 2010 physically, and Golden Ticket reached No. 181 on the UK chart after 24 June 2013. Supersized, released on 26 May 2008, did not enter the UK Albums Chart at all, and it is the album carrying Red Mist, whose VIP version took a UK Dance peak No. 1 the following year. A record can fail the chart-run process outright and still hold a track that passes the other 2.