A break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece. According to David Toop (1991), "the word break or breaking is a music and dance term (as well as a proverb) that goes back a long way. Some tunes, like 'Buck Dancer's Lament' from early this century, featured a two-bar silence in every eight bars for the break--a quick showcase of improvised dance steps. Others used the same device for a solo instrumental break: one of the most fetishied fragments of recorded music is a famous four-bar break taken by Charlie Parker in Dizzy Gillespie's tune 'Night in Tunisia'."

According to Peter van der Merwe (1989, p.283) a break "occurs when the voice stops at th end of a phrase and is answered by a snatch of accompaniment," and originated from the bass runs of marches of the "Sousa school". In this case it would be a "break" from the vocal part.

Most well known are breaks from soul and funk music such as the Amen break and the Funky drummer. On disco 12" inch records nearly every song has a break, most often multiple breaks, usually after a chorus. This allowed DJs to mix between songs. Tom Moulton may have been the originator of the disco break, which he says was required when mixing between two songs in a different key. So as to not have the harmonies clash, everything but the percussion was taken out.

A break beat is the sampling of breaks as drum loops (beats), originally from soul tracks, and using them as the rhythmic basis for hip-hop and rap songs. It was invented by DJ Kool Herc, the first to buy two copies of one record so as to be able to mix between the same break (as Bronx DJ Afrika Bambaataa described it, "that certain part of the record that everybody waits for—they just let their inner self go and get wild"), extending its length through repetition (Toop, 1991). The dance the boys and girls ended up doing to break beats was called the Break, later break dancing. Breaking was abandonded in favor of doing the Freak in 1978, until it was revived and enhanced by Crazy Legs, Frosty Freeze, and the Rock Steady Crew. More recently electronic artists have created "break beats" from other electronic music. Compare with Breakbeat.

Paul Winley Record's bootleg Super Disco Breaks were the first break beat compilations. Another series is Ultimate Breaks and Beats of which there are 25 volumes, also bootleg.

Hip hop break beat compilations include Hardcore Break Beats and Break Beats, and Drum Drops (ibid).

List of breaks

• Amen break
• "Soul Pride" by James Brown (1969)
• "Tighten Up" by James Brown (1969)
• "Fencewalk" by Mandrill, used by Kool DJ Herc (ibid)
• "Funky Nassau" by The Beginning of the End (ibid)
• "Funky drummer" by James Brown (ibid)
• The Meters (ibid)
• Creative Source (ibid)
• The JBS (Toop, 1991)
• The Blackbyrds (ibid)
• Last Poets (ibid)
• "Scratchin'" by Magic Disco Machine (ibid)
• "Scorpio" by Dennis Coffey (ibid)
• "Super Sperm" by Captain Sky (ibid)
• "Mardi Gras" by Bob James, cover of Paul Simon's "Take Me to The Mardi Gras". Used by The Crash Crew on "Breaking Bells (Take Me To the Mardi Gras". (ibid)
• "Soul Makossa" by Manu Dibango (ibid)
• "Easy Dancin'" by Wagadu-Gu (ibid)
• "In The Bottle" by Gil Scott-Heron (ibid)
• "Apache" by the Incredible Bongo Band. Used by Kool DJ Herc, The Sugarhill Gang in "Apache", West Street Mob in "Break Dancin' - Electric Boogie". (ibid)
• Mickey Mouse Club Theme (ibid)
• "C Is For Cookie" (ibid)
• TeeVee Toons' Television's Greatest Hits Vols. 1-3 (ibid)
• "Think (about it)" by Lynn Colins