The modern blast beat seems to have its origins in thrash and crossover; most sources point to the Dirty Rotten Imbeciles track No Sense, where such a beat is used sporadically.

Cryptic Slaughter, an oft-cited influence to many bands, and an early user of blast beats, incorporated fast, alternating snare-kick patterns into many of their songs.

Cryptic Slaughter – Set Your Own Pace (MP3 sample)

The energetic blast beat evolved out of hardcore, crossover, and thrash bands, and worked its way into grindcore, along with its sister genres powerviolence, death metal and black metal.

Mike Smith, drummer of NY death metal band Suffocation, discusses blasting

Although the blast beat is criticized as “soulless” rhythm-less filler, talented drummers who opt to use it often add their own unique and even complex variants of the beat. The beat is also used by more advanced musicians to accentuate more foundational riffs. This can often be observed in works by pivotal grind and death metal bands from the late 80’s-early 90’s.

The beat is so effective at what it does that it has proliferated many “extreme music” fringe genres. Parody bands (such as Job For A Cowboy and Carnifex) utilize the blast beat as a neat fill for all of their dance songs, in between breakdowns.