Genre: Dubstep

Photo: George Morgan

Let’s say your friend plays you a song. It has an infectious 2-step drum beat. Throbbing synths. An insane, wobbling bassline. “This is awesome,” you tell yourself. But what IS it? This is your typical dubstep track, my friends, a sound foreign to most ears on this side of the pond, but celebrated by those all over the UK. First a product of London’s underground scene, dubstep has evolved into a monster, whose innovativeness has made it one of the most thoroughly interesting and captivating movements to keep up with in the music world.

Dubstep started as just what it sounds like, a fusion of Jamaican dub and twitchy British 2-step. It was created as an experimental alternative to the overplayed British garage and grime in the early 2000s. It was darker, more ethereal, and on the whole, better to move your body to. The first time I heard dubstep, all I could think was “What is this? This is just noise…” But over time, my aural taste buds opened up and I realized what a fantastic genre it really was. In no other genre can one song emit emotion through a propulsive bass, so deep it can literally blow your speakers out (true story). Dubstep is a blanket term; under its umbrella it contains tons of subtypes, and there is something for every person and every mood. For example, there’s stuff for when you’re feeling contemplative (Mount Kimbie, ‘Maybes’), funky (Joker & Ginz, ‘Purple City’) or just ridiculous (Man Like Me, ‘London Town [Doorly Remix]’). It is much more versatile than it leads on.

Dubstep started tearing up the underground clubs of London at the start of the decade, and from there it rose in fame and popularity exponentially with every year that passed. Skream’s ‘Midnight Request Line’ (2005) and Benga & Coki’s ‘Night’ (2007) were two monumental records that propelled the genre from the underground up to the BBC Radio playlist, one of the biggest predictors of commercial viability in the UK.

From that point on, dubstep was riding high and with Skream’s remix of La Roux’s ‘In For The Kill’ in 2009, the genre had officially crossed over into the mainstream. Pretty soon British dubstep producers were getting calls from the likes of Rihanna and Snoop Dogg, eager to work on incorporating the trademark wobble into their latest works. Dubstep is everywhere these days; over the past few months I have heard it soundtracking ads for Nike and Scion. Rusko’s track ‘Da Cali Anthem’ has been getting spins on LA’s Power 106. All signs are pointing towards a promising future for the ‘wobble bass’.

The beautiful thing about dubstep is that it is constantly evolving, at a pace matched by no other type of music. Artists such as Joker, Joy Orbison, and Scuba are changing the game with every track they put out, by blending the dub with hints of 80s funk, 90s garage, and simply amazing melodies. No matter what type of music you typically enjoy, I encourage you to test out some of the following tracks so you can see what all the hype is about, and maybe you’ll just find your favorite new song.

For a breakdown on some of the most influential dubstep tracks of the decade, check out this nice feature from the folks at Knowledge.

La Roux, In For The Kill (Skream’s Let’s Get Ravey Remix)

Personal favorite: The Streets, In The Middle (Nero Remix)