Monday, 3 February 2014
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History of Dubstep

08:10
Dubstep was originated in South London, UK around the year 1999. At this time, the music was experimental and still in the very early stages of its development. It incorporated two types of music that had already existed: dub and 2-step garage.

Dub is a type of music that has a similar sound to reggae but differs in that it is comprised almost entirely of instrumental remixes. The bass and drum parts emphasized, and the recordings are extremely edited with added effects such as panoramic echoes, delays, and reverbs.


Skrillex Performing


 2-step garage is a subgenre of Electronic Dance Music that was popular in England at the time Dubstep was being created. What distinguishes 2-step garage from EDM is that is has an irregular bass, which lands on only the first and third beat instead of on all four beats in traditional EDM. To account for the decrease in the amount of bass, an irregular snare or rim-shot is added to keep the listeners’ interest.

Dubstep was first debuted in 2001 at a London nightclub called Plastic People. The genre back then was not the kind of music we think of it as today. Dubstep had significantly darker undertones and was cruder in the way it was produced. Artists created the music in their own garages and rarely had the chance to share it or hear from other artists. Only after it started playing at Plastic People did the Dubstep start transforming into the music we hear today. Dubstep creators finally had somewhere to convene and influence each other, which was instrumental in the evolution of Dubstep.


Nero Performing

                                                                               Source

Dubstep still did not reach significant popularity even after the music fully evolved to the way we now hear it. It continued to play at Plastic People, but outside of this nightclub, Dubstep did not exist and was simply viewed as a local attraction. It was not until a BBC Radio DJ named John Peel started playing it on the airwaves in 2003 did the popularity of Dubstep finally start picking up.

John Peel was an early fan of Dubstep, and his impact was crucial in helping three Dubstep tracks land their spot in the Top 50 for that year. Around 2005 was when Dubstep finally spread beyond the confines of the United Kingdom with the help of the Internet. Forums devoted to Dubstep were being formed, and music-sharing websites rapidly facilitated the spread of Dubstep.

Dubstep was also receiving heavy media attention around this time as well. Online periodicals such as Pitchfork Media and music magazines such as The Wire had plenty of coverage for Dubstep, regularly featuring the music as its premier story. This provided their reader base with good awareness of the genre of music, ultimately capturing the attention of Mary Anne Hobbs. She, too, was a prominent BBC Radio DJ, and she actually witnessed the greatest jump in the popularity of Dubstep. 

Mary Anne Hobbs enjoyed Dubstep so much that she even started her own show dedicated to it called Dubstep Warz. This was the point when Dubstep finally started spreading like wildfire and began reaching a fan base in the United States.


Skream Performing


From then up to now, the popularity of Dubstep somewhat crept up on everybody. Dubstep has been here for over five years, yet it was never really in mainstream culture until recently. Many Top 100 artists have given us a taste of Dubstep with some of their background music during this time, however. Prominent examples include Britney Spears and Ke$ha, both of whom are known for their upbeat, high-energy music. As more and more Americans took a liking to the instrumentals of these artists’ songs, Dubstep was at the peak of its popularity in the United Kingdom. Artists such as La Roux started giving its songs to mixers such as Skrillex, Nero, and Skream to make an irresistibly catchy blend of lyrics and “wubbing.” Americans were quick to get a hold of these productions, and so began the Dubstep hype that everybody appears to be in today.


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