What is Dubstep?

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What is Dubstep?
Dubstep is a type of electronic music that is believed to have originated from the Jamaican dub music. It is also considered to be rooted in the Jamaican sound system cultures, which were characterized by large mobile high fidelity or disco bass frequencies. These sound systems exhibit legitimate artistic innovation.

Dubstep was born out of the Jamaican dub variety of reggae music. The Jamaican reggae music plays an important part in the origination of the sonic techniques of the dubsteps. Dubsteps are characterized by sub-bass that range at less than 100Hz. Unusual drum beats, distortive echo, and reverberation effects are all prominent characteristics of this dubstep.

The year 1998 recorded the earliest release of dubstep. The earliest dubstep music would be best described as darker, more of an experimental type of music, incorporation of funky elements of breakbeat and instrumental dub remixes. The electronic music is also characterized by the incorporation of the dark elements of drum and bass and 2-step.

In 2001, a night club in London known as Forward began to showcase and campaign for other strains of dark garage music. This was considered to be influential to the development of dubstep. Actually, the term dubstep was started to be used in the year 2002. This was used as a reference to a genre of music. 2002 was the year when the stylistic trends utilized in creating remixes became more distinct from 2-step and grime.

The year 2003 started the on-air playing of the dubstep music. It was due to BBC Radio 1’s DJ, John Peel. Peel was the earliest supporter of dubstep and he played this type of electronic music on-air until the last year of his show in 2004. It was also the year when his listeners and fans voted in their top 50 of the year. Three of the voted in were Distance, Digital Mystikz and Plastician, which is formerly known as the Plasticman.

Small local scenes helped a lot for the spread of dubstep. It became widespread during the years 2005 and early 2006. Its growth reached the whole globe when many websites supporting the music genre appeared in the internet. Some websites responsible for the popularity of the genre were Dubstepforum, Barefiles (a download site), and Gutterbreakz (a blog site).

The genre even acquired more acknowledgment when a music magazine and an online publication began to feature it. The Wire magazine and the Pitchfork Media gave extensive coverage to the music genre, which is the dubstep.

In 2006, Mary Ann Hobbs started to regularly feature dubstep in her show and it made a significant growth of interest among music patrons. Hobbs devoted a show entitled the ‘Dubstep Warz’ in January 2006. In 2009, dubstep gained further global recognition due to its incorporation with other genres. However, it still does have its distinct sound, which is the jittery and skitter drum beats and the sub-bass. Dubstep continues its popularity and the hit ‘I Need Air’ by Magnetic Man hits the UK singles chart in the year 2010. Britney Spears welcomed the year 2011 with her first single from her seventh album, ‘Hold it Against Me’. The single was recognized for its dubstep-influenced beats.

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