In the recently held Grammys Apart from Adele winning a lot of awards and it being a long show, Skrillex won 3 Grammy awards. Skrillex a popular Dubstep artist has been a sensation over the last year with more than a million hits for his tracks on YouTube. He has also collaborated with well known bands like Korn on their album “The Path Of Totality”. This marks the entry of Dubstep into the mainstream arena.
Dubstep has its roots primarily in the South London underground music movement. By around 1999, UK had a number of genres springing up across various regions. Electronica was a major aspect of it. People subscribed to different styles such as 2-step, Breakbeat, Garage, Drum n bass and more. Producers incorporated various urban elements into their sound. Various producers were experimenting with elements from disparate sources leading to further sub genres. In such an atmosphere, producers like Kode 9 and DJ Mary Anne Hobbs started pushing a new style of music. A kind that was a blend of overwhelming basslines and spaced out drums with cold sonic textures and occasional vocals in the form MCing or sampling. ‘Warrior Dubz’, compiled by Mary Anne Hobbs could be the first compilation that featured such genre of music. A number of producers released in this genre notably among them were Benga, Pinch, Skream and Burial on labels like on labels like Tempa, Tectonic, Hessle Audio, Immerse, and Hyperdub.
The term Dubstep comes from two very distinct styles of music. The ‘Dub’ part comes from the Jamaica where instrumental versions or doubles of various tracks were taken for playing a style that could be characterized in its purest form to be a subgenre of reggae. They were used mainly as a canvas over which producers would add various effects and elements. The popularity of reggae and Jamaican music in UK introduced use of dub in the UK music scene. The ‘step’ part probably originated from the 2-step scene in UK. 2-step is a close variant of UK Garage scene, which is primarily an offset of the Chicago Garage scene which has various elements of House music in it.
The music created was mainly urban with melancholic undertones. Sounds from all across the spectrum were used with Atmospheric textures and an uncanny space with massive sub bass content. Soon the scene grew and artists like Skream who knew the scene to be a small underground scene where travelling all over Europe for gigs. As the scene grew producers from various part of Europe too , such as Martyn from the Netherlands began releasing music with the same characteristic elements of Dubstep.
From the period 2003 to 2007, Dubstep saw a steady growth across Europe and slowly rise in audience across Northern America. Each region saw its own adaptation of the genre to an extent. American producers created their own variant of Dubstep also known as Brostep. It emphasized more on heavy mid range sounds. Purists of the genre have criticized this style however widespread popularity in the North American continent greatly contributed to get Dubstep to the spotlight. Fueled by internet popularity in 2011, Dubstep has reached new heights. Dubstep remixes of popular mainstream tracks has helped it to reach people who would not generally listen to such sounds or groove to it. With global recognition now, Dubstep might well be the next big thing.
