dubstep

The tradition & historical record

Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style, whose roots trace to the Jamaican sound system party scene in the early 1980s, emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken beat, grime, and drum and bass. Dubstep is generally characterised by syncopated rhythmic patterns, prominent basslines, and a dark tone. In 2001, this underground sound and other strains of garage music began to be promoted at the London nightclub Plastic People, at the "Forward" night (sometimes stylised as FWD>>), and on the pirate radio station Rinse FM. The term dubstep first appeared in 2001, and was then used by labels such as Big Apple and Tempa from 2002 to describe remixes more distinct from 2-step and grime. BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel started playing dubstep in 2003. In 2004, the last year of his show, a listeners vote included songs by Distance, Digital Mystikz, and Plastician as the top 50 for the year. Dubstep started to enter mainstream British popular culture when it spread beyond small local scenes in late 2005 and early 2006; many websites devoted to the genre appeared on the Internet and aided the growth of the scene, such as dubstepforum, the download site Barefiles and blogs such as gutterbreakz. ¹

The music website AllMusic has described dubstep's overall sound as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals." According to Simon Reynolds, dubstep's constituents originally came from "different points in the 1989—99 UK lineage: bleep 'n' bass, jungle, techstep, Photek-style neurofunk, speed garage, [and] 2 step." Reynolds comments that the traces of pre-existing styles "worked through their intrinsic sonic effects but also as signifiers, tokenings-back addressed to those who know". Dubstep's early roots are in the more experimental releases of UK garage producers, seeking to incorporate elements of drum and bass into the 2-step garage sound. These experiments often ended up on the B-side of a white label or commercial garage release. Dubstep is generally instrumental. Similar to a vocal garage hybrid – grime – the genre's feel is commonly dark; tracks frequently use a minor key or the Phrygian mode, and can feature dissonant harmonies such as the tritone interval within a riff. Compared to other styles of garage music, dubstep tends to be more minimalistic, focusing on prominent sub-bass frequencies. Some dubstep artists have also incorporated a variety of outside influences, from dub-influenced techno such as Basic Channel to classical music or heavy metal. A softer and more melodic offshoot of dubstep, known as chillstep, also emerged in the late 2000s. It incorporates elements of ambient and chill out music. ¹

Dubstep rhythms are usually syncopated, and often shuffled or incorporating tuplets. The tempo is nearly always in the range of 132–142 beats per minute, with a clap or snare usually inserted every third beat in a bar. With a large majority of releases at 140bpm, the genre (as well as others, including grime) is sometimes referred to as "140". In its early stages, dubstep was often more percussive, with more influences from two‑step drum patterns. Many producers were also experimenting with tribal drum samples, such as Loefah's early release "Truly Dread" and Mala's "Anti-War Dub". In an Invisible Jukebox interview with The Wire, Kode9 commented on a MRK1 track, observing that listeners "have internalized the double-time rhythm" and the "track is so empty it makes [the listener] nervous, and you almost fill in the double time yourself, physically, to compensate". ¹

One characteristic of certain strands of dubstep is the wobble bass, often referred to as the "wub", where an extended bass note is manipulated rhythmically. This style of bass is typically produced by using a low-frequency oscillator to manipulate certain parameters of a synthesiser such as volume, distortion or filter cutoff. The resulting sound is a timbre that is punctuated by rhythmic variations in volume, filter cutoff, or distortion. This style of bass is a driving factor in some variations of dubstep, particularly at the more club-friendly end of the spectrum. Wobble bass has been nicknamed Wobble-step. ¹

Originally, dubstep releases had some structural similarities to other genres like drum and bass and UK garage. Typically, this would comprise an intro, a main section (often incorporating a bass drop), a midsection, a second main section similar to the first (often with another drop), and an outro. Many early dubstep tracks incorporate one or more "bass drops", a characteristic inherited from drum and bass. Typically, the percussion will pause, often reducing the track to silence, and then resume with more intensity, accompanied by a dominant sub-bass. It is very common for the bass to drop either after the 16th or 32nd measure of a song. However, this (or the existence of a bass drop in general) is by no means a completely rigid characteristic, rather a trope; a large portion of seminal tunes from producers like Kode9 and Horsepower Productions have more experimental song structures which do not rely on a drop for a dynamic peak – and in some instances do not feature a bass drop at all. ¹

Rewinds (or reloads) are another technique used by dubstep DJs. If a song seems to be especially popular then someone, most often the DJ, will rewind the record by hand without lifting the stylus and play the track again. Because the stylus has not been lifted (or, on electronic turntables, the channel has not been muted), a whirring noise is produced. Rewinds are also an important live element in many of dubstep's precursors; the technique originates in dub reggae soundsystems, is widely employed by pirate radio stations and is also used at UK garage and jungle nights. Taking direct cues from Jamaica's lyrically sparse deejay and toasting mic styles in the vein of reggae pioneers like U-Roy, the MC's role in dubstep's live experience is critically important to its impact. Notable mainstays in the live experience of the sound are MC Sgt Pokes and MC Crazy D from London, and Juakali from Trinidad. Production in a studio environment seems to lend itself to more experimentation. Kode9 collaborated extensively with the Spaceape, who MCed in a dread poet style. Kevin Martin's experiments with the genre are almost exclusively collaborations with MCs such as Warrior Queen, Flowdan, and Tippa Irie. Skream has also featured Warrior Queen and grime artist JME on his debut album, Skream!. Plastician, who was one of the first DJ's to mix the sound of grime and dubstep together, has worked with notable grime setup Boy Better Know as well as renowned Grime MC's such as Wiley, Dizzee Rascal and Lethal Bizzle. He has also released tracks with a dubstep foundation and grime verses over the beats. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Dubstep”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

dubstep is genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 28 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²