Forums → Popular Media → The History of Dubstep

For some EXTREMELY bizzare reason, i have come across many people who have begun to claim that sonny moore (skrillex) was the inventer of dubstep. naturally i wanted to pimp slap them.

We could dwell very long on the history of Dubstep, but letâs cut it short: it appeared in London about ten to twelve years ago. Technically, it was an evolution from 2-Step and influenced by Londonâs heavy bass music scene. Grime and Garage are the parents of this insatiable monster. Dubstep is an organic evolutionary piece of a thriving electronic music scene, and an interesting one at that. Heavy sub-bass, the signature âwobbleâ, the breaks, the samples and mostly the dark and haunting atmosphere seperated Dubstep from the rest of the experimental strands. Like all experimental progressions, Dubstep was made by rowdy teenagers who were trying to distance themselves from the commercial Garage sound that was now being used all over pop productions. Many things happened up until 2005 - Skream and Benga appeared, Hyperdub Records was created, Rinse FM and BBC1 started interviewing responsible producers and playing new Dubstep records. All of this happened within the realm of the UK. Yes, some techno DJs started using Dubstep to ease up their sets in Germany. Americans took Dubstep over to the states and threw excessive and eccentric bass parties. These were the golden Dubstep times: it was already evolved to a point where many people could enjoy the genre, but it had not yet reached a state of ubiquity - it still wasnât commercially successful.
When Burial dropped his second album âUntrueâ in 2007, the earth stood still for a moment. Many people probably asked themselves: WHAT THE **** IS THIS? Burial had created a more cleaner, softer, mysterious and atmospheric version of Dubstep. Vocalized samples in combination with a fresh beat and dark, painful harmonies made Burials album as avantgarde to Dubstep as Dubstep was to electronic music. Needless to say, Untrue paved a new line of Dubstep. One that could care less about dramatic drops and crazy-as-**** basslines and wobbles: Burialâs dubstep, although technically still Dubstep, was a reduced and refined version that no longer made it essential to put the bass in its center. In fact, this variation of Dubstep was not even very friendly to the club. But it was very, very friendly to all those indie media heads who would soon become the greatest fans of The XX and James Blake.
Unfortunately for Burial, his new take on things also kind of destroyed his personal agenda. In a Hyperdub interview, he said something along the lines of âSometimes you just want music to stay where it is fromâ. Man, he must have hated 2011.

Of course, all of this did not matter to pop music (yet). In the real world, where people still listen to the radio for fresh music, nobody had heard of Dubstep, unless they had once ended up in some shady club in a big city. Like everything else that was ruined by the clever marketing strategies of our century, Dubstep had to be given the seal of approval from the American music industry in order to officially become a global success. Surprisingly, this was an easy achievement. Why? Because trashy European house music had already become âa thingâ overseas. Remember Tiesto and David Guetta and even Rihannaâs weird sampling of that Numa Numa song (seriously, THE NUMA NUMA SONG)? Most of these sounds were stolen from The Mighty Europe and re-worked into pop music. Even though this innovation ultimately, commercially derived, without introducing ideas such as; RAVE CULTURE!,House Music!, Partying!, MDMA!, Electronic music as core pop element! DUBSTEP! wouldnât of been embraced by the American market.
On the other hand, Burial was still there, influencing a whole new lifeline of things, most of todays Hip Hop frameworkers (say Lunice, or Flying Lotus) and undoubtedly James Blake. But we also shall not forget people like Caspa, Skream and Benga who were pushing a just as energetically characterized variation of Dubstep. That was the beauty of it: there was two sides to Dubstep. On one hand you could play Dubstep loud and masterful in the club, with a bass line so deep and heavy you would **** yourself right then and there. From pure happiness. And then on the other hand there was this Indie Pitchfork kind of sound that was revolutionary, softer, more melodically-aware and unmistakably pretty. Both of these things were super cool in their own ways.

American kids were finally having their taste of the bittersweet freedom of the rave, executives, major labels and producers were loving their cash rewards. Influenced by all of those sounds from overseas, Sonny Joe Moore became Skrillex and started experimenting with crazy Dubstep sounds. Needless to say, everyone loved him for it. His colleague Deadmau5, who is still more of a house and techno than dubstep producer, started using break beats. So did Jay Z and Kanye, and Britney Spears. Whatever happened in 2011, Dubstep had already been at its highest point and was now being torn apart by commercially produced pop music. It had finally become what Garage had 10 or so years ago. This would normally be enough mass-endorsement for a genre. Only this time, thanks to the Internet and many people who jumped on without thinking, it quickly became a global phenomena. While this may sound slightly bad and bitter, where thereâs shade there is light. In fact, this was a much-needed development, one that proved that thereâs still hope for future massive musical changes. And more importantly, it gave us slight relief from all of that vintage,indie, kitsch ****. Without different interpretations of a genre weâd get bored. Sometimes, it doesnât matter if something is ****, at least itâs just something different. I hated Skrillex until I saw him play live. I still didnât enjoy his music, but it did make for a good expressionist dancing show on my behalf. I saw those people, those grungy looking, heavy metal type of people, who were dancing their ***** off to his songs, being happy as ****. If dance music with an interesting twist is what you were looking for, then you didnât need to read sophisticated reviews on IDM music to enjoy it. Just being there and dancing to it did the trick.
Actually, come to think of it, everything we call âpost-dubstepâ has much less to do with the original sources of Dubstep than with the âBrostepâ of Skrillex and Deadmau5 and others. SBTRKT basically takes on where Artful Dodger left off (using 2-Step beats with clean vocals), Jacques Green is directly in line to Burial and maybe even Mala. Mainstream wise, between Dubstep and Mainstream, thereâs probably only one more element to be included: The xx. Those London kids who managed to spread a sound - not a genre, a sound - all over the planet, they had zero to do with Dubstep, and everything with it.
Many people are pissed nowadays. Venues are filled with people who donât âgetâ what Dubstep is. They complain about the popularity of the âbig thingsâ saying âothersâ deserve the credit. Funny thing is, those are probably the same people who think Dubstep is something that Burial came up with in 2006. But listen carefully to Skream, Benga, Caspa and Mt. Eden, who most would consider pioneers of a very certain dubstep spawn: itâs not much different, if you ask me.
With this all being said, itâs probably redundant now to argue about what âReal Dubstepâ is and what it has become. That would be like arguing over whether Michael Jackson was ârealerâ or âbetterâ than Bob Dylan. Dubstep, like Grime or Garage, has given birth to even more children who weâve seen grow up in 2010 and 2011. And even though I started off sounding like a âit-was-better-in-my-dayâ curmudgeon. I canât exactly say Iâm excited about 2012. Seeing all those classic London sounds become further infused into American pop music, Hip Hop becoming more flexible and electronic, from Based Rap to Dubstep. It seems there are no boundaries for 2012 when it comes to new, fresh and innovative, ( sometimes) self-produced music. Thereâll be new undergrounds to discover and new mainstream trends to hate. But thatâs the way it goes, and man we love it.