What is Dubstep? How was it created/formed?

Despite Dubstep's unique sound today, the genre came about from the fusion of two pre-existing genres. It's seen in the name, where "dub" comes from Dub music (which is a separate genre from Dubstep, though some people wrongly refer to Dubstep as "Dub"). The basslines in Dubstep get their style from Dub. Here is Dub track Kanka - Nova Dub.

You can see where the Dubstep basslines come from with this one. There are a lot of Dubstep basslines that have their own non-Dub related sounds now that the genre has evolved, but it originally had basslines that could've been straight out of Dub tracks, and still sometimes does.

"Step" comes from 2-Step Garage. Dubstep gets a lot of the percussive elements from 2-Step like on this track, Sovereign - Truly.

The earliest Dubstep percussion was very similar to this style, but has since evolved into its own style.

The earliest tracks were typically dark Dub remixes of 2-Step Garage tracks, or original tracks that incorporated elements of both sounds. It didn't have its own sound the way it does now. It simply sounded like a hybrid of Dub and 2-Step, which it technically was, but it took awhile for Dubstep to take off and really become unique. The groundwork was laid by people like El-B, Zed Bias, Horsepower Productions, and there were tracks that technically fit into the early Dubstep sounds before it was called by that name, but the first track that was referred to as Dubstep was Elephant Man - Log On (Horsepower Productions Remix).

As you can hear, the Dub influence is strong on this one, but the percussion and structure falls more into 2-Step Garage.

The shuffling rhythms of 2-Step in these tracks typically induce a more up-beat dancing style, but the dark rolling basslines and dub influence are more conducive to a slower, head-nodding vibe. People wanted to groove and meditate to the sounds, not necessarily dance to them. This slowly led to the incorporation of percussion that focused on the half-step pattern of kick drum on the first beat and snare on the third. That half-step pattern coupled with the deep basslines just created a groove that was irresistible when listened to properly, and became the framework for the Dubstep sound that took off. The 2-Step and Dub influences are still strong, but Dubstep became its own thing, no longer owing its entire sound to the other genres.

There were some jaw-dropping tracks in this style, like Darkstar - Round Ours and Skream's Dutch Flowerz.

Every since the genre started to settle in as its own unique beast and artists like Skream, Benga, Plastician and the DMZ crew pushed the growth of it, the genre has become huge. People used this framework that was laid out by the innovators as a platform to launch all kinds of different ideas and styles within the genre. It's hard to give an example of what Dubstep typically sounds like because there are just so many possibilities now, but we can see how the general sound has progressed through the years.

The genre transformed into the modern popular sound because artists were trying to make it more aggressive. Big drops were good, and artists tried to make them a bit heavier by adding distortion to their basslines. It transformed from the deeper sound to tracks like Coki-Spongebob or Distance's metal influenced sound.

Basically tracks that were still really bass heavy and focus on the low end, but had some distortion in more mid-range frequencies to add aggression. But the important distinction is that the focus is on the low end still at this point, and although these tracks are less meditative, they still force the listeners to get into that half-step groove, albeit a higher energy groove.

Then it took the logical next step and more focus was put on that distorted mid-range sound, like Rusko/Caspa stuff like from the fabriclive mix they did (Jahova, Too Far, etc.).

Rusko's Cockney Thug was absolutely huge, and the focus was on the horns and not the basslines. Those horns dominated the mix, and they were catchy as hell which caught a lot of attention.

That started a big change from a more bass-oriented sound to a sound that focused a lot on mid-range and catchiness over deep sparse vibes. The focus was now on the mid-range sound and not the low end, but there's still a massive Dub-styled bassline in tracks like Cockney Thug and the Caspa remix.

Finally producers caught on more that they could fill the space in the track with catchy mid-range stuff, or really distorted synth lines that were heavy, like in Flux Pavilion's "I Can't Stop".

Those sounds can be a bit more accessible and overtly catchy, which allowed the genre to reach a much wider audience. Some artists that really mastered the style absolutely blew up (Skrillex, Zeds Dead, Bassnectar, Flux Pavilion, etc.). A lot of producers still put a lot of focus on the low end, and have really nice sub-bass going under all the other mids and highs. But since the focus is now almost completely on the mid-range stuff and the widest audience doesn't have a system that necessarily re-creates the bass side of tracks, you get Dubstep tracks with drops that squeal and grind but don't necessarily growl or rumble. It's not a universal issue because a lot of producers still understand the power and necessity of the low-end. But that loss of the bass-driven sound makes it a big departure from the original style.

Despite what some purists will tell you, it isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are incredible old-school dubstep tracks and incredible new dubstep tracks. But this is what brings in a lot of debate because the old-school fans hate the huge departure that happened, especially since that distanced sound is what blew up. The problem now is that the genre went from dark and deep to deep and heavy, to heavy, to REALLY heavy. Since the focus is on heaviness now, there's nowhere else to go from here if we follow the logical progression. When Skrillex's Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites track came out, it was huge. It got a lot of hate, but it was a big track and extremely heavy.

Now he's releasing EPs full of the same tricks, but there's nothing new to them, and it's actually quite a bit worse. He does everything he can to ruin what could've been a sweet Wolfgang Gartner track on their collaboration for Skrillex's new EP, track The Devil's Den.

Artists don't know where to go from here, so they try to make these really squealing drops or throw a gimmick in to catch the listener's attention. The majority of tracks follow a strict formula: Build-up section, then the drums double tempo, double tempo again (and possibly again), everything exits and a (usually vocal) sample enters, then the track hits you with everything it has. So the genre has stagnated pretty hard, and there's a lot of negativity surrounding it because almost everything that comes out now is a re-hash or worse.

There are exceptions of course, and some artists who push the really heavy sounds know how to keep stuff interesting. It's typically the artists who seem to be hopping on the Dubstep bandwagon that don't know how to keep productions fresh. A lot of the artists out there, even some of the big names, are clearly only attempting to re-create what previous artists have successfully done before them. The genre has been flooded with a lot of stuff that's not worth a second listen, but if you keep your ears open you can find some heavy artists doing creative stuff. A personal favorite of mine is Reso. His track Ishimura is one heavy bastard. It has that really distorted grinding sound throughout, with a cool little syncopated rhythm behind it at the start, and then halfway through makes a great transition into a more danceable groovy style. It's a cool way for the track to get bigger without making the standard overdone melodic build-up to a huge drop.

The popularity of the genre has also been exploited to the point where people will release simplistic Dubstep tracks that are essentially just watered-down pop music that's been formatted for the Dubstep framework in order to cash in on the popularity of it. This kind of thing happens in every genre of music, but it's a bit sad to see it happen to a genre that had been uncorrupted for awhile. I'm all for the genre being used as pop music if it's tasteful, like when Lights used it on her latest album. She knows what she's doing and has been making electronic-influenced pop music for awhile so it only makes sense, but it's sad to see Britney Spears struggling to remain relevant by inserting out of place Dubstep drops in the middle of her tracks.

Light-Hearted Fun.

Sad.

It's important to note that artists didn't stop making the old-school sound in this time. There are still a ton of producers pushing that style, such as Kryptic Minds who just dropped a nicely sparse and bassy album this year. But in that same way, this sound has stagnated a bit as well. Huge tracks still get released with Kryptic Minds - Badman VIP and J:Kenzo - Ruffhouse being two of the most obvious from last year. The tracks still feel pretty fresh, but sometimes a bit more experimentation is nice.

Badman VIP is unreleased (and won't ever be released), so this is a live mix cut.

Fortunately there are plenty of artists that have experimented in this style, and since the focus isn't just on being as heavy as possible, the genre is less constricted to evolve. The artists that are trying to add new and different things to the genre have been labelled as "Post-Dubstep", or "Future-Garage". Most people still consider them to just be Dubstep though, and the disputes over genre titles and the use of the derogatory name "Brostep" for artists pushing the Skrillex sound have caused people to use the umbrella term to refer to all of this music as "Bass Music" to avoid disputes. The term can also be used to include genres that are related to Dubstep like Grime, Garage, Dub, and even House or Techno. Some of the best artists around are including elements from all of those genres in their music, so it would be impossible to accurately label them otherwise.