What is Dubstep? A Look Into The History, Key Players, and Future of the Genre

Dubstep is a lot of things, particularly known for its “wub wubs,” but this is our full definition of what the genre is. 

Dubstep is a type of electronic dance music that is chaotic, fast-paced, deep, and two-beat-heavy. Its sound is something you can’t miss as most of the time it can feel like it’s really in your face and that’s how it’s supposed to be. The hard genre stays strong and consistent though, and makes you either want to move your body back and forth or headbang to the beat. 

When it comes to the beats, Dub literally stands for “double” in music and dubstep prioritizes double beats. It focuses on bass-heavy, rhythmic loops to build a repetitive sound and uses a bold manipulation of low bass tones with tempos that have about 140 beats per minute. Dubstep will also sometimes incorporate lyrics or parts of other songs before a hard drop and also has a focus on build-ups before drops. 

The history of Dubstep goes back to the 2000s and originated in South London, it started from UK garage music that blended 2-step rhythms/sporadic dub production. The term dubstep became official in 2002 by an artist on Ammunition Promotions which was one of the first dubstep companies. Now there are even subgenres of dubstep including riddem, tear out, hardstyle, and melodic dubstep.

Some of the key players include Excision, Subtronics, ATLiens,  Seven Lions, Slander, Svdden Death, Sullivan King, Zeds Dead, Slander, Flux Pavillion, Knife Parrty, Skrillex, HOL!, Borgore, Habstrakt, Maruada, Ally Cvt, and Kai Wachi. Fans of dubstep are usually diehard or go just as hard to the music. Lost Lands is a festival that first started in 2015 but is now one of the biggest in the U.S. and is a celebration of dubstep primarily. 

Dubstep becomes more favored by electronic music enthusiasts every year. It has had somewhat of an interesting reputation though for being very hard and heavy. But the more popular it gets, the more people are realizing how to really get down to its music. The genre promotes hard dancing and the love of hard bass. 

The future of dubstep is bright as it has steadily grown as a genre since it originated and many of the key players have big plans to spread the love of it. Lost Lands has also done a huge number of bringing more attention and respect to the genre as well. Expect to see more dubstep events coming to light in the next years with tons of people following in its direction.