1999–2002: Origins shop in
Croydon,
South London The early sounds of proto-dubstep originally came out of productions during 1999–2000 by producers such as Oris Jay, Neil Jolliffe of
Tempa Recordings is reported to have coined the term "dubstep" in 2002, however the spaced form "dub step" was in use by early 2001. Forward>> was originally held at the Velvet Rooms in London's
Soho and later moved to Plastic People in
Shoreditch, east London. Around this time, Forward>> was also incubating several other strains of dark garage hybrids, so much so that in the early days of the club the coming together of these strains was referred to as the "Forward>> sound". An online flyer from around this time encapsulated the Forward>> sound as "b-lines to make your chest cavity shudder." Forward>> also ran a radio show on east London pirate station
Rinse FM, hosted by
Kode9. The original Forward>> line ups included
Hatcha, Youngsta, Kode 9, Zed Bias, Oris Jay, At the end of 2003, running independently from the pioneering FWD night, an event called Filthy Dub, co promoted by
Plastician, and partner David Carlisle started happening regularly. It was there that Skream, Benga, N Type, Walsh, Chef, Loefah, and Cyrus made their debuts as DJs. South London collective Digital Mystikz (Mala and Coki), along with labelmates and collaborators Loefah and MC Sgt Pokes soon came into their own, bringing sound system thinking,
dub values, and appreciation of
jungle bass weight to the dubstep scene. After releasing
12-inch singles on Big Apple, they founded DMZ Records, which has released fourteen 12"s to date. They also began their night DMZ, held every two months in
Brixton, a part of London already strongly associated with reggae. DMZ has showcased new dubstep artists such as Skream, Kode 9, Benga,
Pinch, DJ Youngsta, Hijak,
Joe Nice, and Vex'd. DMZ's first anniversary event (at the Mass venue, a converted church) saw fans attending from places as far away as
Sweden, the United States, and Australia, leading to a queue of 600 people at the event. Later Mala would also found the influential label
Deep Medi Musik. In 2004,
Richard James' label,
Rephlex, released two compilations that included dubstep tracks – the (perhaps misnamed)
Grime and
Grime 2. The first featured Plasticman, Mark One and Slaughter Mob, with Kode9, Loefah, and Digital Mystikz appearing on the second. These compilations helped to raise awareness of dubstep at a time when the grime sound was drawing more attention, Soon afterwards, the
Independent on Sunday commented on "a whole new sound", at a time when both genres were becoming popular, stating that "grime" and "dubstep" were two names for the same style, which was also known as "sublow", "8-bar", and "eskibeat".
2005–2008: Growth , London In the summer of 2005, Forward>> brought grime DJs to the fore of the line up. Building on the success of Skream's grimey anthem "Midnight Request Line", the hype around the DMZ night and support from online forums (notably dubstepforum.com) The show created a new global audience for the scene, after years of exclusively UK underground buzz. The sound was also featured prominently in the
soundtrack for the 2006 sci-fi film
Children of Men, which included Digital Mystikz, Random Trio, Kode 9,
Pressure and DJ Pinch. Ammunition also released the first retrospective compilation of the 2000–2004 era of dubstep called
The Roots of Dubstep, co-compiled by Ammunition and Blackdown on the Tempa Label. The sound's first North American ambassador, Baltimore DJ Joe Nice helped kickstart its spread into the continent. San Francisco, while Mary Anne Hobbs curated a Dubstep showcase at 2007's
Sónar festival in Barcelona. Joe Nice has played at DMZ, while the fifth instalment of Tempa's "Dubstep Allstars" mix series (released in 2007) included tracks by Finnish producer Tes La Rok and Americans JuJu and Matty G. DJ
Mary Anne Hobbs Techno artists and DJs began assimilating dubstep into their sets and productions. and included on a mix CD by
Panoramabar resident Cassy.
Modeselektor's "Godspeed" (from the 2007's
Happy Birthday! album, among other tracks on that same album) and Roman Flugel's remix of
Riton's "Hammer of Thor" are other examples of dubstep-influenced techno. dub techno artists Basic Channel) has also championed Shackleton's
Skull Disco label, later broadening its focus to include other dubstep releases. whilst Burial's late 2007 release
Untrue (which was nominated for the 2008
Nationwide Mercury Music Prize in the UK) incorporated extensive use of heavily manipulated, mostly female, 'girl next door' vocal samples. Burial has spoken at length regarding his intent to reincorporate elements of musical precursors such as 2-step garage and house into his sound. Dubstep artists Chefal, Hijak and Hatcha were featured as the cover stars on the 'Summer of Dub' issue of the free British magazine
RWD in July 2007. Much like drum and bass before it, dubstep started to become incorporated into other media. In 2007, Benga, Skream, and other dubstep producers provided the soundtrack to much of the second series of
Dubplate Drama, which aired on
Channel 4 with a soundtrack CD later released on
Rinse Recordings. A track by Skream also featured in the second series of the teen drama
Skins, which also aired on Channel 4 in early 2008. In the summer of 2008,
Mary Anne Hobbs invited Cyrus, Starkey,
Oneman,
DJ Chef,
Silkie, Quest,
Joker, Nomad, Kulture and MC Sgt Pokes to the
BBC's
Maida Vale studios for a show called
Generation Bass. The show was the evolution from her seminal
BBC Radio 1 Dubstepwarz Show in 2006, and further documented another set of dubstep's producers.
Silkie and Quest, along with
Kromestar and Heny G would all come through the Anti-Social Entertainment crew, with a show on
Rinse FM and later
Flex FM. As the genre spread to become an international rather than UK-centric scene, it also saw a number of women making headway into the scene in a variety of ways. Alongside Soulja of Ammunition Promotions and Mary Anne Hobbs, an influx of female producers, writers, photographers and DJs all broke through in the up-til-then male orientated scene. With key 12" releases on
Hyperdub, Immigrant and Hotflush Recordings, producers
Vaccine, Subeena and
Ikonika introduced a palette of new sounds and influences to the genre, such as double-time bass drums,
8-bit video game samples, hand percussion and lushly arranged strings. Mary Anne Hobbs commented that, unlike "Grime and drum 'n' bass raves, the mood at dubstep nights is less aggressive, or more meditative, leading to a larger female attendance at events than with the genre's precursors. You see the female-to-male ratio constantly going up – it's got the potential to be 40:60". Purple sound later led to the development of
future bass.
2009–2014: Mainstream popularity and Brostep performing for crowds on 7 July 2011 at the 10th Anniversary Camp Bisco Music Festival in
Mariaville Lake, New York The influence of dubstep on more commercial or popular genres can be identified as far back as 2007, with artists such as
Britney Spears using dubstep sounds; critics observed a dubstep influence in the song "Freakshow", from the 2007 album
Blackout, which Tom Ewing described as "built around the 'wobbler' effect that's a genre standby."
Benga and Coki's single "Night" still continued to be a popular track on the UK dance chart more than a year after its release in late 2007, still ranking in the top five at the start of April 2008 on
Pete Tong's
BBC Radio 1 dance chart list. However, the year 2009 saw the dubstep sound gaining further worldwide recognition, often through the assimilation of elements of the sound into other genres, in a manner similar to drum and bass before it. At the start of the year, UK electronic duo
La Roux put their single "
In for the Kill" in the remix hands of
Skream. They then gave remix duties of "
I'm Not Your Toy" to
Nero and then again with their single "
Bulletproof" being remixed by
Zinc. The same year, London producer
Silkie released an influential album,
City Limits Vol. 1, on the
Deep Medi Musik label, using 1970s funk and soul reference points, a departure from the familiar strains of dub and UK garage. The sound also continued to interest the mainstream press with key articles in magazines like
Interview,
New York, and
The Wire, which featured producer
Kode9 on its May 2009 cover.
XLR8R put
Joker on the cover of its December 2009 issue. In April 2009 Luke Hood founded the YouTube channel
UKF Dubstep, which introduced Dubstep to a broader range of young people internationally. In November 2010 the channel had 100,000 subscribers, and as of November 2019 has over one million. "UKF features established and up and coming producers from around the world, featuring artists from
Flux Pavilion /
Knife Party to
Friction / Hybrid Minds. We're sent a huge amount of music so it's our job to pick the best to upload on the channel for our audience to listen to. In just over 3 years our channels now have more than 2m subscribers and 4 channels – UKF Dubstep, Drum & Bass, Music and Mixes. The audience is getting more and more International and younger," Luke said on the interview with SoSoActive mydecoraura. In a move foreshadowed by endorsements of the sound from R&B, hip-hop and recently, mainstream figures such as
Rihanna, or
The Bomb Squad's Hank Shocklee,
Snoop Dogg collaborated with dubstep producers
Chase & Status, providing a vocal for their "underground anthem", "Eastern Jam". The 2011 Britney Spears track "
Hold It Against Me" was also responsible for promoting dubstep tropes within pop music, topping the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Rihanna's
Rated R album released such content the very year dubstep saw a spike, containing three dubstep tracks. Such events propelled the genre into the biggest radio markets overnight, with considerable airplay. Other hip-hop artists like
Xzibit added their vocals to dubstep instrumental tracks for the mixtape project
Mr Grustle & Tha Russian Dubstep LA Embrace The Renaissance Vol. 1 Mixed by Plastician. In summer 2009, rapper and actress
Eve used Benga's "E Trips"; adding her own verses over the beat to create a new tune called "Me N My"; the first single from her unreleased album
Flirt. The track was co-produced by Benga and hip hop producer
Salaam Remi. Throughout 2010, the presence of dubstep in the pop charts was notable, with "
I Need Air" by
Magnetic Man reaching number 10 in the UK singles chart. This presented a turning point in the popularity of mainstream dubstep amongst UK listeners as it was placed on rotation on
BBC Radio 1. "
Katy on a Mission" by
Katy B (produced by Benga) followed, debuting at number 5 in the UK singles chart, and stayed in the top 10 for five more weeks. Also, in 2010, American producer
Skrillex had achieved moderate commercial success in North America with a dubstep-influenced sound. By 2011, his EP
Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites had peaked at number three on the U.S.
Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart. In February 2011,
Chase & Status's second album
No More Idols reached No. 2 in the UK album chart. On 1 May 2011,
Nero's third single "
Guilt" from their album reached number 8 in the Official UK Singles Chart.
DJ Fresh and
Nero both had number one singles in 2011 with "
Louder" and "
Promises". Strong baselines imported from dubstep continued in popular music with the
Taylor Swift song "
I Knew You Were Trouble", which made number 1 on Billboard's U.S.
Mainstream Top 40 chart.
2011: Post-dubstep performing at
Glastonbury Festival, June 2011 In early 2011, the term "post-dubstep" (sometimes known as "
UK bass" or simply "bass music") was used to describe club music that was influenced by certain aspects of dubstep. Such music often references earlier dubstep productions as well as
UK garage,
2-step and other forms of underground
electronic dance music. Artists producing music described as post-dubstep have also incorporated elements of
ambient music and early
R&B. The latter in particular is heavily sampled by three artists described as post-dubstep:
Mount Kimbie, Fantastic Mr Fox and
James Blake. The tempo of music typically characterised as post-dubstep is approximately 130
beats per minute. English music producer
Jamie xx released remixes which are considered post-dubstep, including ''
We're New Here (2011), a Gil Scott-Heron remix album. In September 2011, a Spin Magazine'' EDM special referred to brostep as a "lurching and aggressive" variant of dubstep that has proven commercially successful in the United States. Unlike traditional dubstep production styles, which emphasise sub-bass content, brostep accentuates the middle
register and features "robotic fluctuations and
metal-esque aggression". According to
Simon Reynolds, as dubstep gained larger audiences and moved from smaller club-based venues to larger outdoor events, sub-sonic content was gradually replaced by distorted bass
riffs that function roughly in the same register as the electric guitar in heavy metal. The term
brostep has been used by some as a pejorative descriptor for a style of popular dubstep developed in the United States. According to a BBC review of his 2012 album
Songs, the record was a muddled attempt by Rusko to realign his music with a "Jamaican inheritance" and distance it from the "belching, aggressive, resolutely macho" dubstep produced by his contemporaries. Commenting on the success of American producers such as Skrillex, Skream stated: "I think it hurts a lot of people over here because it's a UK sound, but it's been someone with influences outside the original sound that has made it a lot bigger. The bad side of that is that a lot of people will just say 'dubstep equals Skrillex'. But in all honesty it genuinely doesn't bother me. I like the music he makes." Other North American artists that were initially associated with the brostep sound were Canadian producers
Datsik and
Excision. Their production style has been described by
Mixmag as "a viciously harsh, yet brilliantly produced sound that appealed more to
Marilyn Manson and
Nine Inch Nails fans than it did to lovers of UK garage". The brostep sound also attracted the attention of metal bands.
Nu metal band
Korn's 2011 album
The Path of Totality features several collaborations with electronic music producers, including Skrillex and Excision. This style of dubstep is sometimes known as
metalstep.
2012–2013: Riddim In the early 2010s, UK artists began to play with a style of dubstep reminiscent of a resurgence or continuation of original British dubstep styles. This became known as
Riddim, a name coined by British producer Jakes around 2012. The name comes from the
Jamaican Patois term
riddim, which refers to the instrumental of
dub,
reggae and
dancehall music. Riddim is looked upon as a subgenre of dubstep, similarly to other sub genres like brostep, drum-step, and wobble-step. It is said that those who enjoy this style of music describe it as the "dirtier, swaggier" side of dubstep, whereas those looking at this from the outside, claim that it is "repetitive and chaotic". Notable tracks of the genre include "Yasuo" by Bommer and Crowell, "Orgalorg" by Infekt, and "Jotaro" by Phiso. Some commentators have suggested that Riddim is not a genre in its own right and is instead just a style of dubstep. Riddim producer Oolacile states "A lot of people who have been around a lot longer have a different idea of what riddim is. Older fans consider riddim to be the swampy, repetitive sound, and newer fans will associate riddim with the sound of the underground." while artists such as Mount Kimbie and
James Blake shifted their sounds from post-dubstep into more experimental or soulful electronic influenced music. Pioneers of dubstep such as Skream and Loefah moved away from the genre, moving on to other genres instead. Loefah stopped playing and producing dubstep and moved on to UK bass, founding his record label Swamp81 in the process. Skream shifted away from dubstep, choosing to instead produce and play house and techno music in his DJ sets and releasing various techno songs on Alan Fitzpatrick's record label We Are The Brave.
2016–present: Colour bass Around the early to mid 2010s, a niche development of dubstep began to emerge which combines the aggression and impact of brostep with the rich tonality and musicality of melodic dubstep, fusing tonality with mid-range bass
sound design. Artists like 501, Subscape, and
Gemini have experimented upon this style of production in the earlier 2010s. with artists like Skybreak,
Ace Aura, and Chime themselves finding success in producing colour bass music. == See also ==