NEWS
EVENTS
Six degrees of seperation; the birth and afterlife of dubstep.
Thursday 18th October 2012 | Steph
Dubstep exploded onto the popular music scene with the same ferocity as it’s filthy 140bpm rhythm over half a decade ago and has refused to move from there since. Through natural evolution, commercialization and various “down with the kids” marketing devices dubstep has projected itself onto the modern music scene and looks as if it’s here to stay.
Having first discovered dubstep myself when I was 17, at a small questionably ‘legal’ party held at an equally questionable ‘disused’ warehouse (The entrance was a smashed window with a bloke practically throwing you through) somewhere near the M4 Chieveley services. The venue played host to your expected but niche genres of dance music suited to the alternatively inebriated party guests such as schranz, modern acid & breakbeat. Whilst I stood back watching the hordes of dancers like zombies to the tinny, relentless beat coming from the tower of speakers and throwing horrible cheap cider down my neck in vain attempt to get drunk quickly, I knelt on the floor to find a rizla in my bag and suddenly felt something pulse through my kneecaps and right up to my temples; a deep, unfamiliar bass line was coming from the next room. When I walked in and heard what I later learnt to be Bengas ’26 basslines’ the pleasure (mixed with the cider) was unexplainable. I felt as if I had stumbled across the Atlantis of dance music - and for that one stupid drunk moment it was all mine.
Since then the industry has evolved and changed, and I have been at its side every step of the way - so I present to you the six degrees of separation; how did we get from Skream to Skrillex?
1/ 2008; ‘The big apple’
The actual origins of dubstep are unknown, but it is often argued that the movement first began in South London in the late 1990s, more specifically, a record shop called ‘The Big Apple’ based in Croydon. Upstairs two lads later to be known as Benga, Skream or collaboratively in the future as ‘Magnetic man’. Benga and Skream learnt and developed the art and technique of creating dubstep in that room together, and both went on to produce some mind-blowing tracks which are still in popular circulation and remixed in fresh stuff today. This was when Dubstep was still in it’s popular infancy, and I revelled in getting anyone and everyone I knew to listen to the copy of Skreams self titled 2006 EP on record.
This offer extended to both my Dad and my Nan on boxing day.
2/ 2009: ‘Self Discovery’
As Winston Churchill once said; “There’s nothing wrong with change, if it is the right decision” This was the year that Dubstep really started to kick off around the UK, I found myself no longer hunting for dubstep nights in back streets and far corners of London but finding it on my doorstep and (shock horror) even advertised. Some of my favourite artists like Borgore, Bar9 & Zeds Dead whom I’d seen before at tiny venues with 50 other people suddenly found themselves shot onto the main stages of prolific venues such as Kokos @ Camden, 02 @ Brixton & many more. I was sharing my long standing love for the music with novices, newbies and techno heads that had grown sick of duft duft duft. Of course with paying customers comes new demands, and suddenly you found yourself torn between the filthy, primal rhythm of dubstep dinosaurs like Cookie Monsta and Funtcase, with the more pretty, sellable sounds of Rusko and Flux Pavillion. At this early stage the difference seemed minor and therefore only created a nice break between sets at a gig - little did we know then how quickly this crack would grow.
3/ 2010: ‘The year of the remix’
Like every other genre of music the inevitable happened in 2010; every Tom Dick and Harry with fruity loops or garage band fancied themselves as a Dubstep Artist. Gone were the days that you could type any song into youtube and one of the top searches wouldn’t include ‘dubstep remix’ as an option. No stone was left unturned, from Rihanna to Ellie Goulding, to the obscure and frankly obscene (Antiques roadshow, Animal Hospital, Arthur themetune...) dubstep managed to become injected into one song or another of which I’m certain everybody would be familiar with. This rocketed dubsteps notoriety in it’s popular stance; either as an annoyance or influence for everyone involved.
4/ 2011: ‘Top 40’
In the summer of 2011 I remember being in a pub garden in South London, not-so-quietly getting drunk with a few friends when there was a sudden break in our laughter -
“Put on those shades, and wave to yesterday, the sunlight hurts my eyes”
I couldn’t believe my ears, was I listening to modestep in a normal pub, full of normal people? Last time I’d heard these I was at a sweaty club in East London having my ribs crushed by the surging crowd against the metal barriers. Sure they were big in my world, but not in popular culture.
On the 21st of August 2011, Modestep debuted in the UK charts at number 16 - what was to be the catalyst for many to follow in their footsteps.
5/ 2012: ‘WTF is Brostep?’
I went home for easter in 2012, and before I’d even managed to have a proper conversation with my mum, my 18 year old brother comes out of his room and asks me if I had been listening to ‘Brostep’. Up to this point I had spent my teenage years attempting to teach my brother about music as I did, Garage, Techno, Jazz, Blues, Reggae, Ska, anything I could. I told him that I wasn’t aware of ‘Brostep’ and he quite excitedly (being the first time in 18 years he had introduced me to something) went on the run me through it.
Skrillex and Knife party seemed to dominate the genre, both of whom I’d seen at venues before but who then had very short sets and were those ‘Breaks’ I mentioned back in 2009. It wasn’t until my brother said “Skrillex is the only real dubstep artist, the rest are shit” that I realised the true divide that had been born within dubstep.
Most original dubheads have gone on the abandon the ‘little brother’ of Dubstep, but with the introduction of any new genre the inevitable sub genre territory comes along at some point, Ska from Reggae, Rock from Blues. Die hard fans have always found it near impossible to accept was is essentially the growth of their child (me being one of them) but with progress comes change, even if that means artists such as Skrillex and Knife Party being adorned with the title ‘Dubstep’.
6/ Present Day: ‘Family Friendly’
We find ourselves in the modern day, and wherever you turn dubstep has found its way into every medium, conveying different messages of strength, poverty, underground rhythm and commercial success. Only recently was Dubstep used to advertise a new version of an online browser, and even the olympics found their own grounding using dubstep to advertise their events on the television. It is almost unfathomable to consider that 5 years previously people were saying “Dub what?” but its fair to say that dubstep is in the here, now and to stay.
By Steph Dix
