The Evolution of Dubstep and its Current Mutations in American Culture

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Overview
The Evolution of Dubstep and its current mutations in American Culture is a very interesting subject. From its humble origins in the late 1990s in the UK to when dubstep kicks off into mainstream music in the late 2000s and its subsequent mutations in American culture. The mutations that have become huge in American culture are associated with Skrillex as a figure head and the “Brostep” movement.

Origins of Dubstep (1998-2002)
The early dubstep movement started out in the United Kingdom in late 1998. The early dubstep releases were all experimental and garage produced. The early dubstep releases were trying to incorporate drum and bass into the popular 2 step electronic dance music which was extremely popular. Early artists who worked in dubstep were El-B, Steve Gurley, Oris Jay, and Zed Bias. Initially dubstep started out as the “B-Side” on a record. The B-side was the flipside of a record and the artist usually placed the music they wanted to become “a hit” on the A-side. The term dubstep was not even coined until around 2002 when Ammunition Promotions began to use the term to promote their club Forward >> in London. Forward >> was crucial in the development of the dubstep genre as it was the first club to devote the venue to the sound and the environment in which dubstep artists could release their new songs. Dubstep was initially marketed for its huge base lines. Electronic dance music in London at the time were not incorporating the huge baselines into their music and this helped to distinguish the dubstep category from electronic dance music. Forward also ran its own underground radio station Rinse FM which helped promote new dubstep artists airing their music were the conventional radio stations were not yet airi...

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...n dubstep song the term “Drop the bass” is often heard and is seen in many artists work where the song will lead up to a large bass drop after which the bass line will play.
The most significant style of dubstep that has mutated is the genre of brostep. Currently in the United States brostep is what is mainly heard when people think of dubstep. In 2011 Skrillex became the poster child for the genre with his ep Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites. Brostep is defined by the dubstep community as harsh, aggressive, metal-esque, using aggressive sounding timbres and distorted bass riffs to mimic electric guitar. Many of the original artists who helped grow the dubstep genre have openly stated how brostep is hurting the genre as when people associate music to dubstep they assume that artists like Skrillex who use the angry aggressive style of Brostep are the real dubstep.

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