News

Dubstep: Worth The Recognition?

• 17th May 2010

Just imagine laying in your bed one morning, awake, sleeping or thinking and you are suddenly awoken by loud, fat, heavy, slow bass lines and repetitive loops. This is what me and possibly my entire hall are greeted by as my house mate plays it through his powerful speakers. If you are unsure about what music this is, welcome to the world of dubstep.

A little history: dubstep exploded onto the London club scene in the early noughties and was mainly experimental at the time. Throughout the years however, the style has been gaining much more attention and has only become mainstream in the last year and a half. John Peel himself even gave his favour towards earlier variations of the genre and more and more artists such as La Roux are either giving or having their tracks remixed into dubstep songs.

I've been hearing a lot of mixed comments about the genre recently. One of my house mates has described it as 'slow, boring and repetitive music that is all focused in the bland bass line' whereas another describes it as 'one of the sickest styles you will hear.'

Despite whether you like it or not, dub step has become an unavoidable genre growing in popularity and being played in many club scenes around the UK. However, many other scenes experienced an explosion of popularity before returning back to earth and some even down below. The emo and hardcore scenes for example, although still around experienced a huge explosion in the mid noughties. Some see the same fate for the current indie scene and dub step.

I'll admit that the genre has grown on me due to constant exposure from my housemate but there are still hit and miss areas for me. For example, I heard a remix of the Temper Traps 'Science of Fear' that had me wanting more but then I heard this which did not work for me at all…

Like it or not, dubstep may be with us for a while.

What are your opinions on the genre?