What is Dubstep?

Dubstep is s a new somewhat new genre – evolving from electronic dance music, it originated from South East London and takes its roots from ‘Jamaican dub music’ (sound system cultures), concentrating on the emphasis of bass frequencies and its own aesthetics and a unique mode of consumption.
Dubstep is frequently described as, "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals”, and dates back to the early 90’s.
Dubstep is generally instrumental, Similar to a vocal garage hybrid - grime - the genre's feel is commonly dark; tracks frequently use a minor key and can feature dissonant harmonies such as the tritone interval within a riff. Other distinguishing features often found are the use of samples, a propulsive, sparse rhythm,[9] and an almost omnipresent sub-bass. Some dubstep artists have also incorporated a variety of outside influences, from dub-influenced techno such as Basic Channel to classical music or heavy metal
The earliest dubstep releases date back to 1998 and were darker, more experimental, instrumental dub remixes of 2-step garage tracks attempting to incorporate the funky elements of breakbeat, or the dark elements of drum and bass into 2-step, which featured B-sides of single releases. In 2001, this and other strains of dark garage music began to be showcased and promoted at London's night club Forward (sometimes also referred to as FWD>>), which went on to be considerably influential to the development of dubstep.
Throughout the first years of its development, the musical current was given many aliases by underground music aficionados, being firstly referred to as "dark" or "darker" garage.[citation needed] The term "dubstep" in reference to a genre of music began to be used by around 2002, by which time stylistic trends used in creating these remixes started to become more noticeable and distinct from 2-step and grime.
Dubstep started to spread beyond small local scenes in late 2005 and early 2006; many websites devoted to the genre appeared on the internet and thus aided the growth of the scene, such as dubstepforum, the download site Barefiles and blogs such as gutterbreakz.[3] Simultaneously, the genre was receiving extensive coverage in music magazines such as The Wire and online publications such as Pitchfork Media, with a regular feature entitled The Month In: Grime/Dubstep. Interest in dubstep grew significantly after BBC Radio 1 DJ Mary Anne Hobbs started championing the genre, beginning with a show devoted to it (entitled "Dubstep Warz") in January 2006

Some sections quoted from wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubstep



A short dubstep documentary