DUBSTEP – PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Ahh dubstep, these days it’s absolutely everywhere some love it some hate it, but whatever you’re preference you can’t avoid it!

I was actually a resident MC at ‘Dub Pressure’ Brighton’s first Dubstep night back in 2006 – 2008, it was at The Pressure point feat Plasticsian, Distance and Crazy D

Dubstep was pretty different back then, much more edgy moody and closer to it’s ‘Dub’ roots. There was a lot of interesting sounds at the time and the scene was in it’s infancy compared to now. Classic tracks like Gorgan Sound by Horsepower Productions and Midnight Request Line by Scream were tearing up dancefloors down south, although none of us could have predicted how enormous it would become.

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Over the past 2/3 years dubstep has taken over and established itself as one of the biggest genres in Dance music. Naturally everyone has followed suit and jumped on the band wagon, from promoters to producers, DJ’s, MC’s and even international pop stars: Who would have thought 5 years ago that Britney Spears would collaborate with Rusko on a dubstep tune, absolutely insane!

Dubstep now is very different now from it’s humble beginnings, the ‘wobble’ sound is a formula that a lot of producers are following and I feel that in general dubstep has become quite samey. There are still some interesting producers out there but they are overshadowed by what has become the ‘typical’ dubstep sound. The question is will dubstep be a flash in the pan or stand the test of time in the world of dance music. I can see a similar pattern emerging with the evolution of dubstep to that of UK Garage: it started out as a unique underground sound with a cult following and over the space of a few years grew and grew and grew. At this point everyone jumped on the band wagon commercialising garage, one thing led to another, the So Solid Crew shootings gave garage a bad name, the media jumped on the stories and unfortunately garage died becoming much less popular.

I could see a similar thing happening with dubstep, not in the same way but I do hope it hasn’t hit a glass ceiling. On the other hand it could follow the route of Drum ‘n’ Bass which reached commercial success in 2002 with Shy FX ‘Shake Ur Body’ and regardless has always been a global giant in dance music. Anyhow, it will be interesting to see what happens to dubstep over the course of the next few years… Feel free to share your thoughts on this and comment below, also share your opinion on if you think I should jump on the bandwagon and record a dubstep track for my next album.. (everyone else is, fuck it may as well give it a crack!)

GOT BEATS?