What is Dubstep?

As this is not a popular genre we feel it necessary to try and explain what the genre is all about.

·         Dubstep is a Genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London. The music website Allmusic has described its overall sound as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals

·         The term "dubstep" in reference to a genre of music began to be used by around 2002 by labels such as Big Apple, Ammunition, and Tempa, 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 aided the growth of the scene, such as dubstepforum. The radio 1 presenter John Peel was a very early supporter and started playing the music since 2003.

·         One characteristic of certain strands of dubstep is the wobble bass, often referred to as the "wub", where an extended bass note is manipulated rhythmically. 

·         Originally, dubstep releases had some structural similarities to other genres like drum and bass and UK garage. Typically this would comprise an intro, main section (often incorporating a bass drop), a midesction, a second main section similar to the first (often with another drop), and an outro.

Audience Research:

Through exploring various online forums and websites I have collected ideas on the stereotypical avid Dubstep listener. Below are comments from Dubstep listeners about the audience (including themselves). I noticed that recreational drug use came up a lot as well as the reference to age being early adult years.

“Smokes a lot of pot, drinks a lot of cheap alcohol, describes music (and other things) as "filthy", "grimy", "dirty." Wears baggy pants (UFOs) and big DJ headphones at all times.”

“lots of college students/heavy drinkers and smokers. I'm a firm believer that dubstep was created in mind for people under the influence of a substance!”

“College freshman, a little overweight. Hangs out at frat parties where he dances by himself. Drink Mt. Dew exclusively. "Sick drop!" is the only phrase they know.” – Sick drop is referring to the bass

Video

As dubstep is quite a new genre they often do not have any high end videos to their music. Often there will be a picture representing their personal logo for the duration of songs on YouTube. This is partly due to funding and that many of the dubstep mixes passed around online are mixed by college students. Therefore we have decided to look more at drum n bass music videos for inspiration and are planning on strongly following the conventions. As we found out through audience research, they expect to see a variety of different effects over short and sudden shots. The reason why we are having many shots is to sync with the rapid beat of the music.