WTF is dubstep?

WTF is dubstep?

4 January, 2008 | 12.45PM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: scuba, skream

Dubstep has been a buzz word in music for the last 18 months, but not everyone knows what dubstep is due to its murky underground existence.

Beatport’s Caroline Kaven (a self-confessed former dubstep virgin turned fanatic) put together this helpful WTF Is Dubstep chart to highlight some of the genre’s biggest records as way of introduction.

We caught up with Caroline (and tied her up - see the pic) to find out what she thinks of the dark broken sound.

Why did you put this chart together?

When I first started working for UK label management in late 2006 there was this massive dubstep buzz in the UK music press but obviously at this time we didn’t really have any content on Beatport that I could have a listen to.

I was aware that the sound was important for UK as a territory and was reaching out to key labels without actually knowing what the sound was, only how music journalists had described it.

It was quite a bizarre situation and I am sure the labels I was contacting at that time probably thought I was a bit of a loser as I was pretty honest about not knowing what it was.

Thankfully when I did actually get to hear it this confirmed its relevance for Beatport customers to me, even more so in 2007 with a few choice techno producers blessing it with their trendy minimal hands.

So thankfully (big up Ricardo Villalobos) I didn’t get fired.

My chart is essentially a cheat’s guide to dubstep since we now have lots of lovely dubstep labels on Beatport.

So if like me you are a bit clueless you can listen to this and then pretend you were cool and knew about it all along.

Why did you choose the tracks you chose?

I know it’s not the most underground choice but having seen him alongside the Digital Mystics and Plastician at the Dub Attack party at this years Amsterdam Dance Event I have to say Skream is one of my favourites.

He’s amazing live and he’s done some great crossover remixes that have really put dubstep on the map with the dance community.

I love his version of The Klaxons cover of Grace ‘It’s Not Over Yet’.

He had to keep restarting records at the Amsterdam party as the stage rig they were playing on was pulsating so much from people jumping around that the records kept skipping.

I am very excited that we now have him confirmed to play at Watergate in Berlin for the Beatport 4 Year Anniversary party at the end of Jan.

I also saw Scuba play (from Hotflush) recently in Berlin and was pretty impressed.

I like the jumped up, warmer sound of dubstep over the dark stuff, stuff that has a real crossover appeal, ‘Broken’ (no.5 on the chart) is probably my favourite example to date, this could totally be played within an electronic or techno set but it’s still completely fresh.

The most influential labels that we have are probably Tectonic and Earwax (both run by Pinch), as they have put out some really interesting releases which again are heavily influenced by electronica.

Another hugely influential one on Beatport has been Hyperdub (which was the first dubstep label on Beatport).

Where do you see dubstep going in the next year?

More dubstep nights outside the UK will spring up (it’s already started to gain a following over here in Berlin for example) and anyone that likes techno, electronica, dub or drum & bass will be susceptible to it.

Even if you don’t get converted to going to dubstep nights you’ll inadvertently hear the influences from this genre as it gets absorbed into those other genres.

This can only be a good thing in keeping things edgy and vibrant and in shaking up the electronic music scene.

Another thing that I think is worth mentioning is that dubstep is completely accessible to girls, much more so than grime.

Dubstep has a lot more danceabilty than minimal techno for example and the chilled out stuff is really pretty - take the new Burial album, girls love it! 

I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that one of the figureheads for the scene is a lady (Mary Anne Hobbs) either.

You just need to get past the masculine sound bytes. ‘BRAAAP’ ‘Brrrrrr’ - Someone give that man a jumper!

I’d also imagine that the genre is going to grow significantly on Beatport in 2008 since we already had a massive growth in labels joining up in the second half of 2007 and we now have a dubstep genre manager – woop!.

We are still missing a lot of key labels on Beatport but I think that once the purists accept that dubstep does have this real crossover potential within the electronic music community and how influential it is to the scene they will be a bit less guarded about it.

It will be a lot like what happened with drum & bass on Beatport, once labels and artist realise that it doesn’t harm the vinyl sales they will go for it more….and then we can all have a big dubstep party in Panorama bar.

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• Get the WTF Is Dubstep chart on Beatport