producer Skrillex unofficially becoming the posterboy for the movement, with other prominent artists (including UK ones) like Rusko, Caspa, Flux Pavillion, Doctor P, Datsik, Excision and more cosigning the sound. market and its “Americanized” form was dubbed as “brostep,” with U.S.

By the start of this decade, dubstep gained significant popularity in the U.S. The genre heavily departed from dub and UK garage, borrowing heavily from more common styles like R&B, hip-hop, pop, rock, metal and other electronic music. In the same way how the sound of house music evolved drastically after it merged with mainstream pop music, the popularized style of dubstep has very little sonic resemblance to its original form.Įxample of UK dubstep: Skream’s “Midnight Request Line” (2005) We won’t go into too much detail about dubstep’s conception, but it’s generally accepted that the genre emerged in the late ’90s out of South London, inspired by other prominent UK sounds like garage, drum and bass, jungle, dub and reggae. However, if you had thought that dubstep has its origins in the early 2010s, you’re not entirely wrong. Those who know their music history (or have an affinity for the UK underground) would be well-aware that the genre and term have existed for quite some time before that. Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” (2012) was heavily inspired by dubstepĪt least, that might be what the casual listeners assume. While electro and progressive house were the most popular forms of electronic music at the time, there was another “new” emerging sound that simultaneously came about - dubstep. House and trance music were staples at parties, raves re-emerged and became trendier than ever, and fist-pumping became one of the most prominently emulated dance moves.

Top 40 pop acts of the time like Black Eyed Peas, Usher, Britney Spears, Akon, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry incorporated electronic elements to their musical aesthetic and eventually, veteran electronic musicians like David Guetta, Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, and Calvin Harris - and relative newcomers at the time like Skrillex, Deadmau5, and Avicii - joined them with chart-topping hits as well. During the latter years of the 2000s, particular elements of house, techno, trance increasingly crept into pop music that at the turn of the decade, the genre became part of the “mainstream” sound.

The scene blew up to such large proportions that it quickly became very oversaturated - to the point where the term “EDM” became derogatory and had negative connotations to it. If one were to recall and pinpoint a specific musical style to have really blown up in the 2010s, it would without doubt have to go to electronic dance music.

Dubstep