The very first dubstep releases originated in the UK more than 10 years ago. Since then, up until the mid-2000s, it was purely an experimental form of music. From 2006-2010, dubstep was steadily revamped and grew in popularity. Since 2010, its popularity has spiked.
Many people attribute dubstep’s popularity to the dubstep producer, Skrillex, whose music became part of the mainstream media. But originally, Skream was the first producer to actually break away from the experimental dubstep sounds, which were dark and monotonous, by adding a melody to the genre. Other producers similarly began to restyle dubstep until it became what it is today.
Skrillex’s EP, ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites,’ released on October 2010 on www.beatport.com and became a major change for dubstep. Singles from the EP such as ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites,’ ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll,’ and ‘Kill Everybody’ remained in Beatport’s top eight charts for months.
“I first heard about Skrillex from a friend, and I checked him out on Youtube,” said Matthiew Magiera, a junior. “This was the first time I heard about dubstep. I listened to ‘Scary Monsters’ and thought it was good. His remix of Benny Benassi’s song ‘Cinema’ and his song for the latest ‘Mortal Kombat’ game are my favorites.”
Progressive house producer, deadmau5, used his fame to help bring attention to Skrillex. He signed Skrillex with his record label and played Skrillex’s music at his show tours. Both of them are good friends and have been on tours together numerous times.
The style of the songs in the EP wasn’t solely like that of dubstep. They were very upbeat, sporadic, vocal, and structurally similar to house music, not dubstep. The gritty, heavy bass synthesizers used in his songs, however, are conspicuously influenced by dubstep. Skrillex’s EP wasn’t a twist on dubstep, rather his own avant-garde. He used a mix of influences from several electronic music genres, such as progressive house and electric, to create his own kind of music.
Other producers began to emulate Skrillex’s unique style of music in their own work. Most of the newer dubstep songs that are best known today are in the same style of Skrillex’s music. On her twitter account, Kozee, a dubstep/drum and bass producer, dubbed this style of music ‘brostep.’ Though brostep isn’t coined as a real phrase, it refers to dubstep with heavy, gritty bass and very random, scattered sounds. Between brostep and dubstep, brostep is the more well-known and praised of the two, and it’s thanks to Skrillex.
