A few weeks back, some friends and I were waiting for a table at Manora’s Thai (which, by the way, is drop dead delicious). I had just mentioned a recent dubstep show I went to when the woman standing next to me overheard and commented, “oh are you guys talking about dubstep too?”

Pleasantly surprised that someone else at a sit-down restaurant knew about underground electronic music, I replied “yeah! Do you like dubstep?”

Which received an adamant “No! I don’t understand it at all! What is it that you like about that sound?”

Caught slightly off guard, I had to wing a response but was able to come up with something coherent. I began by saying that it’s absolutely essential to appreciate dubstep on a proper system with a subwoofer or two (or 20). Listening on anything less (god forbid, laptop speakers or iPod earbuds) means you’re missing out on much of the low end, which is a highly important part of the sound and intended impact. Good club systems can make the music feel like bliss; there’s nothing quite like that visceral impact when the subbass drops into your gut!

Next, I brought up that although there is a lot of bad, formulaic dubstep, there are plenty of gems to uncover as well (this happens to be the case with any electronic genre, really). And since dubstep has become rather popular of late, a lot of talented producers from around the world have been innovating the field from various stylistic angles (witness: dubtech, west coast sound, purple, etc).

Generally, I feel that dubstep still has a lot of creative potential because it is relatively welcome to strange new ideas, sounds, or reinterpretations of existing styles (drawing upon hiphop, jazz, techno, etc). Sure, it’s developed some fail-safe crowd pleasing tricks already, but the genre doesn’t rely primarily on these types of tracks. This can’t be said about certain other dance genres out there.

As the popularity has risen, it’s been nice to see more people of diverse backgrounds coming out to the shows. It’s no longer just dudes-who-don’t-dance standing in a dark room:

Hah!

Nowadays, there are plenty of both boys and girls, and people have figured out how to dance to the music! Which brings me to one of my favorite aspects about dubstep, the simultaneous regular and double time feel (or half time depending on who you talk to). Not only does this allow for ingenuity in production, but it also encourages greater freedom of movement and expression. Imagine two rivers side by side, one flowing twice as fast as the other. Dancing to dubstep is like being able to jump between these two currents at will, with the faster one being bouncy and active while the slower one allows more spacious, flowing movements. Trying new ways to combine the two makes dancing to dubstep very fun and engaging!

Finally, as with every electronic genre, it’s up to the performers to vary things up. If you’re playing an all dubstep set, you better be thinking about how to create shifts in energy, mood, density, timbres, etc. Otherwise, it’s all too easy for the set to become static, causing people to lose interest and complain that dubstep is “boring”!

Enough of my thoughts now, what do you love or dislike about dubstep?

(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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