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Comment by iamacyborg | Hacker News Reader

Whatever that music is, it sure ain't dubstep.

I wonder how well it'd work with something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEAf_ZztCP0

Skrillex is actually regarded as a leader in Brostep, a subgenre and/or style of Dubstep. At least in the USA, Brostep has practically supplanted Dubstep and co-opted the name. This has been occuring for about the past 10 years. A big factor is the "drop" part of Brostep sounding very attractive to non-EDM people who head-bang, and to whom traditional Dubstep would be percieved as "boring" or not stimulating enough (without intoxication). This has led to a re-enforcing cycle where domestic EDM festivals reach greater audiences, and so they keep promoting Brostep as Dubstep.

Personally, I'm not a fan of this shift. I prefer EDM from the era of the track you linked to, and/or contemporary artists who emulate the older styles.

Oh I know, I just get irrationaly annoyed by people calling this stuff dubstep. It feels like half the problem is people and/or clubs don't have soundsystems appropriate for playing bass-heavy music at the right level, so they end up listening to stuff that's light on the low-end but still calling it "dubstep".

You are probably right. For EDM, cultural differences have kept the US lagging behind Europe and the UK. EDM-specific clubs are not common outside of major cities known for nightlife. A lot of EDM tours end up at venues that aren't designed for EDM. These are the conditions informing people's tastes, so probably a big factor for why bass isn't as prominent as elsewhere. There truly are fans an places where it is very much alive, just not as strong as other places IMO.

Brostep may be Dubstep Disneyland, but I'm not sure if being unconcerned with filing music in the right subcategory counts as "lagging".

The bass music underground is alive and well in many parts of the US.

Mainstream it is not, and THANK GOD for that

Pretty much every genre changes significantly over its lifetime though. It seems like you could just say you like early dubstep just like people say, "I like old school hip hop" all the time.

I get what you’re saying but the sound is so completely different it’s not a simple evolution of style.

Listen to dnb from two decades ago you can still see where current stuff comes from. Compare early Digital Mystikz stuff with Skrillex and you wouldn’t call them the same thing.

This still gets played on a weekly basis in our house https://youtu.be/qwCr9QRNMc4

To save a click... It’s the garage track largely credited as the birth of dubstep

"Zed Bias - Neighbourhood" is actually regarded as one of the first dubstep songs, or at least a transition one.

Here are some other "true" dubstep tracks, in no particular order:

- Burial - Archangel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J1gvgwHblI

- Rusko - Jahova https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OE_jjJkkD8

- Coleco - Taostic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krGadL6Je6A

- Kode9 - 9 Samurai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-rEAe4C8gk

- Skream - Mignight Request Line https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJGXRQ9vBoU

I'd make a case for El-B, too:

Express: https://youtu.be/SLbXmPvtZXA

A lot of proto-wobble in this one.

Nice list. Added all to my Youtube playlist. Have also heard Sjream - Mignight Request Line mentioned as the first dubstep tune.

I’d say Rusko is responsible for the whole brostep thing. You can see how it all grew from his tunes.

Yeah, Woo Boost was a divergence point for the genre for sure.

It's still very garage/2steppy. I think Anti War Dub by Digital Mystikz is generally considered the birth of dubstep. Of course, ask 10 people and you'll get 10 answers.

Midnight Request Line is the one I hear most frequently.

Midnight Request Line was the first dubstep song to go mainstream (IIRC Annie Mac picked it up), but the genre existed before that point. It's a great song though.

Annie Mac made dubstep go mainstream? TIL.

Side anecdote... My oldest bro was in a band with her brother Davey in school and my second oldest bro was in her class.

Oh I know, I’ve got the first few DMZ releases on vinyl but that seems like the first track that started to hit public consciousness.

El-B's "Ghost Rider" is often credited as the first dubstep track too.

Listening to the Skrillex samples in the article, it just sounds like DnB but... obnoxious.

The Loefah track in the parent comment though, I can get behind that.

It's even more obnoxious than breakcore, which is saying a lot.

Same, I did not know Skrillex but I dislike this style.

On the other hand I love Fonik, for example.

I love even more Deadmau5, E.T.H, ...

Skrillex ruined dubstep in the 'states. And he looks like a total d-bag.

I hate that guy.

I know the point of the article has nothing to do with the definition of dubstep so it took a lot of restraint to not write something about it ha, difficult when you grew up listening to the early stuff.

I'll take this as my only chance I'll probably get to post dubstep on HN in a valid discussion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc85cGTlKLY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwva123XBMk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2n7w1H0pRQ

The James Blake remix of Changes is well worth checking out if you like the original!

I have it on vinyl :)

Yeah, this is the American "Dubstep" commonly referred to as "Brostep". Damn I miss the real Dubstep sound!

Still some bangers being released on Sentry records, Deep Medi, Bandulu and a bunch of other labels.

This fell out of style for the most part in America 5+ years ago, FYI.

Can confirm this is no longer the new thing, but FWIW, jazz music similarly fell out of style ages ago, but that doesn't make new stuff in the genre uninteresting to those who enjoy it irrespective of hype value.

That is, it's no longer nifty and fashionable to listen to this type of "Brostep", but people who liked it without regard to its social status may continue listening to new material as though nothing changed, while others may have grown tired of the sound or the social clout it may have brought them to be "in the know" or part of some zeitgeist and simply kept up with "today's hits".

The same is true of lots of genres IMHO.

Sorry, this what the word means in the mainstream. When you say 'punk' people think of blink-182 rather than the clash, there's nothing you can do about that either. Maybe someone should have thought up a name slightly less stupid than brostep

Indeed. The fact that the article writer is from the UK makes that lapse inexcusable.

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