Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London, England. Its overall sound is described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals".
The earliest dubstep releases date back to 1998 and were darker, more experimental, instrumental dub remixes of 2-step garage tracks. Dubstep tried to transform drum and bass into 2-step, which featured as B-sides of single releases. In 2001, this and other strains of dark garage music began to be showcased and promoted at London's night club Plastic People, at the "Forward" night, which went on to be considerably influential to the development of dubstep. The term "dubstep" in reference to a genre of music began to be used by around 2002 by labels such as Big Apple, Ammunition and Tempa, by which time the trends used in creating these remixes started to become more well known and distinct from 2-step and grime.
DJ John Peel, who started playing it from 2003 onwards, made dubstep popular in South London by playing it on his radio station. He also made many dubstep artists popular by playing their music on his radio station, which made people demand that they produce more songs and created more artists looking to reap the benefit of the growing dubstep craze. Dubstep started to spread beyond small local scenes in late 2005 and early 2006 to many websites that were devoted to the genre, which appeared on the internet and aided the growth of the scene, such as dubstepforum, Barefiles and gutterbreakz. Simultaneously, the genre was receiving extensive coverage in music magazines such as The Wire and online publications such as Pitchfork Media. These magazines also helped spread the genre as many of what was known about the music industry had not yet been transformed by the growth of the Internet so magazine coverage was still very important to these artists. Many artists were transformed into a star just by the coverage they received and again brought on multiple new artists wishing to reap the new fame that was coming to the dubstep scene.
Towards the end of the decade the genre started to become more commercially successful in the UK, with more singles and remixes entering the music charts that was beginning to be seen by other countries who were interested in the new music that was coming out of the UK. Music journalists and critics also noticed a dubstep influence in several pop artists' work with the beats that they were making. Around this time, producers also began to fuse elements of the original dubstep sound with other influences, creating fusion genres including the slower and more experimental post-dubstep, and the harsher, electro house and heavy metal influenced brostep, the latter of which greatly contributed to dubstep's rising mainstream popularity in the United States. The United States latched on to this new found music and led to the rise of many United States born dubstep artists such as Skrillex which has become majorly popular within the United States. Another place where dubstep influences can be seen is in remixes of popular artists songs in which they are beginning to have more heavy bass and what is known by dubstep artists as the bass drop or the climax of a specific song.
Originally, dubstep releases had some structural similarities to other genres like drum and bass and UK garage. Typically this would comprise an intro, a main section (often incorporating a bass drop), a midsection, a second main section similar to the first (often with another drop), and an outro.
Many early dubstep tracks incorporate one or more "bass drops", a characteristic inherited from drum and bass. Typically, the percussion will pause, often reducing the track to silence, and then resume with more intensity, accompanied by a dominant subbass (often passing portamento through an entire octave or more, as in the audio example). It is very common for the bass to drop at or very close to 55 seconds into the song. However, this is a completely rigid characteristic, rather a trope; a large portion of seminal tunes from producers like Kode9 and Horsepower Productions have more experimental song structures which don't rely on a drop for a dynamic peak – and in some instances don't feature a bass drop at all.
Rewinds (or reloads) are another technique used by dubstep DJs. If a song seems to be especially popular, the DJ will 'spin back' the record by hand without lifting the stylus, and play the track in question again. Rewinds are also an important live element in many of dubstep's precursors; the technique originates in dub reggae soundsystems, is a standard of most pirate radio stations and is also used at UK garage and jungle nights.
Taking direct cues from Jamaica's mic styles, the MC's role in dubstep's live experience is critically important to its impact.
The influence of dubstep on more commercial or popular genres can be identified as far back as 2007, with artists such as Britney Spears using dubstep sounds; critics observed a dubstep influence in the song "Freakshow", from the 2007 album Blackout. Benga and Coki's single "Night" still continued to be a popular track on the UK dance chart more than a year after its release in late 2007 and became a popular song within the United States in the few years thereafter.
However the year 2009 saw the dubstep sound gaining further worldwide recognition, often through the assimilation of elements of the sound into other genres, in a manner similar to drum and bass before it. At the start of the year, UK electronic duo La Roux put their single "In for the Kill" in the remix hands of Skream. They then gave remix duties of "I'm Not Your Toy" to Nero and then again with their single "Bulletproof" being remixed by Zinc. The same year, London producer Silkie released an influential album, using 70s funk and soul reference points, a departure from the familiar strains of dubstep and UK garage. The sound also continued to interest the mainstream press with key articles in magazines that began to give more public attention to those people in the dubstep music industry and began to bring in to the mainstream.

In a move foreshadowed by endorsements of the sound from R&B, hip-hop and recently, mainstream figures such as Rihanna, or Snoop Dogg collaborated with dubstep producers Chase & Status allowing both their music to benefit and allow dubstep to reach worldwide recognition. The 2011 Britney Spears track "Hold It Against Me" was also responsible for promoting dubstep tropes within pop music. Rihanna's Rated R album released such content the very year dubstep saw a spike, containing three dubstep tracks. Such events propelled the genre into the biggest radio markets overnight, with considerable airplay which proved one of the biggest factors as to why dubstep became so mainstream so fast. All it took was a current mainstream artist to use their style and the industry took off.
The concert experience of dubstep concerts is also very unique in that the concert features a DJ in front of you that rarely talks and is mixing crazy beats in front of you that you may have never heard on the radio or internet before. They take their original songs and make it better live with more bass drops and with more energy. Dubstep is very different in that it attracts people from all walks of life and the typical person to go a dubstep concert can’t be stereotyped because of the wide variety. More and more concerts are becoming prevalent and the largest dubstep gathering in Baltimore, Maryland has seen increasing attendance each year of its existence. Dubstep is here to stay and soon will be brining an epic bass drop to you.