Two years ago, the “wub” bass sound that can now be heard booming out of many a house party during the weekend was virtually unknown.
“Wobbly moving bass lines have become prominent in dubstep,” said Matthew
“Easty” Roberts, a local dubstep artist. “It blew up in America and it was just the right time for that generation.”
Easty will be one of four artists performing at DUB101 at The Union, 18 W. Union St., at 9 p.m. Friday as part of an Ohio tour hosted by Cumulus Entertainment. The tour is aimed at “bringing dubstep and bass music to a college campus near you.”
Eric Weinert (“Eric Evasion”) cofounded Cumulus Entertainment and is a dubstep artist looking to introduce the genre to new crowds.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to get out there and expose people to other forms of EDM (electronic dance music) that they are not typically getting when they go to most OU parties,” Weinert said.
Many students are unaware of the different sub genres of electronic dance music, Weinert said, adding that this show is an opportunity for students to come out and learn what the difference is.
What most people are familiar with, Easty said, is “brostep,” a term used among underground dubstep artist to describe those who are most popular in the genre, such as Skrillex.
“(Dubstep) originated in Europe,” Easty said. “(America) made it rougher and harder … giving it that rock ‘n’ roll sound.”
The origins of dubstep stretch back to the early ’90s with the popularity of electronic music drum and bass, characterized by fast-paced beats on a drums hi-hat cymbal and syncopated rhythms on the kick drum. Dubstep takes that sort of style and slows it down dramatically, taking away the hi-hat and adding in massive amounts of wobbly bass.
“What I like a lot about dubstep, over drum and bass, is that dubstep doesn’t have that annoying hi-hat going really fast,” said David “DJ Time Traveler” Alexander of Dave Rave.
He added that the tempo in dubstep is right around that of what an average hip-hop or rap song would be at, making the combination of the two a no-brainer.
Because of the similarities, the emergence of dubstep in American culture has found its way into popular rap and hip-hop music, such as last year’s chart-topping album Watch The Throne by Jay-Z and Kanye West.
Artists, however, disagree heavily on where the origins are truly from. Easty cited reggae and video-game music as the origins, as well as the trend to more electronic sounds in popular rap.
“It lends itself to younger people; it’s exciting,” Alexander said. “A lot of people gravitate to it because you can just go crazy to it because it’s just so different.”
wh092010@ohiou.edu
