By Stephanie Alexander
Staff Writer
The electronic sound in music was first heard in the early 1980s when the synthesizer period with portable Casio keyboards hanging around musician’s necks quickly became popular.
To this day, that electronic sound has stayed with us, but has evolved into something new; dubstep.
Dubstep is a relatively new music genre for most of us, but it has been an underground craze that started in southern London in the late 1990s. However, dubstep and bands like Skrillex from overseas are starting to get recognition and become mainstream.
“Techno is really upbeat. It always has a fast rhythm and tempo. Dubstep is more overwhelming with the bass lines and reverberating drum patterns,” junior Stephen Grayson said. “Techno is just like noise, there usually isn’t like a singer. But in dubstep there is a singer and it’s more of an actual song.”
Grayson is a huge dupstep fan and has been to multiple dupstep shows such as deadmau5 and Meltdown, along with events like Unsilent Night and Identity Fest.
“Last weekend I went to Unsilent Night. It was a 12-hour event with different stages and groups. It was crazy, loud, and really hot and packed,” Grayson said. “There were so many people there. You have to make sure to stay hydrated at shows like that. Everyone is jumping and dancing.”
Sophomore Tara Vishnesky plays soccer for Coppell High School and Sting Royal 97. She uses dupstep to mentally prepare herself for games.
“I usually listen to dubstep before each game. The drops get me really pumped. ‘Some Chords’ by deadmau5 is one of my favorites,” Vishnesky said. “I like dubstep more than techno because of bass drops. I’m obsessed with the drops. The songs build up and then they just break down and go ‘BOOM’.”
The bass drops seem to be the real deal breakers amongst listeners.
“I usually lean towards more rock music, and stuff with heavy bass, so naturally I like it more than techno. They are both pretty electronic, but techno is more light,” sophomore Brianna Haynie said.
Some people just like the music due its exclusiveness, and the fact that it is not as mainstream as other genres.
“Dubstep originated underground and I love how it’s kind of under the music radar,” junior Garisen Fezzey said. “People know about it, but not everyone is a fan of it like pop music. You aren’t going to hear it on the radio.”
Though it’s underground roots, dubstep broke through the Atlantic Ocean barrier and became more mainstream in the United States in about 2009.
“When my friends first told me about dubstep back in eighth grade, I was expecting some annoying techno, but I fell in love with the thick bass in each song,” Haynie said.
You can find top 40 hit songs on YouTube that have been remixed and totally made new. You can hear bass drops in the chorus of Justin Bieber’s song off his most recent album, “Beauty and the Beat” (featuring Nicki Minaj), along with many other current hits.
American artists seem to be catching on to this new technique as even more songs feature them, and other artists help do the techno part such as Calvin Harris and David Guetta, who are both European DJ’s.
“I know dubstep has been around for a while, but we are just getting a taste of it,” Haynie said. “I think that Europe is a couple years ahead of us in music.”
Even though we seem to be behind in the music world, we are still catching on.
