3/9/07, 5:13 pm EST

Assignment Eight Finalist: Kimberly Egolf on Dubstep Music

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Note: This is not an official Rolling Stone article. What follows is a submission to the “I’m From Rolling Stone” writing competition.

Dubstep Music

by Kimberly Egolf
Age: 24

Listen carefully. Underneath the post-punk guitar music currently hitting the US, you’ll hear a bass beat that’s shaking the world. More likely, you’ll feel the beat long before you actually hear it. Taking its name from two of its major elements – dub beats and UK 2step dance music – “dubstep” is finally pounding onto US shores.

Since the turn of the millennium, dubstep has been not-so-quietly thumping away on the South London club scene. And it’s the loudly pulsing sub-bass – the music’s only real “requirement”— that will catch your immediate attention. As Kode 9 (leading dubstep DJ and producer) puts it, “The sub-bass is the thing that’s consistent. Anything goes on top of that.” Loefah, another of dubstep’s bright lights, agrees and explains that the music has gathered “the fringe elements of virtually every scene out there” to produce its sound. Originally growing out of trip hop, dub, and underground garage music, dubstep has morphed into something “atomic”: a central core of dense bass barely holds together the swirling samples, electronic noises, disparate melodies, and syncopated beats which threaten to explode at any moment.

And dubstep is now poised to explode in the US. The UK movement has spawned four volumes of “Dubstep Allstars” albums, two record labels (DMZ and Tempa), and a number of radio shows and stations dedicated to the sound of dubstep. Kode 9’s track “Backward” even appeared on the Children of Men (2006) movie soundtrack. A quick look at Dubstepforum.com, the premier fan site for the movement, reveals dubstep parties springing up in cities all across the US and, indeed, the rest of the world. The music’s exciting ability to adapt to new sounds ensures that, as it travels around the world, it will continue to challenge your brain, your body, and your sub-woofers.