History of Dubstep Timeline

Dubstep started to enter mainstream British popular culture when it spread beyond small local scenes in late 2005 and early 2006; many websites devoted to the genre appeared online and aided the growth of the scene, such as dubstepforum, the download site Barefiles and blogs such as gutterbreakz.

Interest in dubstep grew significantly after BBC Radio 1 DJ Mary Anne Hobbs launched her seminal "Dubstep Warz" show in January 2006.

Image source: Mary Anne Hobbs

Burial's self-titled album appeared in many critics' "Best of ..." lists for the year, notably being named The Wire's Best Album of 2006.

Image source: Burial (Burial album)

The sound was featured prominently in the soundtrack for the 2006 sci-fi film Children of Men, which included music by Digital Mystikz, Random Trio, Kode 9, Pressure and DJ Pinch.

Image source: Children of Men

In 2007, Benga, Skream and other dubstep producers provided the soundtrack to much of the second series of Dubplate Drama, which aired on Channel 4 with a soundtrack CD later released on Rinse Recordings.

Image source: Dubplate Drama

The summer of 2007 saw dubstep's musical palette expand further, with Benga and Coki scoring a crossover hit, similar to Skream's "Midnight Request Line", with the track "Night", which gained widespread play from DJs in a diverse range of genres. Gilles Peterson later named it his record of 2007.

Image source: Benga (musician)

Burial's late 2007 release Untrue, which incorporated extensive use of heavily manipulated, mostly female, 'girl next door' vocal samples, was nominated for the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Music Prize in the UK.

Image source: Untrue (album)

A track by Skream featured in the second series of the teen drama Skins, which aired on Channel 4 in early 2008, further exposing the genre to mainstream audiences.

Image source: Skins (British TV series)

Throughout 2010, the presence of dubstep in the pop charts was notable, with "I Need Air" by Magnetic Man reaching number 10 in the UK singles chart.

Image source: Magnetic Man

Also in 2010, American producer Skrillex achieved moderate commercial success in North America with a dubstep-influenced sound, becoming central to the genre's US rise.

Image source: Skrillex

In 2011, dubstep gained significant traction in the US market by way of a post-dubstep style known as brostep, with American producer Skrillex becoming something of a "poster boy" for the scene. In September 2011, Spin Magazine referred to brostep as a "lurching and aggressive" variant of dubstep that proved commercially successful in the United States.

By 2011, Skrillex's EP Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites had peaked at number three on the U.S. Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart.

Image source: Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites

DJ Fresh and Nero both had number one singles in 2011 with "Louder" and "Promises", marking a high point for dubstep-influenced pop success.

Image source: Louder (DJ Fresh song)

The 2011 Britney Spears track "Hold It Against Me" was responsible for promoting dubstep tropes within pop music, topping the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Image source: Hold It Against Me

In February 2011, Chase & Status's second album No More Idols reached No. 2 in the UK charts, cementing the commercial success of bass music acts.

Image source: No More Idols

On 1 May 2011, Nero's third single "Guilt" from their album reached number 8 in the Official UK Singles Chart.

Image source: Guilt (Nero song)

Ellen Allien and Apparat's 2006 song "Metric" from the Orchestra of Bubbles album was an example of dubstep-influenced techno, along with Modeselektor's "Godspeed" and Roman Flugel's remix of Riton's "Hammer of Thor".

Image source: Orchestra of Bubbles

Critics observed a dubstep influence in Britney Spears' song "Freakshow" from the 2007 album Blackout, which Tom Ewing described as "built around the 'wobbler' effect that's a genre standby."

Image source: Blackout (Britney Spears album)

Joe Nice has played at DMZ, while the fifth instalment of Tempa's "Dubstep Allstars" mix series, released in 2007, included tracks by Finnish producer Tes La Rok and Americans JuJu and Matty G.

Regular dubstep club nights started appearing in cities like New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Montreal, Houston and Denver, while Mary Anne Hobbs curated a dubstep showcase at 2007's Sónar festival in Barcelona.

Dubstep artists Chefal, Hijak and Hatcha were featured as the cover stars on the 'Summer of Dub' issue of the free British magazine RWD in July 2007.

In the summer of 2008, Mary Anne Hobbs invited Cyrus, Starkey, Oneman, DJ Chef, Silkie, Quest, Joker, Nomad, Kulture and MC Sgt Pokes to the BBC's Maida Vale studios for a show called Generation Bass, evolving from her 2006 Dubstep Warz show.

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.

In April 2009 Luke Hood founded the YouTube channel UKF Dubstep, which introduced dubstep to a broader range of young people internationally. It reached 100,000 subscribers by November 2010 and over one million as of November 2019.

Image source: UKF Music

Dubstep continued to interest the mainstream press, with key articles in magazines like Interview, New York and The Wire, which featured producer Kode9 on its May 2009 cover. XLR8R put Joker on the cover of its December 2009 issue.

Image source: Kode9

In summer 2009, rapper and actress Eve used Benga's "E Trips", adding her own verses over the beat to create a new tune called "Me N My", the first single from her unreleased album Flirt.

Nu metal band Korn's 2011 album The Path of Totality features several collaborations with electronic music producers, including Skrillex and Excision, blending metal and dubstep.

Image source: The Path of Totality

Purple sound emerged in Bristol in late 2008 out of the splintering dubstep scene, marking a new regional offshoot of the genre.

In early 2011, the term "post-dubstep" (sometimes known as "UK bass" or simply "bass music") was used to describe club music influenced by certain aspects of dubstep. Jamie xx's remixes, including We're New Here (2011), a Gil Scott-Heron remix album, are considered post-dubstep.

Image source: Post-dubstep

According to a BBC review of his 2012 album Songs, the record was an attempt by Rusko to realign his music with a "Jamaican inheritance" and distance it from the "belching, aggressive, resolutely macho" dubstep produced by his contemporaries.

Image source: Rusko (musician)

A stripped-back, percussive style of dubstep became known as Riddim, a name coined by British producer Jakes around 2012. It started gaining significant popularity around 2015.

Image source: Riddim (genre)

Beginning in mid-2014, dubstep began to decline drastically in mainstream popularity, particularly in the United States, where many formerly successful dubstep artists saw their fortunes change.

English bass music producer Chime coined the term "colour bass" to describe this style of dubstep with its focus on vibrant, bright and colourful production and sound design, and founded the record label Rushdown in 2016 to promote it.