2011 Roundup Charts: Dubstep

While in 2009 only a happy few were listening to it, 2010 saw a definite international breakthrough of Dubstep as a full grown music genre. 2011 must be the year that Dubstep manifested itself as mainstream EDM. The journey started in a few dark basements filled with sweaty people, the genre finally ended up at the wedding of your aunt Suzie.

So we could feature tons of tracks here. Dubstep meant a comeback for Nu-Metal granddaddies Korn. Half the hip-hop scene dropped a verse over a 140BPM bass wobble. Even the Britneys and the Biebers had a cheap shot at Dubstep. It became huge. Every track in the Billboard chart ended up having several official or unofficial dubstep remixes. To be honest, most of them were pretty shit. But let’s not go there, there was enough good Dubstep to go round in 2011. We found a few chunky m&m’s in an empty lunchbox. Bon appetit.
[youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD40VXFkusw[/youtube]
Rusko – Everyday (Netsky Remix)
Released early this year, The Netsky remix on Rusko’s ‘Everyday’ quickly became a summer anthem over at Jackplug HQ. Some people might refer to this type of Dubstep as ‘Drumstep’, which basicly comes down to Dubstep at a faster BPM rate (around 175, like Drum and Bass). The entire Everyday EP was officially released in April by Mad Decent. But the label is giving the Netsky remix away for free on Soundcloud.
Complimentary MP3:
[youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cXDgFwE13g[/youtube]
Skrillex – First Of The Year (Equinox)
All hail king Skrillex, 2011’s undisputed ruler of Dubstep. Almost every song that had ‘Skrillex’ in it’s title rose to the top of Hypem’s Popular Chart and Soundcloud’s hottest tracks chart this year. For good reason, as the about-to-be-24-year-old handles his productions with great care and surgical precision. Perfect round subs, just enough high frequencies and basslines that sound like they’re going to eat you. But like eating a stock pile of pancakes every day, the same Skrillex recipe over and over again gets boring. This might be the biggest critic going around on the biggest thing that happened to dubstep this year. So it’s a relief so hear something different on his most recent EP ‘Bangarang’. It features a track titled ‘Summit’ (leaded earlier as ‘Breathe’) and has a few seconds of Ellie Goulding in it. Smooth synthwork instead of roaring basslines. Let’s see if Skrillex re-invents himself even further in 2012.
[youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgU0Nw6cZOI[/youtube]
Skream ft. Sam Frank – Anticipate
A huge year for UK super producer Skream. He and his partner in crime Benga are having their own show on BBC radio. Skream’s music is all over the charts, as well as Magnetic Man. But the biggest thing must be the coming of a little Skream baby boy on the 13th of July. So his anthem of the year is ‘Anticipate’, which is a poem he wrote for his kid and later made into a track released on Skrillex’ OWSLA label.
[youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llDikI2hTtk[/youtube]
Nero – Promises
Nero also set an international highscore this year. Most notably are their tunes ‘Promises’ and ‘Crush On You’ (Don’t know about you, but we recognized it from a song by a tiny Wackstreetboy back in 1997). Next in line for London duo is their heavily Eighties influenced release ‘Reaching Out’, which came out on the 16th of December. Too late to make a great impact on 2011, but definitely a thing to watch in 2012.
[youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6nrdCDG-zo[/youtube]
Cassius – I <3 U So
French EDM veterans Cassius also played a good part in the international Dubstep scene with their track ‘I <3 U sO' released on Ed Banger in March. The track was heralded by a fantastic app on the iPhone, good example of super original promotion for an EP. The result of the app is shown in the video above, the official video for 'I <3 U So'. Complimentary MP3: