{
  "slug": "dubstep",
  "name": "Dubstep",
  "aliases": [
    "dubstep music",
    "bass music",
    "croydon sound"
  ],
  "description": "UK garage stripped of its vocals, its swing and its optimism, rebuilt around a half-time beat and a sub-bass you feel before you hear. Made in South London from around 2002 for rooms with the right sound system.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "Croydon, South London",
    "year": 2002
  },
  "lineage": [
    {
      "genre": "uk-garage",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/uk-garage/",
      "inherited": "The tempo and the skeleton. Dubstep keeps garage's 140 BPM and its shuffled hi-hats but halves the kick pattern, so the same grid that carried a soulful vocal is suddenly mostly empty space."
    },
    {
      "genre": "dub",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dub/",
      "inherited": "The method and the name. Everything is mixed around the bass, effects are performed live rather than printed, and the twelve-inch exists so a sound system can play it at a volume the record was designed to need."
    },
    {
      "genre": "drum-and-bass",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/drum-and-bass/",
      "inherited": "The culture around it. Dubplate exclusivity, pirate radio, and an audience trained by jungle to treat the drop as the structural event a track is organised around."
    }
  ],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 138,
    "max": 142
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-29",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dubstep/",
  "trackCount": 9,
  "curatedBy": [
    {
      "name": "The Waxonia Desk",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-desk/",
      "pickCount": 5
    }
  ],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "skream--midnight-request-line",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/skream--midnight-request-line/",
      "title": "Midnight Request Line",
      "artist": "Skream",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/skream/",
      "year": 2005,
      "label": "Tempa",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The crossover record, made by a teenager in his bedroom. A synth riff simple enough to hum and a bassline that only fully exists on a large rig, which is exactly why it converted so many people at once.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-bass-weight",
          "name": "Bass Weight",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/the-desk-bass-weight/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-dubstep-goes-national",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Night It Went National",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-dubstep-goes-national/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Skream%20Midnight%20Request%20Line",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=lcMAbnZy8l8",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "digital-mystikz--anti-war-dub",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/digital-mystikz--anti-war-dub/",
      "title": "Anti-War Dub",
      "artist": "Digital Mystikz",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/digital-mystikz/",
      "year": 2006,
      "label": "DMZ",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Mala's meditative half of the genre. Almost nothing happens for long stretches, and the record is entirely dependent on the room — heard properly, the restraint is the payload.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-dubstep-goes-national",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Night It Went National",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-dubstep-goes-national/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Digital%20Mystikz%20Anti-War%20Dub",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=nhyOzIiBv-o",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "burial--archangel",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/burial--archangel/",
      "title": "Archangel",
      "artist": "Burial",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/burial/",
      "year": 2007,
      "label": "Hyperdub",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Rain, vinyl crackle and a pitched-up R&B vocal grieving over garage percussion that never quite lands on the grid. The record that made this music legible to people who would never enter the club.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-ghosts",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Ghosts",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-ghosts/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-dubstep-goes-national",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Night It Went National",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-dubstep-goes-national/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Burial%20Archangel",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=E2qLD9c3Gq4",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "kode9-and-the-spaceape--sine-of-the-dub",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/kode9-and-the-spaceape--sine-of-the-dub/",
      "title": "Sine of the Dub",
      "artist": "Kode9 & The Spaceape",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/kode9-and-the-spaceape/",
      "year": 2004,
      "label": "Hyperdub",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A Prince cover reduced to a sine wave and a monotone recitation. The founding statement of a label, and the clearest demonstration that this music was a set of ideas before it was a sound.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-dubstep-goes-national",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Night It Went National",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-dubstep-goes-national/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Kode9%20%26%20The%20Spaceape%20Sine%20of%20the%20Dub",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=xATku5_RL9U",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "benga-and-coki--night",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/benga-and-coki--night/",
      "title": "Night",
      "artist": "Benga & Coki",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/benga-and-coki/",
      "year": 2008,
      "label": "Tempa",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The other pole from Mala: a bassline that lurches sideways with a physical violence nobody had got out of a synthesiser before. The record that gave the American mutation its permission slip.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-dubstep-goes-national",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Night It Went National",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-dubstep-goes-national/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Benga%20%26%20Coki%20Night",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Ucr6nPQ3aYQ",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "horsepower-productions--forgive",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/horsepower-productions--forgive/",
      "title": "Forgive",
      "artist": "Horsepower Productions",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/horsepower-productions/",
      "year": 2002,
      "label": "Tempa",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Before the genre had a name or a tempo convention, Horsepower were making garage records soaked in dub and Middle Eastern strings. Proto-dubstep, and still the eeriest thing in the catalogue.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Horsepower%20Productions%20Forgive",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=mj2r2Ci533E",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "the-bug-featuring-killa-p-and-flowdan--skeng",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-bug-featuring-killa-p-and-flowdan--skeng/",
      "title": "Skeng",
      "artist": "The Bug featuring Killa P & Flowdan",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-bug-featuring-killa-p-and-flowdan/",
      "year": 2007,
      "label": "Ninja Tune",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Kevin Martin welds dancehall toasting to a bassline that sounds actively corroded. The point where dubstep stops being polite about its Jamaican inheritance and states it outright.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-bass-weight",
          "name": "Bass Weight",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/the-desk-bass-weight/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Bug%20featuring%20Killa%20P%20%26%20Flowdan%20Skeng",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=zwmUOJR-GwA",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "trackKey": "joy-orbison--hyph-mngo",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/joy-orbison--hyph-mngo/",
      "title": "Hyph Mngo",
      "artist": "Joy Orbison",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/joy-orbison/",
      "year": 2009,
      "label": "Hotflush",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Euphoric, vocal, and unmistakably not dubstep any more. The record that ended the genre as a coherent thing by showing everyone what came after it.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Joy%20Orbison%20Hyph%20Mngo",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa_PDKKc2_A",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 9,
      "trackKey": "skrillex--scary-monsters-and-nice-sprites",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/skrillex--scary-monsters-and-nice-sprites/",
      "title": "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites",
      "artist": "Skrillex",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/skrillex/",
      "year": 2010,
      "label": "Big Beat",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Included because pretending otherwise is dishonest: this is what the word came to mean for most of the planet. The London original and the American mutation share a tempo and almost nothing else.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Skrillex%20Scary%20Monsters%20and%20Nice%20Sprites",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=WSeNSzJ2-Jw",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}