Posts Tagged 2000s






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Brostep is a term coined in America as the new manifestation of Dubstep over in America.  The term brostep has been used by some as a pejorative descriptor for a style of popular Americanised Dubstep. Dubstep purists have levelled criticism at Brostep because of its preoccupation with “hard” and aggressive sounding timbres.  U.S. and Canadian artists often drew inspiration from British producers who tended to work less with sub-bass and more with mid-range sounds such as Rusko and Vex’d.  Rusko himself has claimed in an interview on BBC Radio 1Xtra that “Brostep is sort of my fault, but now I’ve started to hate it in a way… It’s like someone screaming in your face for an hour… you don’t want that.”

Brostep has the similar beat patters as Dubstep, but with less usage of the sub-bass and much more usage of heavily processed mid-bass and synths to produce a very “thick” sound.  Usage of sine waves to give the “computer speak” noises is also very popular in Brostep.

Brostep has very little in ways of Dubstep influences, no Jamaican or Caribbean roots, and in some Dubstep producers minds has turned its back on its roots – which is always a sure sign of the genre not being around for long.



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Chill Out



The earliest mentioned “chill out room” was at the legendary Madchester nightspot, Konspiracy.  In these rooms, visitors would find couches, comfortable pillows, psychedelic light shows projecting entrancing images and music that was decidedly downtempo, especially when compared to what was going on a few feet away on the dance floor. Its history began in the UK, with post-punk band The Durutti Column being an abstract influence on the genre in the ’80s. Higher Intelligence Agency (the HIA) helped move the chill room concept from sideshow to main event with their Oscillate chill party events in Birmingham and elsewhere in the early to mid nineties. Their first releases came out on the now defunct Beyond record label and soon thereafter in the U.S. on the Waveform label – who describes the music as ‘exotic electronica.’




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Tribal House

Tribal house is a subgenre of house music, rising to popularity in the early 1990s in New York.  Tribal house is loosely defined by the additional of tribal or ethnic style samples or vocals, with features such as chanting or ululation.  A large usage of bongo drum samples and traditional wood or percussion instrument samples give the music its tribal feel, coupled with the use of tribal vocals give Tribal house its distinctive sound.

As with a lot of house genres, the big players of the house music scene dip into Tribal house from time to time, with artists such as Danny Tenaglia, Sandy Rivera, Peace Division and Junior Vasquez have all made Tribal house tracks in their time.

Tribal house in its current guise is very popular in the gay party scene.  This is heavily due to gay-oriented music labels such as Tribal America, Twisted and Star 69, who put on gay nights and festivals.

Presently, tribal house remixes played by DJs frequently are the ‘dub’ versions, remixes that use only minimal vocals from the original track, with the music often in a minor key to keep it sounding edgier and more tribal, unlike the major key that a more mainstream club remix might use.

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Electro House

Electro house is a subgenre of the ever umbrella term House music. It’s origins are largely accepted to have come from 1980s electro music. It only really gained popularity in the mid 2000s due to the increase in technology behind music production, giving a much more “modern” sound to electro.

Electro house contains heavy basslines, and catchy high synthesised riffs, but the electro genes are still heavily intertwined within the music, with the odd “boop bop” of the early 808 sound.

The more recent Electro house is the 4 on the floor 4 sister of Dubstep, with very heavy and dirty bass made with saw and sine waves. Early pioneers of Electro house were artists such as Basement Jaxx, Mr Oizo but retrospectively artists such as Sublime and Arrivers would now be referred to as Electro house producers, but as their tracks were released in the early 1990s they were simply considered House or Rave.

Today, the genre still gets mainstream attention with artists such as Skrillex and Knife Party showcasing Electro house style tracks with dubstep influences.

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Drunkfunk is a subgenre of Drum and Bass which has many origins from all corners of the Drum and Bass spectrum.  Drumfunk takes influences from Rave, Jungle and early Drum and Bass to give a very distinct sound.  It has been around in one form or another since synthesizers were able to chop the standard loops into very small slices so complex drum and bass has been in existance since the mid 1990s, but only with the use of computers to aid production has drumfunk taken ahold.  Drumfunk is a popular subgenre of Drum and Bass all over the world

Drumfunk focuses on extremely complex drum patterns and simple bass, usually with little or no melody over the top of atmospheric ambient sound effects.  It also has very little vocals, and if there are some, it is usually spoken, traditionally taken from films.  All these combined give Drumfunk a very “pure” sound, it literally is Drums and Bass.

Pioneers and champions of Drumfunk are artists such as Seba, Fanu, ParadoxNucleus and Equinox.

On a personal note, Drumfunk is fucking awesome.

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Dubstep originates from London as an organic merging of Drum n Bass, Garage and Dub.  Originally as experimental B-sides of 2-step garage, but gained commercial momentum when the sound was championed by John Peel on BBC Radio 1 from 2003-2004.  Artists such as Photek, Wordsound Germany, Plasticman and Loefah were early pioneers of the genre, exploring how Dubstep can be presented.

Dubsteps format is syncopated with a large use of tuplets and shuffled rhythms, averaging to about 140BPM.  The signature of Dub – that being the hard and strong snare/clap is ever present in Dubstep, but with far less reverb usually.  Dubstep has a very dark and minor vibe, usually with minimal vocals, and if there are, usually spoken or rapped.

The most famous part of Dubstep is the bassline.  Due to the slow bass and snare hits, there is a lot of room in between for creativity in the bassline dubbed the “Wobble”  This is a bassline, usually a saw or sine being put through an oscillator and various other filters to give it a grimy and dark timbre.

Towards the end of the 2000s Dubstep was receiving worldwide play, and becoming endemic in pop songs.  With artists like Britney Spears, Rihanna and Snoop Dogg releasing singles and albums with a heavy Dubstep influence.  The height of Dubstep in its original form would be at the end of the 2000s with artists such as Magnetic Man, Nero and Skrillex.  The latter artists have sinced redevloped its sound and their signature productions are no longer considered Dubstep – in a severe pigeon holing context and is explored in Post-dubstep, Brostep and other sub genres.


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Hardstyle originates from Holland in the late 1990s, and takes its influences from hard trance, gabber, and hard house.  These 3 styles blended together makes Hardstyles signature sound.

Hardstyle is recognised as having a highly compressed kick drum, and a reverse bass that is on the offbeat, approximately 140 BPM.  It also utilises short vocal (usually female) samples, and early forms of Hardstyle were very similar to techno.  During the mid 2000s it becale slightly more melodic using more trance-like riffs and synths.

The most famous part of Hardstyle is the way of dancing to it.  Becoming extremely popular in The Netherlands, its  almost like a shuffle, where the moves are done to the exact beat shown here:



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