Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England.
The earliest dubstep releases date back to 1998 and were darker, more experimental, instrumental dub remixes of 2-step garage tracks attempting to incorporate the funky elements of breakbeat, or the dark elements of drum and bass into 2-step, which featured B-sides of single releases. In 2001, this and other strains of dark garage music began to be showcased and promoted at London's night club Forward.
Dubstep rhythms are usually syncopated, and often shuffled or incorporating tuplets. The tempo is nearly always in the range of 138-142 beats per minute (bpm). In its early stages, dubstep was often more percussive, with more influences from 2-step and grime drum patterns. A lot of producers were also experimenting with tribal drum samples, a notable example being Loefah's early release "Truly Dread". Over time, key producers at the time started to experiment with the half-step rhythm which created more of a spacious vibe, and head-nodding rhythm, a feature which started to be used more and more and has become a signature of the genre. Similarly, the half-step rhythm also started to dominate grime, and producers started to lose the more complex and jerky rhythms influenced from 2-step, and started to work with more hip-hop influenced beats.
