Drumstep

Drumstep, also known as DnBstep, is one of the two genres which developed out of the late 2000s and early 2010s cross-pollination of dubstep and drum and bass, the other being minimal drum and bass. However, the latter is almost completely in opposition to this genre; drumstep is a dancefloor-friendly, loud, and heavy combination of jump-up and brostep.

Drumstep can be seen as a development of earlier experiments with half-time drum and bass, where the normal 170bpm drum and bass tempo is slowed to 140bpm or the illusion of slower tempos is be given by altering the structure of the drum and bass rhythm (placing the snare on the 3rd beat instead of on the 2nd and 4th as is typical in drum and bass).

The introduction of brostep elements allowed these experiments to develop into a fully-fledged subgenre, combining this tempo with the mid-range LFO wobble of brostep (itself a 140bpm genre) resulting in a fusion of the two genres that is a distinct genre in its own right; too sonically close to jump-up to be brostep, and too slow to be jump-up.

The style first began to emerge around 2009, and would become widespread thanks to Grooverider's promotion of the style on his BBC Radio 1 show. The style, which remained controversial, became popular in the British scene and also gained a following in North America. Examples of drumstep producers include Dub Foundation, Heist, Callide, Dirty Deeds and Kanji Kinetic.^[1]

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