The rising tide for dubstep and techno

After a hard day of school, freshman Saha Ghafouri slams the door behind him and makes a bee-line for his bedroom. From that point until late at night, loud whoosh and vibrations echo from Ghafouri’s bedroom, traveling through the house and ruining his parent’s peace and quiet.

“Sometimes my mom gets mad because the whole house vibrates from how strong the bass is in the songs that I play,” Ghafouri said.

Ghafouri is a fan of dubstep and techno, deep, throbbing music whose bass and synthesized musical instruments have created a dedicated following.

These types of music have seen immense success in Europe in recent years, and are only now beginning to pick up steam in the U.S. The scene for these genres has been mostly underground until recently, when songs by American artist Skrillex, Canadian artist Deadmau5 and English producer Flux Pavillion found their way into mainstream music.

“I like to listen to mainstream pop songs that are remixed into a dubstep version because they are very catchy,” Ghafouri said.

Arguably the most popular dubstep artist, Skrillex, excels at producing these types of remixes and has recently been nominated for five Grammy Awards.

According to sophomore Raiza De Vera, she was introduced to dustep music in eighth grade when she was searching for a mainstream pop song on YouTube. In the related videos, she saw a thumbnail with an interesting cover art that she clicked on.

“The video wound up being a dubstep remix of the song I was just listening to,” De Vera said. “It ended up being a really bad remix, but I looked up more from the person who uploaded it and eventually fell in love with dubstep.”

Many people have first experiences similar to De Vera’s when they are first introduced to the dubstep genre, saying they do not like the style of music right away. This is because most people are not accustomed to the deep hard-hitting bass.

De Vera also claims that she has quite a few phases that she goes through when listening to music, such as her more relaxed mood in which she likes to listen to alternative and Indie music rather than head-banging dubstep.

“For my more upbeat moods, I like to listen to dubstep and house. I really like this music because it gives a catchy beat, unlike all the pop songs. I like artists like Skrillex, Bassnectar, Nero and Wolfgang Gartner.”

For those who simply cannot handle the lows that come with dubstep, techno is an alternative genre with a similar feel that has also been gaining popularity at a rapid pace.

The techno genre picked up many followers when DJ Tiesto began producing techno music. Tiesto was voted the world’s number one DJ for three straight years and many people in the techno scene consider Tiesto to be a “god”.

“I remember listening to a station on Pandora and hearing one of Tiesto’s songs play for the first time,” sophomore Neel Tiwary said. “I looked into his genre of music and now listen to all types of techno songs.”

Unfortunately for Tiesto fans, he has not been producing as many hits as he had been in the past. However, his departure gave way for many new artists to become involved in the scene.

“I’ve expanded my techno library to more than just Tiesto,” Tiwary said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Deadmau5 or any other artist anymore as long as they produce good music.”