The word 'dubstep' was coined informally in an office conversation about the dub influence on 2-step

Oris Jay describes sitting in an office with Sarah Lockhart, Martin Clark, and Neil Joliffe discussing DJ Benny Ill’s music. Someone said ‘It’s like 2-step, but it’s got dub in it. It’s kind of like… dubstep.’ The room immediately agreed: ‘it’s bass-driven, the beats are steppier. Why don’t we just call it dubstep?’ Kode9 also notes the name appeared on an XLR8R magazine cover. The name captures the music’s two essential pillars: the 2-step rhythm skeleton from UK garage, and the dub influence in the reverb/echo treatment and instrumental vocal-less format. It was a practical working label before becoming an international genre name.

Examples

Kode9’s ‘Yardcore’ essay in XLR8R traced the Jamaican influence on garage, grime and dubstep as ‘a splicing of soundsystem culture and hardcore.‘

Assessment

Explain what the word ‘dubstep’ describes musically — what the ‘dub’ refers to and what the ‘step’ refers to — and why the name was adopted so quickly by the scene.