by Spencer Walker, Age: over (yikes!) 30

I write this while in the Dubstep room on Turntable.fm with 157 other virtual avatars bobbing their heads along to some WUB WOMP BASS DROP WUB WOBBLE WUB. Gone are the days of listening to the trance mix tapes I bought from a DJ’s trunk outside an abandoned roller rink at 6am. It’s 2011 and Dubstep is what you want, kids!

Dubstep is not just a passing fad genre that will slip slide away into obscurity like Happy Hardcore or Big Beat. From its humble beginnings in the London suburbs at Plastic People parties at Forward to the stadium sellout events from the likes of Skrillex and Rusko, Dubstep has arrived. I just heard a Dubstep remix of that Enya song I used to get my high school girlfriend in the mood. And wait, is that the crashing sound of Mozart’s Symphony No 25 stretched out and wobbled into something almost unrecognizable? That’s the sound of Dubstep, the IT genre of electronic music, making your vertebrae quiver.

Not everyone agrees. There’s a strong faction of Dubstep haters on Facebook. Anti-Dubstep Alliance founder Alex Jackson AKA DJ Krossphade of Detroit told me: “Dubstep does not belong…dumpstep has no level of refined artistry.” Fair enough. But Dubstep is just a perfect storm evolution of beloved genres like Drum & Bass, Garage and Grime. And what of Dubstep’s integration into music mainstream? Skrillex is teaming up with the surviving members of the Doors to make new music for RE:GENERATION, for starters. Meanwhile, the electronic music from my formative years never made it out of the warehouses.

This leads me to the realization and acceptance that no matter your take on Dubstep, it won’t be fading out for a long time. Strap on your glow stick bracelets and hop aboard.