Drumstep: Real genre or made up hype?

Electronic music has seen a rapid birth and evolution throughout it's life.

From the early 90's rave scene to the current dubstep explosion, many sub genres have risen and fallen, but the creation of some actually seems to anger people.


A recent example is drumstep, but is it actually a genre? Why are people angry about it?

Drumstep, is usually known as a genre characterised by it's drum & bass attributes but half time beats.

Yet when I read or hear people calling a song drumstep,  people are up in arms. People claim the genre doesn't exist and it's made up by people who are new to the scene.

This confused me, because I understood what it meant, I could think of songs I would call drumstep, yet people claim it doesn't exist.

The way I see it, the problem comes from the fact that music is a very personal subject, more than people realize.

Think about it, if a random person came up to you and asked you what music you liked, you are most probably likely to say 'I like everything' or 'whatever sounds good' or give a brief outline of some of the genres you like. It's personal.

To further prove my point, think of the genre you really enjoy, and imagine someone with 100% conviction saying that it's really, really shit.

You'd get angry. You might get in an argument with that person, or at least resent them for what they just said.

Music can play a massive role in your identity, and when someone casually criticises it, it's only right to get annoyed.

I think the reservations about drumstep come from people who have followed drum & bass for a long time. They don't like these kids coming in, listening to some of the music and making up a genre for it. It makes them feel like they're messing with something that is personal to them.

I didn't understand the hate towards the idea of drumstep until I saw a particular youtube comment. The video was a dubstep song which had some 'pop' elements to it, and someone was criticising it, calling it 'popstep'.

I had the same reaction; I thought 'You're just making up words for the hell of it', but it made me understand better why people are so hesitant towards accepting drumstep. Despite I can see why this guy called it popstep, I refuse to accept it as a subgenre.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter. Genres were created so that people could categorize music, so that you can reference it when communicating, and that's it. It doesn't matter if people think drumstep is a genre; I know what I mean when I say it, some others will to, and that's as far as I'm getting involved.