Reid Speed’s ponytail bounced as frantically as the Awful Arthur’s crowd she entertained Saturday evening. Behind a turntable setup, the petite performer aggressively bobbed her head while the speakers pulsed.
Based out of Los Angeles, DJ Reid Speed creates dance ready music mixes that fuse a breadth of styles.
“In the flow of a two-hour set,” she said, “if you’re going from 170 (beats per minute) to 140 to 130 and back up again, you can keep it interesting and it doesn’t have to get boring.”
At the slower end of that beat spectrum resides a rising musical genre called “dubstep.” The dubstep sound is unhurried and loaded with heavy, nearly omnipresent bass — its advocates describe songs with words including “nasty,” “filthy” and “grimy.”
Born of this millennium, dubstep permeated Blacksburg in recent years through several conduits.
During his 2008 abroad studies, senior marketing major Ian McGlumphy glimpsed dubstep in an Amsterdam coffee shop. Once stateside, he promptly broadcast his new tunes. A radio DJ for WUVT since freshman year, McGlumphy released dubstep into southwest Virginia airwaves.
Yet while McGlumphy had considerable reach, he said his showcase wasn’t the original. House-party audiences peeked dubstep through local acts such as DJ Chup and DJ Class-A.
A taste for Chupa Chups lollipops led to the name DJ Chup, while Class-A refers to top-level audio amplifiers. Like McGlumphy, both DJs latched onto dubstep in Europe, which is where its roots formed in the early 2000s.
DJ Chup, senior electrical engineering major Sam Wells, worked near London in summer 2008. Class-A, senior chemical engineering major Steve Morris, had a more ingrained experience.
“Pretty much my entire teen years (were) in the U.K.,” Morris said.
“It’s definitely influenced my music tastes I feel like more to the electronic side.”
Although dubstep has a detailed ancestry of electronic music styles, the DJs said certain characteristics make it unique.
They acknowledged a layer they call the “wobble.” Dubstep producers often manipulate bass with computer software to create a fluctuating effect. To get an idea, say “womp” repeatedly at varying speeds. Granted, the “womp” plays at rumbling frequencies that approach human auditory limits.
“Hope you got some real speakers for this one,” McGlumphy said on WUVT last Thursday, “that’s the only way you’re going to hear it.”
The growing infusion of vocal clips also differentiates dubstep from its instrumental relatives.
“A lot of producers will just take a sample and build a song around that sample,” Wells said.
Snippets from British film are common. McGlumphy said he recently heard morsels of animated sitcom “Family Guy” in a dubstep track.
But how do “womps” and cartoon comedies translate on the dance floor?
“That’s almost kind of like a joke in the culture,” Wells said. “How do you dance to dubstep?”
McGlumphy said rarely are there intimate dance partners.
Because of dubstep’s often deliberate pace, people tend to find their personal groove, which includes what he calls a contorted “bass face.” And he’s seen many grimaces this academic year.
McGlumphy helped organize performances that featured dubstep at establishments including Ceritano’s, Abella Cafe and Awful Arthur’s. Atop locals such as DJ Chup and DJ Class-A, McGlumphy reeled in Finland dubstep producer Tes La Rok.
McGlumphy said although Tes La Rok’s January show at Awful Arthur’s fell just after snow caked Blacksburg, the turnout was substantial.
“The crowd that’s interested in this type of stuff is loyal and they get so ramped about it,” said Jen Morrison, general manager of Awful Arthur’s. “They bring out a great crowd, and most importantly, they bring out a good crowd.”
Awful Arthur’s has a well-rounded schedule of artists, but Morrison said dubstep has skirted the problems she sometimes encounters with other musical acts.
“Packing 300 plus people upstairs,” she said, “(there’s) never a fight, never a harsh word.”
Morrison said she didn’t first hesitate to host a sound that DJ Reid Speed said is meant to “melt your face off.”
“We’re Awful Arthur’s, you know,” Morrison said. “I’m not going to say we’re the classiest joint in town. As a company we have a reputation for taking risks and not being afraid to be a little bit offensive in the interest of doing something cool.”
And dubstep has offended at least a few. Morris absorbed an insult at a recent DJ gig.
“Some girl came up to me and she was like, ‘Hey, are you going to play music that people actually like?’” he said.
Wells said he receives occasional requests for mainstream hits by names such as Lil’ Wayne.
But the DJs said they don’t expect to lasso everyone.
With dubstep still in its infancy in Blacksburg, the foreign noise can startle newcomers. Still, a Blacksburg niche exists for dubstep and other related genres; it’s that pocketed enthusiasm that draws bigger names.
“You’ll find many artists who share the same sense that I do,” Reid Speed said, “where it’s not just about the biggest crowd possible but it’s more about a vibe. And if you have 100 people in a city that really like a certain kind of music, you can have better nights than venues where there’s 100,000.”
McGlumphy said he hopes fandom grows after his spring graduation. Wells and Morris said they plan to stay in the area, though Morris joked about finding new dubstep help.
“I’m looking for an apprentice,” he said.