Dubstep: Snowboarders Like it

Snowboarding and music go hand in hand, most riders listen to music when they are on the mountain. Some people like it and some people don’t. Personally I listen to music occasionally when I am riding. My biggest issue with it would be the fact that you can’t really hear what your friends are saying on the chairlift if you are bumping music. However, when I ride off the lift and start going down a trail the music enhances everything. When I ride and listen to music it feels like the music playing is what song I will have in my debut pro riding part (which will obviously never happen). Nonetheless it is still really fun to ride down a trail while listening to your favorite beats.

My snowboarding playlist consists of dubstep, rap and screamo music. The first time I heard of dubstep was when my skier friend introduced it to me. For those of you who don’t know what dubstep is it is, according to about.com, “The best way to recognize a dubstep track or mix is by the reverberating sub-bass that is present in most productions. The sub-bass is reverberated at different speeds to give a sense of movement and insistence. The tracks are typically higher in BPM, ranging between 138 and 142 typically. The style does not favor four-to-the-floor beats, instead relying on spaced, syncopated percussion that the listener typically adds their own mental metronome to.” So my snowboarder kid definition of dubstep is, basically electronic music that incorporates “drops” in the tracks. The electronic music, usually drum and bass beats, build up until the drop happens. When the song drops, then all hell breaks loose. Dubstep fans live for the awesome change of tempo that the drop provides. These drops are all unique in their own way and they are all dope. Some awesome dubstep artists are Bassnectar, Zeds Dead, and Excision.

At first when I heard this new type of music and thought to myself, “it sounds like two metal trash cans grinding together over a dial up connection.” It took a few more times listening to dubstep for me to get into it. The song that made me think that dubstep was not just random computer noises was Wake Up Call (Datsik Remix) by Steve Aoki and Sidney Samson. I can literally remember everything that happened when I listened to the song. I downloaded it off of dirtymexicanlemonade.com (it used to be a dope site for good music, I don’t know if it’s still running or not) and when I heard it my world was changed. The beginning of the song is so happy and then it suddenly drops and blows your mind. It’s a great song and I will always like it.

Currently there has been a new electronic music phenomenon sweeping across the nation. This new genre of music, trap, takes after rap that comes primarily from the south. It uses 808 bass beats to make songs that I honestly can’t describe. A good trap song just makes you want to move. They have a buildup similar to dubstep songs, when the trap beat drops it causes chaos in your ears because it is unexpected, but great. Ever since this movement started I have put several trap songs on my snowboarding playlist.

Like I was saying earlier, my skier friend introduced me to dubstep. Every person that I heard talk about dubtep a few years ago was either a skier or snowboarder. I honestly don’t know why snow enthusiasts started to like this music, but I have to thank them for spreading it around because dubstep is awesome.