On the Art of getting Film References into your Dubstep

So, dubstep, heard of it? Of course you haven’t, it’s a Bristol thing (Deep Meditations of Mike Grocott; 2008), but should you be familiar have you ever noticed the exorbitant amount of film references and samples in the genre? Well I have, and I’ve taken time out my packed-out schedule (7 hours of lectures a week - weep, for you have nothing to live for) to educate you.

 Because of its massive current popularity, people are wont to forget that the genre’s been around for years and aspects of it were evident in the work of visionaries like Burial, way before the 2007 FabricLive compilation by Caspa and Rusko that shot the sound into the public consciousness like an intergalactic money shot [citation needed].

So, dubstep standard procedure: first of all, you’ll need to find a film you like (Guy Ritchie’s always a good start) and cut out a nice chunk of script. Slap a fat bass line under that and you’re sorted, just sit back and wait for the cocaine money to roll in, right? Well sometimes, there’s also going to be some people with this approach but the big fish in the pond swim there rightfully unlike some (sorry Tinie Tempah, I didn't see you come in), being able to elegantly craft ass-shaking wonderment into neat 4 minute packages, for easy in-club consumption.

Don’t forget though, that film sampling’s nothing new either. Look at DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing… an album composed entirely of samples, or even further back, to De La Soul's tongue-in-cheek hip-hop/soul. Those guys barely found time to fit recording in between bong-hits and yet managed to cram 3 Feet High And Rising with pop culture references.

So what sort of thing is infecting dubstep? I mentioned Guy Ritchie, which was kind of a misnomer because anything remotely cockney is fair game in Rusko’s eyes, but is he cockney? That would explain it neatly but no, he’s not even from London. You’re probably not going to like this but Christoper Mercer, i.e. industry juggernaut Rusko, is, from Yorkshire. Cockney Thug would be quite different had he stuck with his roots. Alright, so can Caspa redeem him? For that purpose I present Born To Do It, containing excerpts from the original (and genius) Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory and Lion’s Roar, based on a scene from the cult/parody hit Kung Fu Hustle. Both are great songs constructed around great film quotes purely on the basis of being what they are, a wee bit different.

Some samples are far more esoteric though, Cragga's remix of Mr Postman would be a good, albeit obvious example, but for a truly inspired premise I have to give credit to the (as yet un-credited) producer of the Lloyds TSB Dubstep Mix. Taking an already catchy advert jingle with gigantic daily exposure and transfiguring it into a monstrously woozy head-nodder was a Nobel-Prize-worthy idea.


The reason pop culture samples are so prevalent in dubstep is that it's just too easy. The basic conventions of the genre are so simple that without some kind of hook, it would never have become so popular in the first place. Vocals just don't provide the kind of pure interest that samples do, though Magnetic Man have been very successful, their vocals are insipid, predictable and just plain dull. They only made it initially because of the weight behind the group's names, particularly Skream and Benga and managed to streamline typical dubstep sound into more refined pop. But it's the inherent simplicity of dubstep that makes it such a rich source, you need only look at the horde of remixes for proof of that. They cover almost all the major schools of music, obviously pop gets the most attention, but there are indie, electro, hip-hop, drum and bass and even occasional folk mixes and all benefit from the treatment. It's rare that a true, blue muso would love a song that at some point got a dubstep remix, but the blander and more banal a paint-by-numbers pop song is, the more it shines with a little filthy dubstep fusion.