I think mephedrone is responsible for the rise of dubstep. The formula of dubstep (steady build-up, steady build-up, steady build-up, steady build-up, DROP) is perfectly suited to the adrenaline and euphoria of mephedrone.
So back last year, mephedrone was all over Britain (Don't forget dubstep originates from London), in the press, in the universities, in the schools, in the clubs, and dubstep rose to prominence, evolving the bass wobbles into often unbelievably cataclysmicly discordant, heart-racing, adrenaline pumping bass drops. I have no doubt in my mind that dubstep evolved that way because of mephedrone. There are even dubstep tracks
about mephedrone, with basslines so gnarly they cross the boundary between music and white noise loosely based around a beat.
I fucking love dubstep btw
It is like the black sheep of music. It breaks all the rules of song structure and content. It's basically just A/B/A/B/A/B, sometimes with little changes here and there to keep things interesting. On paper it shouldn't work, but dubstep is fucking massive. No other genre could pull off such a ridiculous formula.
I think the flavour of dubstep America has adopted leans more toward rave culture. Artists like Bassnectar create bouncy, jumpy dubstep tracks that people can roll to and throw glow sticks around to. It's a cool hybrid, but since mephedrone isn't that big in America, and since dubstep has only just become prominent in the States, it won't enjoy the same happy accident that made dubstep 'dubstep'. It's dubstep....but with a very different personality.
It's the post-meph dubstep that has caught the eye of America, although I bet a lot don't realise just how different dubstep was before mephedrone.
So IMO if it weren't for mephedrone, dubstep would never have made it to America in the first place, and it'd still be relatively niche and unheard of over here too.
Some examples/sick tunes:
Earlier, pre-rampant mephedrone use, dubstep -
DZ - Old Timers
More recent, dirtier dubstep created when mephedrone use was at its peak -
Tek One - Sleep With One Eye Open Remix
Dubstep track blatently about mephedrone, aimed firmly at users -
Bare Noize - Plant Food
(Btw in case you were unaware, the supposed 'street name' for mephedrone was meow meow...)
Btw shouldn't this be in EMD? Dubstep is pretty electronic.