Le drop et le choses. Prolegomeni a una sociosemiotica del dubstep

The paper focuses on the electronic popular music genre called ‘dubstep’, providing the introductory notes to a wider in-progress research on the topic. The Author presents a brief review of the sources (both on paper and online), a linguistic analysis of the word, the first tokens of ‘dubstep’ as a musical genre neologism (on the records and in journalistic discourse), and some considerations about its stylistic history. Six possible phases, and types, of dubstep are identified and briefly discussed, drawing particular attention to the figures of the two ‘antipodal’ producers Burial and Skrillex. At the same time, the deeply unitary nature of the genre is maintained.