Dubstep is like the dance version of jazz. It uses longer percussive loops that force the listener to really hunt for the rhythm, and the percussion is often syncopated at half-time or a completely unrelated rhythm to the rest of the track.
My brain finds it really frustrating to listen to, but I suppose that’s the idea: In the same way that jazz chords evoke feelings of uneasiness, so too do a lot of dubstep rhythms creating tension in the music.
If you watch the way people dance to it in a club, it seems to encourage everyone to dance like nodding dogs as their brains try to find the rhythm. The human brain naturally gravitates to 4 or 8 bar loops so it finds longer, more complex or syncopated loops difficult to deal with.
I don’t like it, but I find it quite interesting…
It causes youngsters to riot too… Fact.