Dubstep is a genre of bass music that emerged in South London in the late 1990s and grew widely popular in the 2000s and early 2010s. Online, short dubstep drops became a staple in meme videos, montage edits and dramatic reveal clips because they create instant contrast and intensity. Even when a specific clip has no widely known source, creators still use this style of sound to signal that something absurd, powerful or intentionally overblown is happening on screen.