Future Bass and All It’s Children

The 2010s were a massive era for electronic dance music. At the time Skrillex’s Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites seemed like nothing more than a drop in a Dubstep filled bucket. What followed was a surge that lasted 3 years, one that no one saw coming. Dubstep (more specifically Brostep) was everywhere. Not only were pop stars using dubstep production but so were video games, movies, TV shows etc. The dubstep craze reached its peak in 2013, and by the end of the year just about everyone was sick of it. In the wake of the Dubstep fall, people became polarized in the EDM community and mainstream music. The music landscape began to shift in favor of more “real” sounds. No one could have predicted the rise of a second EDM subgenre to the mainstream any time soon. But in the ashes of Dubstep’s demise was an egg. One that would hatch and quickly mature into Future bass.

What is Future Bass

Future bass is a sub genre of electronic dance music that blends elements of Wonky, Trap, Dubstep and Purple Sound. Many point to the artists Hudson Mohawke and Rustie as the originators of the sound. Rustie’s 2011 Album Glass Swords is often stated to be the first Future Bass album. However, it would be a full 3 years before the term Future Bass became a thing. Before, the genre was called Neon, Wavy, or Happy Trap. While the name doesn’t necessarily have the “umph” that Future Bass does. I think Happy Trap was probably the best short description of how Glass Swords sounded. Almost entirely opposite of the much darker and deeper Dubstep and Electro styles of the time, the tracks on Glass Swords are filled with stacked supersaw chords, melodies using vibrant glossy textures that gave off a video game soundtrack feel, but also woozy trap drum loops that gave some tracks a club music feel. Still influenced somewhat by Dubstep, Rustie’s songs did feature the famous build up into a drop structure. However, instead of aggressive bass growls, Rustie’s drops were centered around harmonic and explosive chord stabs, a structure and technique that became Central to the Future Bass sound. 

Mr. Mohawke on the other hand blended glossy synths with Hip Hop production style emphasizing swing, chopped vocal samples, booming 808s, and layered harmonic chord progressions. Hudson Mohawke’s album Butter was him beginning to build a bridge between underground experimental bass music and contemporary Hip Hop production techniques. Just a few years later, that bridge would be finished when he partnered up with producer, Lunice, on the TNGHT project where both producers turned the Hip-Hop/Trap elements up to 11, creating a cult-classic EP in the process. 

With the two recipes laid out in front of them, early adopters of future bass would pull from both ingredient lists, carefully picking out which elements they liked best in their sonic dish. Producers more commonly gravitated towards the pitch bending chord stacks, often opting to modulate them with heavy sidechain compression, giving the synths a sort of pulse. Vocal samples were used as melodic instruments, chopped up and re-pitched when needed. Most Future Bass songs feature bright major key chord progressions that accompany uplifting melodies in stark contrast to the darker and screechy-er compositions of Dubstep before it. 

First adopters

In 2014, Future Bass became a fully-fledged movement that was rapidly growing in popularity. While what we now call Future Bass producers would stay inside the lines, there were a few of the early adopters that would put a little bit of their own seasoning in that would go on to inspire movements in their own right. 

One of the biggest acts to flourish in the sea of the Future Bass scene was Flume. If you have read my previous article, you already know where this is going – Vapor Twitch. Flume’s 2016 album Skin showcase a more experimental side of Future Bass. Removing most if not all the bass. Taking the pulsing synths and making them stutter. Taking the vocal chops and manipulating them in a way that seemed as if they were dancing. Flume’s approach to Future Bass centered on experimental sound design while bringing things back to the wonky rhythmic structures and glossy sounds faintly reminiscent of Rustie.

Wave racer, another experimental Aussie, would opt for something a little more playful. Where Flume’s experimental approach created a cold and airy synthetic atmosphere, Wave Racer’s approach was seemingly “Future bass but wet”. With production more cheerful and colorful than most of his contemporaries, Wave Racer’s Flash Drive EP showcased a style of Future Bass that was filled with bubbly synth melodies, vibrant cord stabs, and arpeggios that make you feel like you just grabbed the Star Power-up in a Mario game. The style was overly joyful energetic and almost immediately created a movement affectionately called Dofflin.

Illenium’s take on Future Bass put a bombastic and cinematic spin on the genre. His debut album Ashes featured a plethora of tracks with heartfelt and emotionally charged vocal performances. This alongside it’s atmospheric intros and dynamic chord driven drops gave a sense of emotional catharsis in each track. This style resonated strongly in festival settings and would lay the groundwork for what would later become a melodic bass. 

Snail’s House engineered a style that would later be known as Kawaii Future Bass. This subgenre was predicated by it’s cutesy pastel colored sonic palates often using high pitch vocal samples, kitsch sound bites, and Chip tune inspired melodies. Kawaii Future Bass tracks we’re typically accompanied by visuals of Japanese pop culture and anime, which is where it gets its namesake. 

Back to the Mainstream

By the mid to late 2010s future bass as a genre was radiating with new acts. Around this time is when one of its most influential figures arose from the shadows and pushed the scene into new territory. In 2016, Marshmello released the track “Alone”. The tracks’ unique combination of Future Bass techniques and Pop style gloss proved that electronic music could once again rise to the top of the charts and assimilate with major mainstream artists. Tracks like Justin Bieber’s “What do you Mean”, and Coldplay’s “Something Just Like This” soon followed. In 2018, “Happier”, Marshmello’s collaboration with Bastille, released and quickly became one of the most successful EDM songs of the decade. This Pop and Future Bass fusion accelerated the genre to heights previously only seen by Dubstep. Video games, movies, TV shows, commercials, it was everywhere. Even amusement parks like six flags would license whole lineups of Future Bass tracks from artists like Chainsmokers, Marshmello, and Flume to play on their park radio. However, just like Dubstep before it, when Future Bass became mainstream a divide began. Much like the Dubstep versus Brostep argument, the community began to draw a line in the sand. The jury decided that true Future Bass came from acts like Flume, Illenium, cashmere cat and Lido. While artists like Chainsmokers, Halsey, and Louis the Child were making Future Pop. Marshmello toed the line, but it was undeniable that he was the father and pioneer of the mainstream Pop fusion Future Bass.

The Fall?

The biggest difference between Dubstep and Future Bass (other than the obvious) is the way each genre fell out of favor. Dubstep crashed and burned but Future Bass had a much slower decline. Where Dubstep’s slate was wiped clean and took years for producers to come back to the genre, Future Bass still has relevance to this day. It cannot be understated how massive the Pop infused style of Future Bass was and still is. Due to its widespread appeal, it became one of the best genres for sync licensing. You need music for a car ad? Future Bass. Apple’s making a new iPhone? I wonder what kind of song they’re going to use. Future Bass. Fortnite – Future bass. Roblox – Future bass. SIX FLAGS TO THIS DAY STILL HAS THAT CHAINSMOKERS TRACK IN THEIR ROTATION (can you tell I’m sick of it). 

Part of what saved Future bass from the fate of its older sibling is the fact that the genre is always mutating. How does something reach the point of oversaturation if a week or two down the line there’s a new style of it forming? Even the schism that divided Future Pop and regular Future Bass begot a movement of more underground more experimental Future Bass. Color bass being one of those developments.

But Wait Theres More!

Often associated with producers like Virtual Riot, Color bass (or Colour Bass for the Brits) blends the harmonic synthesis of Future Bass with the heavier drum samples and bass modulation of Dubstep. If Dubstep wants to make a bass growl Color Bass aims to make a bass sing by adding more harmonic synth frequencies to bass patches. This creates drops that are simultaneously aggressive and melodically intricate. Some people (me) like to say that Color Bass is the “Math Rock” of EDM due genres focus on complex sound design and melody centered production.

A more recent evolution came from the work of Chime, who’s style became known as Future Riddim. Another fusion of Dubstep and Future Bass techniques this time taking the rhythmic patterns of Riddim Dubstep and combining them with the harmonic structures of Future Bass. Now to the uninitiated reading this I know – it sounds almost exactly like how I described color bass but with different flowers planted around the words. And you know what you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. While the methodology is very similar the approach and subsequent results are very distinct. Viewing the added harmonics as the “Color”, Color Bass adds the color to the bass (evidently) while Future Riddim lays color on top of a pulsing rhythm. 

Conclusion 

Future bass may not hit the highs it once did but It still remains as a relevant and influential genre deeply embedded in modern EDM. It successfully pushed innovation to the top of the charts while showcasing new approaches to sound design to a generation of producers. Those producers would then take those inspirations and created styles that became their own full-fledged genres.  From Melodic Bass to Vapor Twitch these styles demonstrate how a set of production ideas can evolve into an ecosystem of musical innovation. Originally, I wanted to call this “The rise and fall of Future bass” but in my research I discovered it never truly did. It’s still here and it’s not alone. It has kids and all of them continue to push the sound of bass music and experimental EDM to its limits. And quite frankly I hope those limits are never found.