It’s the spring of 2013. It’s Saturday and I just got back home from school. In little more than an hour, I’ll be in the studio recording a new episode of the radio show in which I curate the drum&bass segment. My USB is still empty. I checked all the Beatport’s charts for the entire week but nothing genuinely turned me on. I need to find something mind-blowing. Quickly. I run to the PC station, open YouTube and I type three, simple letters: UKF. Flash forward to later that afternoon and I’m in the studio spinning some of the hottest drum&bass tunes on the planet.
This is a story that I am sure, in various degrees, connects many of us. Before streaming platforms and related tools broke down barriers and changed the very concept of music discovery, where did we go to find new music? It was the domain of blogs and official portals like Beatport and Juno, but most importantly SoundCloud and YouTube. While the real strength of the former platform has always been peer-to-peer sharing (later “killed” by the spread of repost chains), it’s on the latter that curators have made their fortune. The triad of channels under the UKF (Unite Kingdom & Frome) banner, opened between April and December 2009 was one of the forerunners, followed closely by other (now) behemoths like MrSuicideSheep and Proximity (2010), NoCopyrightSound, and DubstepGutter (2011), Trap Nation, Trap City and AllThingsTrap (2012). Although, in terms of sheer numbers, UKF has since been largely overtaken by other players, suffice it to say that both Trap Nation and NoCopyrightSound have broken through the 30 million subscriber mark on their respective YouTube channels, the path of the network created and led by Luke Hood is certainly the most fascinating. Especially in the early years.
It’s fair to say that the then-16-year-old skipped the warmup. Already in their first year, the UKF Drum&Bass and UKF Dubstep channels were in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers range. By 2011, UKF was already making history. As Luke himself says in an interview with Dancing Astronaut, “2011 was a really crazy year for us. We released UKF Dubstep 2010 in December 2010 which in January topped the iTunes Dance charts and remained in the top 50 for years, followed by venturing into live events where we put on our first 500 capacity show in January, through to a sell-out 12,000 capacity show at Alexandra Palace with UKF Bass Culture, which tied into our first TV advertised album.” Far from being a flash in the pan, Luke and the team moved forward, starting a partnership with AEI Music and further developing the brand. That meant more uploads, of course, more channels, but also more events and an editorial platform.
These two aspects are what really distinguish UKF from most of the aforementioned brands. Not many have been able to successfully translate success from online to offline, and certainly not with the same magnitude and longevity as UKF (see their recent New Zealand tour). Having an in-house blog, which has remained a pivotal hub in the bass music world for years thanks to the involvement of professionals like Dave Jenkins, has led the whole project to have a massive cultural impact that went beyond the number of YouTube plays or the followers on Spotify. It’s precisely on this aspect that UKF has overtaken the “competition.” The purely business-oriented choices have, over the years, been matched by initiatives that have culturally enriched the entire scene.
Now, I’m aware that I’ve just said that numbers alone don’t matter. But I also know that we all like to have some clear data to debate on. While UKF is currently celebrating with the release of its new 15-anniversary compilation, we take a trip down memory lane to find out what are (at the moment) the most popular uploads ever on the flagship UKF Drum&Bass and UKF Dubstep channels.
UKF Dubstep Top 15 Songs
1) Blue Foundation – Eyes On Fire (Zeds Dead Remix) – 172 Mio views. Published in 2009.
2) Flux Pavilion – I Can’t Stop – 122 Mio views. Published in 2010
3) UKF Dubstep Mix – August – 71 Mio views. Published in 2009
4) DJ Fresh – Gold Dust (Flux Pavilion Remix) – 60 Mio views. Published in 2010
5) Modestep – Another Day (Ft. Popeska) (xKore Remix) (Official Video) – Mio views. Published in 2012
6) Modestep – Sunlight (Official Video) – 43 Mio views. Published in 2011
7) Freestylers – Cracks (Ft. Belle Humble) (Flux Pavilion Remix) – 41 Mio views. Published in 2010
8) Modestep – Feel Good (Official Video) – 30 Mio views. Published in 2010
9) Flux Pavilion – Bass Cannon – 28 Mio views. Published in 2011
10) DJ Fresh – Louder (Doctor P & Flux Pavilion Remix) – 27 Mio views. Published in 2011
11) Emalkay – When I Look At You – 25 Mio views. Published in 2009
12) Deadmau5 – Ghosts N Stuff (Nero Remix) – 24.8 Mio views. Published in 2009
13) Nero – Act Like You Know (Dubstep Mix) – 24.5 Mio views. Published in 2009
14) Professor Green – Monster feat. Example (Camo & Krooked Remix) – 23 Mio views. Published in 2010
15) Zeds Dead – White Satin – 22 Mio views. Published in 2010
UKF Drum & Bass Top 15 Songs
1) Jessie J – Nobody’s Perfect (Netsky Remix) – 34 Mio views. Published in 2012
2) Rusko – Everyday (Netsky Remix) – 31 Mio views. Published in 2011
3) Sub Focus & Dimension – Desire – 29.9 Mio views. Published in 2018
4) Rusko – Somebody To Love (Sigma Remix) – 29.3 Mio views. Published in 2012
5) Netsky – Memory Lane – 27 Mio views. Published in 2010
6) Macky Gee – Tour – 23 Mio views. Published in 2017
7) Sub Focus – Solar System – 22.8 Mio views. Published in 2019
8) Major Lazer – Get Free (Ft. Amber Coffman) (Andy C Remix) – 22.5 Mio views. Published in 2012
9) B-Complex – Beautiful Lies VIP – 20 Mio views. Published in 2010
10) Hybrid Minds – Touch (ft. Catching Cairo) – 19 Mio views. Published in 2016
11) Wilkinson – Afterglow – 18 Mio views. Published in 2013
12) Skrillex – Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (Dirtyphonics Remix) – 16 Mio views. Published in 2011
13) Ellie Goulding – Starry Eyed (Dexcell Remix) – 15.9 Mio views. Published in 2010
14) Dimension – Generator – 15.6 Mio views. Published in 2017
15) Wilkinson – Used To This (ft. Issey Cross) – 14 Mio views. Published in 2021
