Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the late 1990s. It is characterized by dark, instrumental remixes of 2-step garage with influences from breakbeat and drum and bass. The term "dubstep" emerged around 2002 from labels releasing these remixes. DJ John Peel helped expose the sound to a wider audience in the early 2000s. By the late 2000s, dubstep began to see mainstream success in the UK and influenced several pop artists, while producers also started fusing dubstep with other genres like post-dubstep and brostep.