according to Wikipedia:

Dub is either an instrumental^[1]subgenre of reggae music,^[2] or a separate genre of music^[3] that involves revisions of existing songs.^[4] The dub sound consists predominantly of instrumental remixes of existing recordings and is achieved by significantly manipulating and reshaping the recordings, usually by removing the vocals from an existing music piece, emphasizing the drum and bass parts (this stripped down track is sometimes referred to as a 'riddim'). Other techniques include dynamically adding extensive echo, reverb, panoramic delay, and occasional dubbing of vocal or instrumental snippets from the original version. Dub also sometimes features electronically generated sound effects, or the use of distinctive instruments such as the melodica.^{[citation needed]}

Dub was pioneered by Osbourne Ruddock, Lee Perry, Errol Thompson and others^[2] in the late 1960s. Similar experiments with recordings at the mixing desk were also done by producers Clive Chin and Herman Chin Loy.^[5] These producers, especially Ruddock and Perry, looked upon the mixing desk as an instrument, manipulating tracks to come up with something new and different.

Dub has influenced many genres of music, including rock (mostly significantly the sub-genre of post-punk and other kinds of punk^[6]), pop,^[7]hip hop,^[6]disco and, later, house^[8], techno^[8], ambient^[8], trip hop^[8]; it has become a base for jungle/drum'n'bass^[9][10] and dubstep.^[11] Today, the word 'dub' is used widely to describe the re-formatting of music of various genres into typically instrumental, rhythm-centric adaptations.