8 months ago
“The things that drew me to dubstep in the first place weren’t necessarily the kind of testosterone-driven environments that you got from say, late jungle or some of the drum ‘n’ bass stuff that was happening after that. I think the dubstep that has come over to the US, and certain producers — who I can’t even be bothered naming — have definitely hit upon a sort of frat-boy market where there’s this macho-ism being reflected in the sounds and the way the music makes you feel. And to me, that is a million miles away from where dubstep started. It’s a million miles away from the ethos of it. It’s been influenced so much by electro and rave, into who can make the dirtiest, filthiest bass sound, almost like a pissing competition, and that’s not really necessary. And I just think that largely that is not going to appeal to women. I find that whole side of things to be pretty frustrating, because that is a direct misrepresentation of the sound as far as I’m concerned.”
» James Blake, via Interview: James Blake’s dub soft-shoe, by Liz Pelly.
Lately, I’ve been revisiting electronic music I grew up on, artists like Roni Size and DJ Krush, and have been considering / discussing what a genre like dubstep started as and how it’s currently portrayed. I think this quote from a recent James Blake interview sums up everything perfectly.
EDIT: This quote has caused some controversy (not here; no one reads this) and I have a desire to expand on it a bit. I enjoy (to an extent) and think there’s enough room for all styles of dubstep — from the Blakes, to the Burials, to the Ruskos, to the Skrillexes — and in his quote, I don’t necessarily think Blake was referring to Skrillex as others are assuming. (If he was, that’d be straight-up jealousy. Do brostep frat-boys even like Skrillex? I thought they all think he’s gay.) More so, I thought Blake was referring to everyone trying to copy Skrillex, the noise-makers with no substance just seeing how abrasive and distorted the bass can get. There’s a shit-ton of that garbage on Beatport; it’s excessive and has diluted what was initially a really exciting sound. But it’s incorrect to think the currently popular stuff is the way dubstep shouldn’t sound, just as it’s incorrect to think Blake’s music is the only way it should sound. As a friend of mine said, “To relegate [Skrillex’s music] to ‘frat boys’ is to say that all Blake’s and Burial’s music is only liked by hipsters and wankers.” Neither thing is true.
Finally, to get really nerdy (as if I haven’t enough already), Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, Skrillex’s breakthrough EP, actually contains a lot of house and trance-esque moments. Many songs on that EP songs have a 128 BPM, closer to house genres than dubstep’s standard 140 BPM. Furthermore, in interviews Skrillex often distances himself from the genre saying he makes music of all styles which begs the question: Is it even dubstep?
Lately, I’ve been revisiting electronic music I grew up on, artists like Roni Size and DJ Krush, and have been considering / discussing what a genre like dubstep started as and how it’s currently portrayed. I think this quote from a recent James Blake interview sums up everything perfectly.
EDIT: This quote has caused some controversy (not here; no one reads this) and I have a desire to expand on it a bit. I enjoy (to an extent) and think there’s enough room for all styles of dubstep — from the Blakes, to the Burials, to the Ruskos, to the Skrillexes — and in his quote, I don’t necessarily think Blake was referring to Skrillex as others are assuming. (If he was, that’d be straight-up jealousy. Do brostep frat-boys even like Skrillex? I thought they all think he’s gay.) More so, I thought Blake was referring to everyone trying to copy Skrillex, the noise-makers with no substance just seeing how abrasive and distorted the bass can get. There’s a shit-ton of that garbage on Beatport; it’s excessive and has diluted what was initially a really exciting sound. But it’s incorrect to think the currently popular stuff is the way dubstep shouldn’t sound, just as it’s incorrect to think Blake’s music is the only way it should sound. As a friend of mine said, “To relegate [Skrillex’s music] to ‘frat boys’ is to say that all Blake’s and Burial’s music is only liked by hipsters and wankers.” Neither thing is true.
Finally, to get really nerdy (as if I haven’t enough already), Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, Skrillex’s breakthrough EP, actually contains a lot of house and trance-esque moments. Many songs on that EP songs have a 128 BPM, closer to house genres than dubstep’s standard 140 BPM. Furthermore, in interviews Skrillex often distances himself from the genre saying he makes music of all styles which begs the question: Is it even dubstep?
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