A Fantastic (Opinionated) Read on Dubstep

[XXDarkShadow79XX]

http://www.factmag.com/2013/02/04/ban-t ... irty-side/

Just found this looking through beatport news. It's nice knowing that someone shares an opinion with you.

Also, did this change or reinforce your opinion on dubstep? It's an article that you may have to be open to while reading it. I think it really helped me realize that dubstep is a big genre now. It's not just some electronic subgenre anymore. (Well, technically it is) Dubstep is just as big and prominent as electro or dnb. Hell, it has even leaked into the mainstream. What do you guys think?

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Interesting. I like some of the points he makes, but his opinions clash with information :S

[XXDarkShadow79XX]

Interesting. I like some of the points he makes, but his opinions clash with information :S

Yes, but that's what opinion articles do. It's tough to do fact based articles meant to change your opinion, especially on something as subjective as art.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

True, and the notion of a dubstep equivalent of grindcore is both worrying and interesting.

[XXDarkShadow79XX]

True, and the notion of a dubstep equivalent of grindcore is both worrying and interesting.

Oh we're already there.

https://soundcloud.com/technorch/love-love-love-you-i-love-you

[Icky]

Dirty dubstep is like Neurofunk without the pounding beat. Pretty neat but not all that "metal" as people make it out to be.

[Freewave]

Had a big written out thing but mlr logged me out and i lost it....so yeah good article and yeah newer dubstep might not be dubby, live by the half-step, or resemble the uk garage scene it came from but it is more danceable, fun and loud, and something white kids can openly love. It's definitely the last big electronic parent genre we'd had in decades and it's got enough diversity and styles that it should do quite fine for many more years. Sure its changed a LOT but its got enough fans so that different people can make and enjoy what they like about it (whether its ambient, intelligent, poppy, dubby, or loud and filthy. Only thing that will kill it is if fans grow bored.

[Navron]

I think the writer compared it to metal in a loose sense. It doesn't share that many similarities to metal, although both genres elicit a similar reaction: Violent head banging.

The heavy dubstep scene that's become popular isn't your typical dance music. It isn't the feel good, upbeat songs that get played in dance clubs that you drunkenly dance with random girls to. It's a more concert oriented, "Start a violent mosh pit," style of music, and IMO, is actually one of the first electronic genres that a lot of metal heads can get into.

[ghelded_kultz]

"One day, someone is going to... create a dubstep grindcore scene"

This will make brostep worth it. (Not that they would fuse all that well. Sludge metal and brostep (or dubstep) though... that's another story).

Other points about the article. Parts would good, other were not so much. Like I disagree that dubstep is a better gateway drug than trance or even electro house (not that is was very clear to me what it was a gateway to? Electronic music, definately not. Bass and Noise, I'll give him that, but the way he phrases the title implies all electronic music).

I definitely agree that it pisses off the right people though. And coming from the philosophies I do, that is a good thing indeed.

While I agree that calling dubstep heavy metal isn't an insult, it's just as stupid to call it heavy metal in general . Though there are some interesting parallels that I just realized/was nudged into through his analogy. Early dubstep, like early metal, was slower, more atmospheric, closer (relatively speaking) to it's parent (blues-rock/psychedelic rock for metal, dub and 2-step for dubstep), and less "noisy" (a term I use with a heavy heart). Later dubstep started taking influences from other genres, moving into a more aggressive and noisy state, like how metal started taking punk influence and became faster, louder and more aggressive (note: This is a very simplified history of both genres). One thing to remember though is that it wasn't the faster, louder, more agressive metal that became super popular, it was poppy-trash metal (Look, I love hair metal and all, but it's poppy trash), so I'll let everyone else decide if the analogy continued to hold up.

It's insane. Kind of. I'll say it's crazier than most mainstream music, but insane? That's a stretch.

The rest of the points I don't know enough about to make a semi-fair comment.

Other points: 1) The author really likes Reign in Blood. I personally am waiting not for dubstep's Reign in Blood, but dubstep's Daydream Nation. 2) Modern aggressive dubstep/brostep/whateverstep is far enough removed from the original genre musically and scene-wise to merit a new genre in my opinion. I don't know why people are so resistant to this. Give it a neutral name before the journalists give it a pejorative one. Or just adopt the pejorative as a bade of pride (see punk, shoegaze, a whole bunch of other scenes).