Food for thought.

[legend4ry]

So ive been sitting here the last few days, listening to my body of work across multiple genres and bpm and I always seem to push my dubstep stuff.

So it made me think, do I only push my dubstep and make dubstep more than other genres because I have a some-what established name in this scene? In an ideal world, i'd be making music like Moloko or Massive Attack and earning a decent living out of it.. Yet I make music within a scene I don't even like anymore.

Anyone else feel like this?

EDIT: I say I don't like.. I mean, I don't have the same passion for it, as I did 3-4 years ago.

[deadly_habit]

yes, but i'm taking it slow when it comes to pushing my other stuff, hell my dubstep even nowadays
trying to amass a collection i'm happy with before i go sending demos about, or even sending tunes to friends or uploading anywhere
been a min since i worked on any dubstep tbh, ambient, trip hop and experimental shit is floating my boat
that and so more commercialized stuff to hopefully raise some funding and name recognition to get in the doors for sound design/score work for say films and games

[alphacat]

Perhaps you're still pushing the dubstep stuff because despite not being into the scene (if ya wanna call it that) now, maybe there's a bit of you holding on to the lingering hope that what you initially saw and loved about the sound is coming through in your tunes in some way; maybe you're even hoping you can influence the sound back towards that first vibe.

And complicating things can be proficiency - maybe in alternative or in addition to the point above, maybe you [felt like you] got so good at doing that thing that you're invested too deeply to just pull up and start over.

Bear in mind that Massive Attack & Moloko arose to prominence through a combination of originality/uniqueness AND being in the right place at the right time, tapping into the zeitgeist as it were...

[legend4ry]

Perhaps you're still pushing the dubstep stuff because despite not being into the scene (if ya wanna call it that) now, maybe there's a bit of you holding on to the lingering hope that what you initially saw and loved about the sound is coming through in your tunes in some way; maybe you're even hoping you can influence the sound back towards that first vibe.

And complicating things can be proficiency - maybe in alternative or in addition to the point above, maybe you [felt like you] got so good at doing that thing that you're invested too deeply to just pull up and start over.

Bear in mind that Massive Attack & Moloko arose to prominence through a combination of originality/uniqueness AND being in the right place at the right time, tapping into the zeitgeist as it were...

Raise some good points! Its just a bit of a shame, without blowing my own trumpet - I think I write half decent dubstep so it is a bit hard to stop writing it!

[mks]

I think it just has to be about the music more than the scene, and if you're feeling it, you're feeling it. Hell, I'm still making broken beat even though there doesn't seem to be much of a scene anymore. I still get inspired by some of the potentialities of it. Same could be said for dubstep.

[deadly_habit]

I think it just has to be about the music more than the scene, and if you're feeling it, you're feeling it. Hell, I'm still making broken beat even though there doesn't seem to be much of a scene anymore. I still get inspired by some of the potentialities of it. Same could be said for dubstep.

bingo, it's funny with dubstep the more and more popular it gets and the more and more i see what is charting on the download sites, the less motivation i feel to post up my current works as it seems even if i do make something that stands out it will got lost real quick in a sea of generic yoyoi and paintbynumberstep
then again i've been a jaded tnuc for ages now and still do my own thing and bounce between styles and genres

[marshy]

Monster munch and a bag of............wait wat

[Sharmaji]

I'm still making broken beat even though there doesn't seem to be much of a scene anymore

Seiji's doing great things nowadays--just his FACT mix alone last year was stunning. There was never really a separate broken beat "scene" here in the states, but across lots of genres, the presence is undeinable.

[cloak and dagger]

I guess I'm lucky in that, apart from the first couple of dubstep tunes I made, none of my stuff is really 100% "dubstep"; I've always brought enough influences from other genres and sounds and been pretty versatile in that regard, even if the tempo is all 130-140. When I play my live sets, I have a lot of different vibes to choose from, and I never really felt like I was trying to fit in with the dubstep scene to begin with.

In my case, I have very little time to work on music these days, so I just make what I like. The tune I'm working (slowly) on now is me doing vocals with a vocoder (even with a vocoder I sing like shit) and using a bunch of old 80's synth emulation VSTs. It's still pretty dubsteppy, but I've always had more fun making music that teaches me something and really pushes the boundaries of what I thought I could do (currently having trouble trying to make vocoded vocals stand out for the chorus while being super-reverbed), which pretty much explains why I never remix anything I've done and move around styles a lot.


Sorry, that was a pretty self-important, fairly useless rant about myself. Hopefully someone out there didn't feel like they wasted their time by reading that

[ajfa]

Anyone else feel like this?

Pretty much. Went to a club last week, heard a tune by Skrillex, a Skrillex RMX, Trolley Snatcha and then DJ Fresh's dubstep off his new album, all of which I didn't really enjoy. And wondered why the hell am I still making 'heavy' dubstep... Probably because I've worked hard at it for this long, it would seem like a waste to start making trip hop or something.

[ogunslinger]

been sitting in this class at my college, which basically they teach you how to like re-create like sounds for movies n shit.. kinda cool, like they give you a video feed and you have to come up with something to match the video! for movies n commercials n stuff like that!

pretty cool except they're using logic and pro tools.... and I use ableton so like ugh

[gonzodj]

we're a product of our environments. whatever has had the biggest impact on you will come out through your music. obviously dubstep has had the biggest impact on you so there's no point not trying to embrace it.

at the same, ask yourself, why should my music be able to be classified so easily? the history comes from innovation and new ideas, not dwelling on the past.

[narcissus]

So ive been sitting here the last few days, listening to my body of work across multiple genres and bpm and I always seem to push my dubstep stuff.

So it made me think, do I only push my dubstep and make dubstep more than other genres because I have a some-what established name in this scene? In an ideal world, i'd be making music like Moloko or Massive Attack and earning a decent living out of it.. Yet I make music within a scene I don't even like anymore.

Anyone else feel like this?

EDIT: I say I don't like.. I mean, I don't have the same passion for it, as I did 3-4 years ago.

kinda hear you actually... i dunno.. this feeling is the reason i haven't really been making dubstep lately.. even all my recent 'dubstep' songs don't really fit into what the scene seems to be down with.. i been getting into older shit, some speed garage, regular garage.. liquid drum n bass, ambient, hip-hop, RnB, top 40, alt rock, you name it.. trying to take all influences and make music that defies 'dubstep' classification.. altho.. i just can't deny my love of good dubstep.. does a lot.. but then again, so does good house.. idk.
i make music that reflects my soul at the current moment, so it's kind of a diary.. it reflects my experiences, thoughts, and aspirations.. and what i've seen of the dubstep scene and rave scene in general is just kinda flimsy? it's all just rather silly. would rather represent something larger.. altho partying n dancing n all that is amazing.. n i wouldn't give away all these memories for the world..
anyway we'll see where life takes me n my music..

[Ldizzy]

felt the same about hip hop back then..

thats basically why im here...

altho, i didnt quit making hip hop... i just explore.. and its been a blessing.

maybe you should try to learn about other genres and see what that might inspire u dubstepwise... might give u a whole new set of ideas..

im just sayin.. cuz u know... it must be dull to feel the way u do man

[Swanwickk]

make up a new genre . fuck producing constantly in the same tempo

[Depone]

Im just having fun with my own music at the moment, I rarely pay attention to whatever the scene is moving in whatever direction. It just happens to be dubstep.

[grooki]

I do feel like I am in that boat, I don't really hear much stuff that I like these days. It's also compounded because of move towards the midrange sound is almost complete.

Im just having fun with my own music at the moment, I rarely pay attention to whatever the scene is moving in whatever direction. It just happens to be dubstep.

This is what I do. It's just for fun!

[Johnst]

I'm still very new to electronic music, but i gotta say, what got me into dubstep originally was the rusko/excision big dirty midrange bass style stuff. ever since i started making dubstep though i've started to really mellow out in terms of what i listen to. all of a sudden i'm bored to death of skrillex and all that other stuff, cause it's crazy, but that's it.

anyone listen to boards of canada or bonobo?... been really getting back into the more interesting, melodic, mellow style stuff.

[legend4ry]

No one really got my point but an interesting thread.

[qwaycee_]

for me personally.

i feel kind of fortunate in this respect. when i started making music (albeit dabbling) i didn't even know what dubstep was, and i guess around that time in 2005 dubstep was sort on the rise as far as its creative peak. so i was just making raw mangled sample based loops and shit like that at that particular time.

it was 3 years after that i started hearing dubstep. i was all like "wow" and all that, and sure i dabbled with some techniques but i don't feel shackled to attempting to make dubstep, but the shit i essentially make has nothing to do with dubnstep whatsoever.

and i'm glad.

because i always felt that in my case if i came in all of a sudden trying to make full on dubstep i'd be more or less bandwagoning. so far the extent of my feelings of bandwagoning involves registering on dubstepforum lol. but the forum is about community, and i enjoy elements of the music, even if it exploded into some noise filled lfo unrhytmic thing.

and i feel like if keep doing whatever i've been doing before it'll allow me to do whatever. when what you make has nothing to do with whatever else is going on in a scene, it's more freedom aint it? like havent a lot of you people been producing for 5+ years? what were you making back then? start making that shit again.

i'll tell you what though...i am trying to make some straight 4X4 type shit. we'll see how that goes lol.


this post probably don't answer your question whatsoever, but i enjoyed rambling a.k.a procrastinating from studying for exam i got in a few hrs.