Wut is dubstap?

[kaiori breathe]

Warning: Potential 'tl;dr' thread.

A more accurate title for this thread might be: "what is dubstep to you"

Recently I've been getting a lot of pointless 'feedback' along the lines of "why are you calling this dubstep" and "this isn't really dubstep" it kind of bugs me. Here's a slightly edited (given that I put a bit more thought into it for DSF) post I made on a track that received a particularly large quantity of such comments (you don't have to read it, you can just skip to answering the question in the thread title if you'd like as that's more what I'm interested in, I just thought I'd post my views as a sort of kick-off point):

"For those of you asking why this is dubstep:

1., Because I say it is. I'm the one who wrote it, I should get final say in what it is, that might sound arrogant, it isn't mean to, it's just how I see it. I'm the one who made it. You wouldn't try to tell Vincent van Gogh that his painting of Sunflowers was actually a painting of lilies so don't tell me this isn't dubstep. I'm the one who wrote it, I know what I did and I know what it is. I'm more intimately involved with the work than any listener could ever be, I plucked each and every note and nuance from an imagined track in a creative ether that inhabited my mind and sketched it upon my DAW with intention and direction. I knew what I was doing and I knew what I was making.

Dubstep is a big part of my life and I am always writing, listening to, and tied to dubstep music and the dubstep community; as far as I'm concerned everything I write under the name 'kaiori breathe' is an extension of that unless I state other wise.

2., Dubstep isn't necessarily and shouldn't be defined by wobble basses. It isn't all about the kick 1 snare 3 rhythms; it isn't all about being 'sick' and sounding 'nasty' - the dubstep sound you hear in the charts isn't the sum product of the entire genre. There is more to dubstep than what a few larger labels or UKF have packaged for public consumption. What you hear in the mainstream is a formula designed to sell records and fill dance floors, it's radio friendly and it isn't fully representative of the body of work that is the genre: dubstep.

3., Back before anybody took notice of me, when I received a grand total of 1 comment and 3 plays a month, when the only people who listened to my work were other dubstep producers, nobody questioned what I was doing; nobody said "this isn't dubstep" - an entire community of dubstep producers accepted me as being a dubstep producer and inspired me further and pushed me forward, they didn't question me being a part of what they were a part of, they invited me in and helped me grow as a person and as an artist.

Those people are there still there, but they're being drown out by all the 16 year olds who just heard 'bass cannon' by flux pavillion or nero's 'guilt' or something by magnetic man and leave thinking that that's what dubstep is all about (i.e., dubstep = 808 kick on 1, white noise snare on 3, 808 kick on 2, white noise snare on 3 + 'massive' bass) - don't get me wrong, I love that dubstep is big now, I love those artists and I love people debating genres and getting passionate about music; all I'm saying is that it's interesting that dubstep producers accept my work as dubstep but those who's only experience in music is as listeners don't...

4., Finally, the reason I don't sound the same as a lot of other dubstep artists is to a large degree because I am influenced by different artists than those who most dubstep producers are. Most electronic musicians grew up listening to electronic musicians, I didn't, I grew up listening to film score composers and instrumental guitarists; I listen to Thomas Newman and Joe Satriani. Should I be constantly challenged and penalized and ostracized from a genre I want to be a part of and contribute to just because I sound different due to the influences I drew from? No. So I'm more ambient than most dubstep producers, so I use weird shit like borrowed chords and I write odd 25 bar phrases and I don't use a drum kit - opting instead for the sounds of crunching paper and bamboo and the rain - so I do things differently, that doesn't mean I'm not a part of what dubstep is.

If you don't get that then I guess you just don't get it and I'm sorry you don't understand where I'm coming from but I'm not going to change how I define my work for you. If the only comments you can make are with regards to genre then please, don't comment at all. You're welcome to call what I make anything you want, just don't tell me I'm wrong when I'm the one who made it and knows every nuance of its musicality and those experiences, thoughts and musical loyalties that course under it."

So yea, what is dubstep to you? Is it a grouping of like artists using similar sounds that are voiced through well defined rules? How far can you push those defined rules before your music becomes undefinable as the genre you intended it to be? Can a track's genre be in part defined by the artists musical loyalties or what the artist intended it to be? Does wabble = dubstap? ...etc

On a lighter note, I did an image search for dubstep to see how the genre might have been defined through the medium of image, here's what I found:



Other images included a picture of a man's head exploding rainbows, Katy Perry with her tits out and a panda firing dual pistols into the air... What a fine visual montage to our little musical world.

inb4: It's all music maaaaaaan, why do you have to label everything!??!?!!
inb4: Somebody says something generic and predictable that I should have written an inb4 for

[jrisreal]

well said and polite. I see why you would be annoyed at people saying that.

[ChadDub]

I'm going to need that picture of Katy Perry with her tits out.

[jrisreal]

I was able to find this upon a google image search:

THERE IS STILL HOPE!

[deadly_habit]

[Sine69]

I completely agree with what you said. I used to be one of those kids that thought dubstep was all about wobbles, filth, and hookers but DSF has changed me haha.
Honestly now it kinda makes me sad what people assume I'm talking about when I say dubstep. Yes I do enjoy some of the brostep, but when somebody goes "Oh wow dubstep sucks, it's all just yois and wobbles" it kinda irks me. There's so much more to it than that.


I don't know what dubstep is to me though. It definitely means a lot to me. When I'm not producing it I'm probably listening to it. I don't know haha

[narcissus]

yarg. you guys know it's only gonna get worse, right? already, how many people come in here and use skrillex as an example of sounds they like or consider 'dubstep,' ... i've seen videos of snoop dogg... talking about dubstep briefly.. it's spreading in a big way, i think, and at best will only get more watered down. people will come to know dubstep as something that it never was intended to be..
the term 'dubstep' is known by just about everybody my age, at least in california.. DSF production section, as well as your soundcloud comments, are only going to have more and more people like kaiori mentioned..

as to what dubstep is.. it "is" nothing.. but a collection of people with a somewhat similar musical palette. like house techno, trance, or drum n bass. it can be basically anything, depending on who you are. to me it will always be the music i heard in late 08 to 09, that had an altogether new feel to anything i had ever heard. now it is not so new.. not to anyone i know anymore. plenty of the tunes even invoke nostalgia.
but it's still rapidly spreading i feel, and all I'm really sayin is that if you are all about dubstep.. be prepared for it become part of something larger that you might not necessarily want to associate yourself with.

[zerbaman]

I think dubstep is about certain vibes. Regardless of drum patterns, synth sounds, or anything at all. Nothing other than that dubstep vibe.

[hifi]

I think dubstep is about certain vibes. Regardless of drum patterns, synth sounds, or anything at all. Nothing other than that dubstep vibe.

yea, all about those dark atmospheric vibes a dubstep tune has.

[ketamine]

Btw, no Kaiori Breathe post is ever tl;dr your sh*ts always hilarious & relevant

[Teknicyde]

Oh look, its this thread again

Why do you care so much? You obviously know what your writing.

General discussion is spewing into production more n more these days.

[kaiori breathe]

Oh look, its this thread again

This isn't the first time I've seen you waste posting in threads you don't even like or want to contribute to. If you don't like a thread or don't think it's relevant don't post in it. Pretty simple. You've essentially just bumped a thread you think contains a tired topic that belongs somewhere else twice.

I posted it in the production forum because the people in the production forum are the people I wanted to read and contribute to the subject, not everyone in general discussion is a producer and not everyone in the production forum visits other sub sections like general discussion. It also got posted here because production isn't just about what hardware you use and how to make certain sounds, it's also about your own personal ideas about what you're producing and peoples reception and perception of what you've produced.

Nice sig tunes btw.

[hifi]

Oh look, its this thread again

This isn't the first time I've seen you waste posting in threads you don't even like or want to contribute to. If you don't like a thread or don't think it's relevant don't post in it. Pretty simple. You've essentially just bumped a thread you think contains a tired topic that belongs somewhere else twice.

I posted it in the production forum because the people in the production forum are the people I wanted to read and contribute to the subject, not everyone in general discussion is a producer and not everyone in the production forum visits other sub sections like general discussion. It also got posted here because production isn't just about what hardware you use and how to make certain sounds, it's also about your own personal ideas about what you're producing and peoples reception and perception of what you've produced.

Nice sig tunes btw.

your contribution was completely necessary and i appreciated it very much. good info in here mate, could possibly clear things up a bit in this forummmz

[deadly_habit]

Oh look, its this thread again

This isn't the first time I've seen you waste posting in threads you don't even like or want to contribute to. If you don't like a thread or don't think it's relevant don't post in it. Pretty simple. You've essentially just bumped a thread you think contains a tired topic that belongs somewhere else twice.

I posted it in the production forum because the people in the production forum are the people I wanted to read and contribute to the subject, not everyone in general discussion is a producer and not everyone in the production forum visits other sub sections like general discussion. It also got posted here because production isn't just about what hardware you use and how to make certain sounds, it's also about your own personal ideas about what you're producing and peoples reception and perception of what you've produced.

Nice sig tunes btw.

yea but production forum has gone to shit unfortunately

[Mr Hyde]

More of a compliment being told its not dubstep isn't it? You wouldn't want to fit into the box of what most people consider dubstep unless you want to be un-original.

Dubstep was most groundbreaking and exciting around 2004-5 when it wasn't even allways really labelled as dubstep and there were no set templates to fit, most of the biggest dubstep names now are people who were making moves in it then. Underground club music always moves on quickly and the interesting new sounds in the last couple of years are more the autonomic, swamp81, hessle, future garage and juke stuff, its generally people that have made them that have made the breakthrough to be bigger names. Anyone trying hard to fit a set 'dubstep' mould is going to be probably be sounding like a copy, and a few years too late.

[incnic]

ur post of waffle has ensured that i will never knowlingly lisren to a 'kowri breef' song in my life
/
well done lol gutted etc.

[therapist]

As much as I think "hey this isn't dubstep" comments are stupid, why would it matter? I'm not even sure how much I'd want to associate my music with what (trendy) people know as dubstep.

Genres should be restricted to certain sounds, otherwise they make no sense. You can be sitting there in your DMZ t-shirt smoking a joint writing your track on 24" woofers but if it doesn't roughly fit the tempo/rhythms/etc. of dubstep then it's probably something else.

That a little bit of the above post.

[kaiori breathe]

More of a compliment being told its not dubstep isn't it? You wouldn't want to fit into the box of what most people consider dubstep unless you want to be un-original.

I don't really care about being original or unoriginal. I'd just like to be associated with a community I grew as a part of and developed with and communicated with rather than one I didn't.

ur post of waffle has ensured that i will never knowlingly lisren to a 'kowri breef' song in my life
/
well done lol gutted etc.

I don't care?

Not sure why so many people are getting their panties in a twist over this thread, was just sharing my views on what I think dubstep is and why I'd like to be associated with it and asking how other people feel about the issue in relation to their own music.

[Hyacinth]

I don't think this threads about dubstep though. Maroon 5 is dubstep.

[Augment]

Dubstep to me is bass heavy music going at around 140 bpm. That is what I consider dubstep.