Dubstep should stay underground

[mrbeatnick]

like Elton said, it's the circle of life.

that's pretty much it in a nutshell. any "scene", regardless of what the music sounds like, will usually follow this path

-begins with a small, hardcore community of people making amazing and original music

-scene grows and more and more producers join in. the worser ones copy the first wave or if they're a little better, copy the first wave and update / refine / push the sound forward

-eventually you have a scene larger enough for people to complain "there's loads of crap about" b/w there is actually tons of good stuff, but the whole thing is just bigger and you have to dig a lot deeper

-at this point, the mainstream who are usually keeping an ear on underground "beats" of whatever type, will probably become interested because if they aren't in tune with what's current in production, they sound old, if they sound old they aren't going to appeal to young ears or sound fresh, and the mainstream is always trying to be as fresh and youthful as possible

-generally this will mean big breaks for the larger / most continuous / most successful individuals synonymous with the scene. they will take the remixes and the breaks because they would be stupid not to. selling 500 dubplates isn't going to put food on anyones tables or buy a nice dining table for the wife or nappies for the kids and you can't be up all night djing your whole life.

-at this point the audience may start to backlash, arguing that they have "sold out", the "underground" spirit of the thing has been lost, the whole scene "isn't what it was" and this is going to "ruin" the scene.

-depending on what the music sounds like, at this point there might be a split between those that maintain the original sound, and those that now wish to distance themself from it, at which point some new music might be created that creates a new scene, and the whole cycle repeats again.

best to stop worrying or moaning, and just enjoy the ride. ultimately, if you're just taking the music on its own terms, you will hear great stuff and bad stuff at all points in the cycle, because music is only ever good or bad, whatever label you put on it, "mainstream", "underground", "dubstep" or whatever.

[abs]

very good analogy!

[caunterstrike]

dubstep isn't underground anymore!!! it will be when everyone decides its not cool anymore because its not underground and stops listening to it. but then will it be underground agian or old skool?

[caunterstrike]

dubstep isn't underground anymore!!! it will be when everyone decides its not cool anymore because its not underground and stops listening to it. but then will it be underground agian or old skool?

If you stop listening to dubstep because "it's not cool anymore" your a fucking goon doesnt matter if its cool its the fact it sounds amazing

dubstep has never been cool. the amount of shit i get for listening to it is unreal. i couldnt even guess how many times my friends have said "dubstep? thats just wabb wabb pshh. it all sounds the same" yet i still listen to it. i wont stop because it got popular then got ridiculed for being mainstream. the fact is its fucking heavy and i like that.

[jonwl89]

I think the main thing that everyone who loves dub worries about is that it's going to get seized on by a certain music magazine which shall remain nameless and turn it into the next version of "nu-rave" or whatever bollocks they're pushing at the minute.
Don't get me wrong people like Skream, Caspa, Rusko, Burial, Benga et al. deserve all the success in the world for being fucking incredible no doubt about it. But the music's still evolving and if it gets pushed to hard to fast its going to get picked up by people that don't understand it and think just putting a massive bassline over some shit is dubstep, the scene'll get flooded with shit incredibly average music, lose all its creativity and collapse in on itself.
I think tbh most people are just scared of losing those fucking great nights when you and a packed room full of people who really love the music just go and have a great time, i know i am.

[kulture]

there will always be people who are interested in music for it's musicality and people who are into cool and catchy sounds. Nothing wrong with either but I think more musical people have to accept a lot of people will like music because it sparks some enjoyment, even if it's not very clever or tasteful.

[Wolverine]

I think the main thing that everyone who loves dub worries about is that it's going to get seized on by a certain music magazine which shall remain nameless and turn it into the next version of "nu-rave" or whatever bollocks they're pushing at the minute.
Don't get me wrong people like Skream, Caspa, Rusko, Burial, Benga et al. deserve all the success in the world for being fucking incredible no doubt about it. But the music's still evolving and if it gets pushed to hard to fast its going to get picked up by people that don't understand it and think just putting a massive bassline over some shit is dubstep, the scene'll get flooded with shit incredibly average music, lose all its creativity and collapse in on itself.
I think tbh most people are just scared of losing those fucking great nights when you and a packed room full of people who really love the music just go and have a great time, i know i am.

SPOT ON!!!!!

[uncle bill]

I think the main thing that everyone who loves dub worries about is that it's going to get seized on by a certain music magazine which shall remain nameless and turn it into the next version of "nu-rave" or whatever bollocks they're pushing at the minute.
Don't get me wrong people like Skream, Caspa, Rusko, Burial, Benga et al. deserve all the success in the world for being fucking incredible no doubt about it. But the music's still evolving and if it gets pushed to hard to fast its going to get picked up by people that don't understand it and think just putting a massive bassline over some shit is dubstep, the scene'll get flooded with shit incredibly average music, lose all its creativity and collapse in on itself.
I think tbh most people are just scared of losing those fucking great nights when you and a packed room full of people who really love the music just go and have a great time, i know i am.

I don’t see that happening to dubstep. It’s nothing like “nu-rave” which was a fashion-based scene talked up by the media rather than a real music movement. Dubstep has strong roots, a sense of music history, a solid fanbase and intelligent champions like Mary Anne Hobbs at Radio 1 and Martin Clark aka Blackdown at Pitchfork who are doing everything they can to promote the most creative and exciting stuff that’s going on.

I was relatively late to dubstep (2005-ish) but I could see straight away that this was a scene dominated by people who are serious about music. It doesn’t matter how many crossover hits or even bandwagon jumpers there are. As long as the faithful keep turning out great tunes and putting on great parties the integrity of dubstep is safe.

[johnboy01]

Its too late, my mum keeps texting into Rinse calling for the reload on Eastern Jam. I tried to play her a Mala tune and she put her hands over her ears and started singing Snoop Dogg Millionare to herself.

Fucking ho.

fuck yeah, buddy.

[johnboy01]

I can fully understand why some people who have been dedicated to the scene for a long time and witnessed its gradual evolution would be a bit upset to see their precious scene falling prey to scenesters and the like. I suffer from a bit of elitism myself. For me, getting into dubstep was just a natural progression from my interest in drum and bass and other dark, wobbly dance genres and reggae. All of these UK sounding dance genres are typically presented in the form of mixing by a live DJ before a group of people. There is a very public element to the presentation of the music. Therefore, it's not just the sound of the music that contributes to a person's perception of it, it's also the energy created and shared by the crowd. So, naturally people have biases about who should be in the crowd. Personally, my rigid idea of what a dubstepper should be was something like an ex-raver who's pretty knowledgable, but somewhat jaded and right when things were getting stale, they found dubstep. The reality is that there's a huge shit mix of people at parties. Where I am there's mad hippies at our parties. I was a bit freaked out for a while that the scene was going to become exclusively hippie.

Now i don't trip out about it anymore. I find that spinning the tracks allows me to construct a dubstep of my own definition. The tracks I play are reflective of my own musical influences up to this point and being able to personalize like this, makes the demographics of the crowd irrelevant. When you spin the records it adds a personal element that's more inward looking than outward. Whether you're a soundhead from day one, or a scenester who can't tell shit from sherbert, I will melt your fucking face with my track selection and the vibes will be massive regardless. Dubstep is more about me than it is about other people. One dude said in an earlier post in this thread that "dubstep isn't seen as cool and he "gets shit for listening to it." He's absolutely right. I get shit for listening to it too. But i don't care. It's just so sick. If I have to be alone in my love for dubstep, i might as well play what i want to hear!!

Obviously I'd rather see camo hoodies and and baggy jeans than tight-ass jeans and wack high-tops at a party, but it's stupid to get hung up on it. can't control it. just enjoy it. spin what YOU want to hear.

here's a little 30 minute shit mix i made:
http://sharesend.com/l25en

[johnboy01]

oops. meant to edit.

[bandshell]

And not go mainstream

Your mother should stay underground

[mistashiv]

the main reason why people dont want dubstep to become commercial is because they dont want the artists they love to change their style to keep up with the mass market....


there isnt anything wrong with a genre becoming commercial if respected artists dont sell out for it.


for example.... Tiesto with trance - trance followers will know what im talkin about but to be fair he is coming back!!!


Pendulum with drum & bass - a few years ago id love to listen to a pendulum tune but now the only bollocks they seem to make is soppy cheesy tripe!!! I'd punch someone for using Pendulum and Chase & Status in the same sentence!!

[johnboy01]

[quote="Pendulum with drum & bass - a few years ago id love to listen to a pendulum tune but now the only bollocks they seem to make is soppy cheesy tripe!!! I'd punch someone for using Pendulum and Chase & Status in the same sentence!![/quote]

i agree. i saw pendulum live a couple weeks ago. very disappointed. since when were they playing guitars and using actual drum kits? thought there'd be some vinyl. at least excision opened for them so the night wasn't a total loss.

[bandshell]

I don't like pendulum purely because I think the tunes are shit, they're fan base has fuck all to do with it, I don't see why you would let other people, especially if you look down on them that much should govern your musical taste.

Also I don't think the fact that they broadened out in terms of instruments is a bad thing. Prodigy do it, they don't slated half as much. However pendulum do make appalling tunes, tight production, really tight production but really don't like anything by them apart from "tarantula"