Will dubstep split into new genres?

[joe muggs]

OK rather than the whinging about "X is ruining the scene" or "Y isn't dubstep", can we have a bit of constructive, speculative thinking?

Music evolves - that's what it does. Dubstep was always a fusion of elements anyway - garage, dub, underground techno, dancehall, D&B, whatever - and it keeps on crossbreeding with those and other sounds. So it's no wonder it keeps coming up with new variations whether it's hee-haw midrange donkeystep or woodblock tropical wompwomp house...

So: what are your predictions about where particular sides of the scene will go in future? And who will be the next artists to use dubstep techniques?

[chainsawclownstyle]

It's not 2003 anymore ya know?

Thank God. Think back to 2003 and what was happening in the world... the Iraq war was just starting, 400 thousand Iraqi's were still alive and not displaced. They had electricity and running water. 4000 American troops were at home with their families.

Combine that with the British troops and their families. Combine that with all the great music that has come between then and now. I personally see nothing wrong with the evolution. When Skream and Benga were making "Dubstep" was there a big uproar over them calling it something new? Were Garage DJ's making threads about how Skream and Benga are ruining garage/grime blud?

So the times are changing. I see no problem with people defining things however they want. I could make an argument that Dubstep died for the most part in 2006 and back it up with an absolute lack of anything produced by Loefah between then and now. There's good music and bad music, genre's are for putting records on shelves and not for putting records on turntables. That's very sad in my estimation.

[snipah]

Dubstep was/is indeed a mix of all of the above (not limited to) ..

Being diverse is the thing for Dubstep .. and regardless of it's 'branches', this diversity made Dubstep, so one may call it whatever, but it's Dubstep, IMHO

[zephhh]

my prediction is, that this different styles of dubstep become bigger and time to time they seperate to the others. in dubstep it had always different styles and their supporter. one like the more wobbly shit, others rather the minimal thing or some like the DUBstep.

I saw/see dubstep as a gathering of people with different musical backgrounds (dnb/tech, dub/reggaeheads, etc) and have a nice party together on a same level

I hope it will stay so forever...

[parson]

as the genres mix and combine in different ways we're moving into one world one genre

[seckle]

learn from the mistakes of the past. sub-genres make the music easy to describe, and therefore easy to box into boxes and easy to market to the masses, because you can say...Sub Genre A sounds like this, and Sub genre B sounds like this. thats a BIG mistake to make. right now there's a fuckload of confusion with the general public not knowing what to expect at gigs. <---this is only a good thing imo.

keep it all one name!

[MineOurArc]

Originality died on the cross.

Hahaha.

[seckle]

anybody that remembers dnb when the dark/jumpup/ragga/drumfunk/liquid/tech bullshit started, circa 1999-2000, will tell you that before that point, dnb was so interesting to follow, because you'd go to nights and not know what the hell you were hearing. it made you delve further into the sound. by 2003-2004 dnb had turned into a bunch of camps and cliques, and promoters vs promoters......."our party is only liquid DNB, and what you're playing doesn't fit"...."girls like liquid dnb, and jump up is full of gents" sort of vibes.....etc...fade out to flatline.

[spiro]

not knowing what to expect at gigs. <---this is only a good thing imo.

absolutely a good thing, but it does not look like this everywhere I think.
In oslo it looks like people are expecting one sound / one genre as in the most jumpy one.
Probably because everything is so small that diversity is getting lost in some weird expectation of "the craziest new thing."

I would say stop talking names and tunes, talk directions and general vibes.
Too much namedropping (both artists and tunes) makes a lot of people focus on something else than the music.

[zephhh]

learn from the mistakes of the past. sub-genres make the music easy to describe, and therefore easy to box into boxes and easy to market to the masses, because you can say...Sub Genre A sounds like this, and Sub genre B sounds like this. thats a BIG mistake to make. right now there's a fuckload of confusion with the general public not knowing what to expect at gigs. <---this is only a good thing imo.

keep it all one name!

WORD
people always want put musical styles in drawers and give them names. in metal music it's xtreme. "heard that riff?that must be doom metal" "No, no way, absolutly pagan metal" BLABLAbla
i have friends who struggle nights to describe a (metal) genre
let dubstep not go that way!!

[deamonds]

I doubt something as prominent a genre as dubstep will come along any time soon...When it 1st started moving into the Half Step template and really got spacious, that was a sound/feeling that will never be topped for me. Skream's "Rottan" will always encompass that perfect mix of sub bass weight and "horror movie" sounding shit. This point of the genre was the most effective for me and I think the dubplates which were around at this point were the epitomy of the sound. After that it sort of went through a premature evolution into the midrange stuff you here today. The contributing factor's being, popularity, quality control, the smoking ban, MDMA and the Influx of New Producer's whilst the OG's dropped off. Can't see it going into a new genre for a while yet, as there are prototypes being developed by producer's who are taking a range and wealth of new sounds to a completely different template/tempo, even though they were bred through the roots of grime/garage/dubstep. It's all nuum really....

[seckle]

I doubt something as prominent a genre as dubstep will come along any time soon...When it 1st started moving into the Half Step template and really got spacious, that was a sound/feeling that will never be topped for me. Skream's "Rottan" will always encompass that perfect mix of sub bass weight and "horror movie" sounding shit. This point of the genre was the most effective for me and I think the dubplates which were around at this point were the epitomy of the sound. After that it sort of went through a premature evolution into the midrange stuff you here today. The contributing factor's being, popularity, quality control, the smoking ban, MDMA and the Influx of New Producer's whilst the OG's dropped off. Can't see it going into a new genre for a while yet, as there are prototypes being developed by producer's who are taking a range and wealth of new sounds to a completely different template/tempo, even though they were bred through the roots of grime/garage/dubstep. It's all nuum really....

the smoking ban is a GIGANTIC factor in where it went after 2007.

[deamonds]

anybody that remembers dnb when the dark/jumpup/ragga/drumfunk/liquid/tech bullshit started, circa 1999-2000, will tell you that before that point, dnb was so interesting to follow, because you'd go to nights and not know what the hell you were hearing. it made you delve further into the sound. by 2003-2004 dnb had turned into a bunch of camps and cliques, and promoters vs promoters......."our party is only liquid DNB, and what you're playing doesn't fit"...."girls like liquid dnb, and jump up is full of gents" sort of vibes.....etc...fade out to flatline.

I dotn really think this is the point dear old joe is trying to make!? He is basically saying, "what will come after dubstep" like how it came out of grime/garage etc...No-one is putting any labels on it Mr Seckle. And even if they was, this isnt drum & waste, who is saying it will go down that route if you were to do that? It might actually filter out most of the dick's & let the smokers back int he dance to enjoy some real weight & space.

[deamonds]

btw didnt mean to come across like a dick just then

[joe muggs]

I dotn really think this is the point dear old joe is trying to make!?

you make me sound like an old gimmer sat in an armchair pontificating (not far from the truth, to be fair)

He is basically saying, "what will come after dubstep" like how it came out of grime/garage etc...No-one is putting any labels on it Mr Seckle. And even if they was, this isnt drum & waste, who is saying it will go down that route if you were to do that? It might actually filter out most of the dick's & let the smokers back int he dance to enjoy some real weight & space.

But yes, without detracting from Seckle's point which is all good and true, that's exactly right. We've been over and over the debates about splits, differences and "I don't like this sound" "I don't like that sound", but let's use our imaginations for a minute and ask "what might come next?" As I've said before, I'm sure dubstep is now going to be around for a long time - with any luck it will be like techno or even hip hop and be flexible to evolve and travel the world for decades to come - but other things will emerge from it, so what will they be? Will a strain of wobble turn into something like hard house that doesn't change for the next 15 years? Will wafty techno dubstep go completely ambient? Will grime MCs start seriously getting on dubstep sets? Will a dubstep artist have chart pop hits? Will dubstep & hip hop interbreed to make a completely new strain?

Over to you.

[Luke Yeah?]

I for one hope that it does not. A big part of the fun/excitement that I felt when I was discovering the genre was the fact that there was so much diversity in it. My first concious exposure to the genre as such was Burial and then through to the likes of Skream, Benga, Kode9, Digital Mystikz etc. I have the feeling that if it was split into seperate sub genres, someone coming into the scene say through the 'mid range' sound would only be exposed to that sound for the simple reason that they would have no need to explore dubstep as it is now in order to find it. Thus removing the element of discovery in the sense of how I discovered the likes of Skream and Benga after listening to Burial and then coming onto this forum.

[deamonds]

I would like to see a new defining form of Deep house vs Dubstep evolve personally. Something with the spaciousness of dubstep, not too much bass, but not flat. But with some real "groove" instead of swing, something really organic, but at maybe 135-138 (even slower would be fantastic). But Joe, I think it is pretty hard to predict what will come next...I think the newest genre will struggle to match the presence that dubstep had when it was first realised, that confidence, that 'new' feeling. And of course there would need to be a spectacle of groundbreaking new artist's, and what with the genre molding that is happening nowdays, the next 'step' in the 'nuum isnt round the corner just yet. Just enjoy the wasteland of these machine tweakers and robot dancer's who are making these experimental gene pools of rhythm and groove and hear as they plod into the dance.

[deamonds]

I for one hope that it does not. A big part of the fun/excitement that I felt when I was discovering the genre was the fact that there was so much diversity in it. My first concious exposure to the genre as such was Burial and then through to the likes of Skream, Benga, Kode9, Digital Mystikz etc. I have the feeling that if it was split into seperate sub genres, someone coming into the scene say through the 'mid range' sound would only be exposed to that sound for the simple reason that they would have no need to explore dubstep as it is now in order to find it. Thus removing the element of discovery in the sense of how I discovered the likes of Skream and Benga after listening to Burial and then coming onto this forum.

again, this isnt what this thread is about.

[Be-1ne]

you can pin point the invariable split in the fan base down to one thing. Speakers on mobile phones. Play Mr Chips next to Anti - War dub on a phone, then think hmm which one is a 16 year old kid going to like most. So the 16 year old kid who was listening to that when it came out is now 18/19 and wants to listen to that on a rig not a phone.

The diversity of the music hasn't disappeared, you just have a lot of kids who are now old enough to go out who are less diverse in their taste.

That's what I think this morning anyway.

[deamonds]

hmm, again, this is about the 'next step' so to speak. Just want some idea's about what might come after dubstep, not fucking genre splits ffs lol