Will Going Mainstream Make Dub Step Lame?
 

Because every freaking music store I walk into is playing it, there's a million dub step compilation albums out and it's seeping into the top 40. I think it's going to ruin it when everyone likes it because it's the cool thing to do. It's drum and bass all over again. I really prefer decent music to be heard by people with actual music tastes.

Thoughts?

Lol reading that made me bust out laughing because it reminded me of a brostep definition that I read on UB.

The only way that dubstep will be ruined by the mainstream is that you personally won't like it anymore just because a larger audience is hearing it.

This is a silly mentality that I had back when I was in high school. Going around saying that I liked a band before they were cool and now on the radio that everyone likes it and hating it now.

I personally think it's a good thing because it's a gateway that may get people more interested in dubstep and look into artists that don't get as much mainstream coverage. In turn those artists will gain more fans and it's win/win all around except for the elitists that don't feel special anymore because more people like the same thing they do.

Yes. Yes it will.

I like Boxcutter and Benga, but I also like Flux Pavillion. When any genre goes mainstream, it becomes oversaturated and generic...and the music becomes more of a business than an art. However, there is still good music out there. It just becomes harder and harder to sift through all the crap. Elitists will just have to accept it until the phase passes.

Well it already altered it immensely. From:



to



I don't know what else can really happen? It's completely different from it's original self. I know Skrillex is playing the shit out of Moombahton right now.

Well, she's got a point to some extent, DJ. Once a trend is set, it's inevitably knocked off repeatedly until it's just a shade of itself. Everything mainstream has credible roots, but very little of mainstream music deserves credit itself.

I understand that but one of the points I was trying to make is that just because a few artists may water down what they do for greater appeal. There will still be artists putting out material that stays closer to its roots that will keep the purists satisfied.

Uh... "make" dub step lame. If you ask me giving simplistic dance music a different name, and pretending it's some vastly original amazing new trend is lamer than anything. So rather than making dubstep lame it'll probably actually just make mainstream lamer.

I thought dub step was already lame?

I agree with you and this is basically what I was trying to say. There is gonna be more bad artists and more bad music, but there will still be artists that continue to put out good music (just smaller in proportion). People shouldn't be so closed-minded as to shut out a genre entirely once it goes mainstream.

GTFO of my thread. :wave:

It depends. I think of stuff like Burial and Kode9 as dubstep, even though they're completely different to the kind of stuff that plays in clubs. I reckon plenty of it could still be good, as long as they don't let it devolve into a boring mess of Same Song Different Samples like DnB.

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It's basically today's big beat. I like how it's starting to go mainstream though, that means more of my friends will start liking it, that way I can brag about how I was into dubstep before dubstep was considered cool. =P Plus, even the "brostep" stuff is fun as hell to listen to high so I approve of it. Yet again, I ain't an indie hipster dude so what do I know? =P

I had my ex girlfriend listen to dubstep before, and she said she hated it, yet again, her music taste consisted of mainly screamo/pop punk bands and top 40 girly pop. haha XP

My cousin Michael's best friend is a well-known dubstep DJ. Because I'm not a total douche, I won't mention his DJ name, but on August 5, 2011, he expressed concern about the very same thing this thread is mentioning.

He was predominately concerned with the lack of an impression each given DJ would make by pushing the envelope, as it were, and I sympathized with him until I choked on glass and wound up in the ER with esophageal hemorrhaging.

But he made a good point. Granted, I'm not entirely sure how it will all play out, but when something becomes mainstream, the others are typically overlooked.

I don't think that Dubstep going mainstream will ruin it.

If you are a true fan of the music and producers then you won't care. Sure the scene might get a bit more crowded, but that happens with every genre of music.

Then there will always be awesome websites that will promote the good **** that will come out of it! (like dubstep.net, squitty, obzest.co.uk, and so many more!)

so sit back and enjoy the ride, and enjoy the music for what it is ;)

Like every genre that has a little success, there will inevitably be a whole glut of music that barges it's way into the mainstream that bears little relation to the original ethos of the genre. However it was a genre that you had to dig around a bit before to find good stuff so that hasn't really changed except you have more crap to filter through.

Funnily enough Dubstep as a genre has been slowly fading out for the hardcore fans. Typical of the mainstream to get to the genre a year later and find that the best stuff has already been done although Nero and Skrillex are doing some interesting stuff still.

I'm listening to Nero's new album right now and I am not digging it all. It feels...incomplete or something

Well, if it was ever a question about whether dubstep has gotten mainstream yet, this should answer it:

Dear Lord I just died a little inside.

There are some great dubstep artists out there, you should listen to a few.

Such as this guy:


Wait until it drops around 2.20.

or this...


As for dubstep going to shit with its transition into the mainstream, it happens with every genre. The original format is progressively diluted to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

Music trends like this all the time. How you respond to it is really the only control you have.

For example, about 6 years ago I thought I was gonna vomit if I heard one more snippet of a DnB/jungle beat. For my ears the genre had just become to played out for me to wanna listen to it anymore, so I didn't. Now that the novelty of dubstep is wearing thin I find myself listening to it less, but like Jackhammer pointed out, there's still a lot of innovation going on in the genre by artists who aren't trying to exploit it's popularity, so lately I'm just digging for originality a little harder and dusting off some of my favorite jungle beats that I can finally bear to listen to again. It's only music, well, not only, but what you choose to listen to is up to you.

I think I don't care at all about what's played in common record stores and on the Top 40. None of that can ruin music that is good.

Close-minded insults don't make for good conversation. Good dubstep is good. Great dubstep is even better. If you're interested in Art and Music then you know that 'originality' ultimately means little and that honest music fans give no shit about trends.

Wrong.

Excellent example. I'll always love Boxcutter's Glyphic album (2007) no matter what any other musician does. It'll never be lame.

The only reason anyone should fear a wave of mainstream dubstep is the same reason anyone would fear a wave of any genre/subgenre, and that is the relative spike in sheep who follow the trends dictated to them via mainstream devices. This inevitably leads to a shift in the music itself if it does not change with the generation. Rock n roll used to be cool and rebellious. Now we have Nickelback.

The only Boxcutter album I have is Oneric, but I'm a pretty big fan of it.

I have that one but haven't listened to it for a long time. If memory serves, it doesn't grab me like Glyphic does. I'm gonna dig it up though, now that you brought it up.

No, it will only make more variety for the genre. Some people will complain as it evolves but the old style artists will always be there and you can ignore the new ones if you don't like them.

Give them what they want. You can show off on your album.

I think part of the problem with any electronic genre going mainstream is that a lot of people have production capabilities available, and then will all try making it and emulating everything that was done before. Then it all starts sounding the same and boring and there's just so much more to have to sift through to try and find the really cool tracks. There will always be good artists in the genre pioneering their craziness, but they will get harder to find.

Underground dubstep was fantastic. Major producers capitalizing on the phenomenon does diminish the quality somewhat. There's still good dubstep to be found, but when your average person says they're a fan of dubstep, they're talking ****ing Skrillex or something.

LoL true that. I actually had a 5 hour argument with someone about why I didn't find Skrillex to be creative anymore, and how if you actually produce a little you can tell that he's basically making almost the same track a lot of the time...kind of like Tiesto. Find a sound+song structure that sells and regurgitate 50x. Make money.

I remember posting a Boxcutter video in a dubstep thread quite a while ago and someone responding to it saying that I wasn't dubstep to him because there really weren't any breakdowns in the song and that's what epitomized dubstep to him. I didn't really quite get that, because hadn't quite caught on to the whole wobblestep craze, which is basically what we've come to know now as dubstep (even though it seems to have merged with electro lately.), but the reason why the genre, in many people's opinions gets worse as it grows in popularity is because the trend is toward longer, more dramatic build-ups/break-downs and and seeing how ridiculously hard you can wobble the shit outta the bass line when it drops, it's what sells and after a certain point it got annoying as fuck.

I know you can't talk about how much better the early Bristol scene was without sounding like a pretentious hipster, but it really represented a point where the art form was in the crafting of the song and not just the bass line.

So true, that's why I go on big hunts to find the best dubstep for people to check out. I have a great collection now. A lot of artists I've found are not mainstream at all but I am in the stage of thinking that it doesn't matter so much anymore if they're well known or not. An example of this is Burial, still produces sick tracks.

I'm scared to ask but...
Whats your opinion on Skrillex and Deadmau5?

I don't listen to Skrillix and like older music of deadmau5. But that doesn't define my taste. There is plenty of excellent dubstep that many here have concurred on, in my dubstep thread.

The problem is there are too many shit producers and casual fans jumping on the bandwagon and wanting the world to know they like Dubstep because it's the in thing.

There are still producers making good Dubstep and that will continue.

Depends if you're arsed who likes it. I am not.

Although, if people like Skrillex are seeing mainstream success from his interpretation of Dubstep i.e. shit then other producers will be tempted to change their style and copy his sound to see the same success, and that is bad for Dubstep.

The exact same thing happens in Grime. A decade ago all the young MC's were influenced by Dizzee and Wiley, now they're being influenced by the wrong guys and the sound has changed for the worse. It's better for the genre if people are being influenced by Mala, Loefah etc than Skrillex.

dubstep is efficient when used just a little bit as a touch of spice in the casserole. mainstream producer understand that well and use it everywhere to put fat in there production..;and it works. but someday they will find something else to exploit and dubstep will become underground again.

I completely agree with this. I definitely think artists will be inspired by other artists that are more accessable and well known but in saying that there will always be great music being produced you just have to research until you find it.

Guys like James Blake are keeping its integrity alive. I love me some James Blake.