Dissertation help! The commercialisation of Dubstep.... because of social media?
 

I'm currently doing a dissertation on how social media has changed the music industry. How artists are able to share their music more easily, how fans can 'follow' their favourite bands, is it a positive or negative thing etc.
More focused though I am looking at how dubstep, electro and dance music have become so popular as of late and if it is to do with social media?
Any thoughts would be great :)

Thanks x

why has dupstep mainly the heavy Bro step become popular ummm....

cause its something pretty new .. what did it come out like only 6 years ago

'As of late' like in the late 90s when that whole level of underground music really started popping up through the cracks? Or just as of late being the narrow timeframe when you started noticing?

William Gibson described the situation best I've ever read in one of his earlier books, I'm thinking Virtual Light or Idoru possibly. Either way it's like any other subculture, traditionally there would be a gestation period where the core element of the new style is experimented with and refined to a point where there's an undeniable quality to the new art form and it's able to successfully transition from obscurity to popularity.

Grunge rock was the last subculture to successfully germinate and develop into something somewhat sustainable prior to commercialization.

In 1998 Napster drew a VERY clear line in the sand that changed everything. Fast forward a couple of years and you've got MySpace and Facebook cementing the change as the new norm. What that really did was eliminate the gestation period, the opportunity to experiment and refine a style to the point where it was truly self-sustainable. Instead what we end up with is a full marketing suite of hype for the next big thing. There's a name, a fashion style, a vocabulary, anticipated use in movie and commercial soundtracks, everything short of an expiration date, all established before the first major release of the style is commercially available through traditional means.

tl/dr It's ALL about social media.