An Introduction To Dubstep.

[Pyro Paul]

Meh. Some guy was like "hey guys dubstep is so cool" so everyone else was like "hey guys dubstep is so cool". It's just a meme, don't even worry about it. In a couple months, the only people who will remember it are the people who think "the cake is a lie" is funny.

Thats a lot people...sorta...

Also...

What is a dubstep...and why is it ruining nice things?

Not a Troll!
Serious Question!

what is dubstep?

Add some house music.
Let some DJ scratch it.
Take out the house music.

if you want a litteral explination.
Dubstep is a 'new' type of electronic dance music which puts emphises bass tones to create a new and odd sound. The basic premise is to take the Bass (which normally is in the background) and place it on the top layer or foreground then augment it so that it sounds like it should be there.

the sounds produced are very earthy and unnatural.
most dance is 'robotic' in style.

 

[Phlakes]

Meh. Some guy was like "hey guys dubstep is so cool" so everyone else was like "hey guys dubstep is so cool". It's just a meme, don't even worry about it. In a couple months, the only people who will remember it are the people who think "the cake is a lie" is funny.

...Really? I seriously hope you're joking and you are actually able to comprehend musical taste as a concept.

I'd bet 80% of people who are fans of dubstep never heard of it before it gained meme-like status. In fact, I've people very recently starting to talk about how cool they are because they listen to dubstep, even though they hadn't heard of it until a week before.

Just like Friday or LulzSec, they seem big at the time and people are going off about how influential they are (Friday and Arc Music Productions or whatever they were called ruining the music business, LulzSec causing major reform in security systems), but they all blow over.

Yes, there are people who genuinely like dubstep and will listen to it even after its 15 minutes are over, but this is the internet.

 

[Dfskelleton]

I don't usually class my likes by genre. I can love one song and hate another in the same genre. I don't listen to much dubstep besides Skrillex, who is AWESOME. I don't care much for other dubstep though.

 

[Belgian_Waffles]

Everyone hurts my head after about thirty seconds,
It's just a big blur of noise, I don't get it.

 

[Berethond]

I like some good trance better than Dubstep generally, but you can get some really interesting textures with Dubstep.

 

[EvilMaggot]

i got into dubstep.. but the only one i listen to is "Skrillex"

aaaand...

 

[Sentox6]

I like dubstep, but as a friend said to me a few days ago: "90% of dubstep is shit". To be fair, that's probably an issue universal to music as a whole.

Stuff I do like:

Spoiler: Bassnectar - Seek & Destroy (Metallica Remix)

Spoiler: Going Quantum - Hello?

 

[Gustof26]

Eh, just not my taste. Yet, it does sound quite pleasing to the ears. Got to mention it does grown on you.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

i would barely classify it as music to be honost... most of it is little more then static and white noise. Honostly, a great majority of 'dubstep' pushes the tonal range which is acctually uncomfortable or painful to most people. And a great many more then that throw simple concepts such as music theory out the window

it is audio confusing, hardly ever flows, and commits so many musical no-nos that it is litterally painful for me to listen to most itterations of dubstep.

Hehe, you sound so much like my hipster ex-girlfriend.

"Ugh, are you still listening to that? Pah, what soulless tripe! An untrained monkey could make better music!"
"Well, it's got a catchy beat..."
"A catchy beat?! Institutionally manufactured poppycock! You should be listening to obscure indie rock, and basking in its technical brilliance!"
"But I just want something that's fun to listen to. Not everything has to be artistically deep to be good."
"Sigh! I suppose if you wish to wallow in such woefully uncultured refuse, that is your prerogative. I was merely trying to educate you, for your own good."
"You are so dumped."

 

[sheogoraththemad]

I have tried some dubstep cause some of my mates like it but there aren't many song that I like,

Spoiler: but this one is awesome

 

[Pyro Paul]

i would barely classify it as music to be honost... most of it is little more then static and white noise. Honostly, a great majority of 'dubstep' pushes the tonal range which is acctually uncomfortable or painful to most people. And a great many more then that throw simple concepts such as music theory out the window

it is audio confusing, hardly ever flows, and commits so many musical no-nos that it is litterally painful for me to listen to most itterations of dubstep.

Hehe, you sound so much like my hipster ex-girlfriend.

"Ugh, are you still listening to that? Pah, what soulless tripe! An untrained monkey could make better music!"
"Well, it's got a catchy beat..."
"A catchy beat?! Institutionally manufactured poppycock! You should be listening to obscure indie rock, and basking in its technical brilliance!"
"But I just want something that's fun to listen to. Not everything has to be artistically deep to be good."
"Sigh! I suppose if you wish to wallow in such woefully uncultured refuse, that is your prerogative. I was merely trying to educate you, for your own good."
"You are so dumped."

Dubstep doesn't have a catchy beat...
it doesn't have a Beat. it breaks the beat, brings it to the foreground, then destroys it more with half breaks and null pauses.

and it isn't fun to listen to. it gets repetative fast and quickly gets boring because there is no 'change' in the song. it just drags on and on and on... Litterally because of its earthy tones and repetative nature it is a 'head bob' or 'walk' song slowing down your desire to move.

Good dubstep tracks are acctually elicit a relaxing feeling when listened to making you lose sense of time because it is hard to tell if 1 minute has passed or 15 minutes.

 

[MaxwellEdison]

Meh. Some guy was like "hey guys dubstep is so cool" so everyone else was like "hey guys dubstep is so cool". It's just a meme, don't even worry about it. In a couple months, the only people who will remember it are the people who think "the cake is a lie" is funny.

...Really? I seriously hope you're joking and you are actually able to comprehend musical taste as a concept.

I'd bet 80% of people who are fans of dubstep never heard of it before it gained meme-like status. In fact, I've people very recently starting to talk about how cool they are because they listen to dubstep, even though they hadn't heard of it until a week before.

Just like Friday or LulzSec, they seem big at the time and people are going off about how influential they are (Friday and Arc Music Productions or whatever they were called ruining the music business, LulzSec causing major reform in security systems), but they all blow over.

Yes, there are people who genuinely like dubstep and will listen to it even after its 15 minutes are over, but this is the internet.

That's how seriously everything ever works. Most people only hear of something after it gets big, and most people aren't dedicated fans of that thing. This isn't unique to the internet, or dubstep, and it definitely isn't grounds to make generalizations that no one actually likes the genre.

 

[AnonymouZero]

all the phlakers and haters of dubstep

man, i thought the same shit was gonna happen to reggaeton. that shit spread like a disease and it's not going anywhere. Dubstep is so mindless i can totally relate. so i hope it does get the same treatment as trash like reggaeton. cuz it deserves to be everywhere, all the goddamn time!

i wanna kill everybody in the world! skrillex ftw

 

[Sacman]

I HATE Dubstep... every second I've listened to anything vaguely related to dubstep I solemnly regret... and no I'm not a hipster and hate it because it's popular... I hated dubstep even before it was popular...

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

Dubstep doesn't have a catchy beat...
it doesn't have a Beat. it breaks the beat, brings it to the foreground, then destroys it more with half breaks and null pauses.

and it isn't fun to listen to. it gets repetative fast and quickly gets boring because there is no 'change' in the song. it just drags on and on and on... Litterally because of its earthy tones and repetative nature it is a 'head bob' or 'walk' song slowing down your desire to move.

I really am uncertain how to respond to this. I'm not sure where you're getting these "facts", or how you could possibly believe there are "facts" regarding a topic as subjective and personal as music. But it reminds me so much of the pointless arguments I used to have with my elitist music snob girlfriend.

It's something that always bemused me. Surely as a student of music theory (or a hobbyist or whatever it is you are), you would be more open to varying styles in music, and your wealth of knowledge would help you understand why people like the music they do. Instead it seems the more people learn about that stuff, the more narrow-minded and closed off they become to everything but "good" music, as described in an entirely technical sense.


It's like, I know a lot about narrative structure and "good" writing. I could objectively take something like Twilight, and tear it apart and show you all the parts that are "bad" and the parts that are "good", and from a professional writer's standpoint it would probably mostly be bad. But at the end of the day, if Stephanie Meyer's got a quarter of a billion readers worldwide and is rolling in cash she must have done something right. In fact, she must have done quite a bit right. I think it's the same with dubstep. And I think a very important part of really understanding art is to be able to accept that even the super-popular "bad" stuff has value to it, even if you can't see it at first from your perspective.


Sorry that went into a bit of a rant there. Guess that was meant for somebody else =P

 

[JustJuust]

I think of dubstep as putting a bunch of noises that would be just annoying by itself, putting them together to be somehow enjoyable. Not the biggest fan of it though...

 

[Daniel Allsopp]

For me it's all about the drops and the wild abandon of the heavily computer distorted break that follows, though admittedly the songs that actually scratch that itch can be few and far between if you just go through a full album of one artist.

Then again, you try listening through a DnB artist's album and it all gets samey pretty quickly - Pendulum being a case in point, using the same damn drum rhythm in 99% of their tunes. The real gems are few and far between, but that's the same with every genre - classical, indie, dub, rock, whatever. Huge seas of mediocrity and crap with a few mind-blowing gems washed up on the shore - and thanks to the power of the internet, it doesn't take much searching to find the gems, thank god!

I have never been the type to listen to whole albums, so I know what you mean. My music playlist has only 1-2 songs by each artist, or in the case of bands I like, a few songs from different albums. However, if any song of any genre has "THUD THUD THUD THUD" anywhere in it, I'm not interested.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I don't really 'get' dubstep. It sounds to me a bit like it's supposed to be clubbing music, but I can't imagine dancing to it. I mean it doesn't really have a beat, hell it thrives on breaking a beat.

It doesn't sound like something you'd relax to either. At the same time it sounds very aggressive and intimidating but also extremely lethargic. Honestly I can't imagine what you'd do while listening to this music.

Yeap, dubstep just confuses me, and because of that also fascinates me, in a morbid and scared kinda way. Sometimes I can't help but listen to it, but honestly I don't know why. Right now I'm just sitting here, looking puzzled, listening to Skrillex - Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites. Why?!

However, if any song of any genre has "THUD THUD THUD THUD" anywhere in it, I'm not interested.

Does that include a "thud" like this:
Because big-ass drums that are actually played is a whole 'nother story. Taiko has that as well, man I'd love to see a live performance of Kodo. Or better yet, join in.

 

[Fishyash]

The dubstep most people tend to listen to is not my kind of style.

I am more into the dubstep that doesn't go BWAOWOWOAOWOWOWAOWOWAOOW RRERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR BWBVBVBVBVBVBWBWBWBBOWBOWBOVBVB

I am more into stuff like this. I am not a big dubstep fan so I don't really know where to look to see any dubstep like this:


I don't feel it as a genre to dance to (my favourite kind of music in general), so I would rather go for a more emotional direction when listening to it, and it's pretty effective!

EDIT: Just want to semi-rant about dubstep some more lol.

The main reason that I get repelled away from dubstep is how... I can't really find a better way to put it- "un-musical" it sounds (technically not true) as most artists focus more on the noise than the notes.

That's my take on it anyways. I don't think dubstep is bad to listen to, I used to detest it, but like most genres, they grow on you. Everyone should consider this to be honest because from my experience, it's true.

EDIT #2: To expand upon me saying I don't really consider it a genre to dance to, I can say that without a doubt that if you combine the raw power and deepness (I mean by low frequency by the way) bass from dubstep combined with the extremely fast pace beat from drum and bass and you have one hell of a party. ...not that i've been a part of that kind of stuff... just sayin'.

 

[penguindude42]

Pretty much, breakbeat and drum & bass are better than dubstep in every way

...In your opinion.

I think a lot of the people bashing it here are missing the point of the thread, that point which I illustrated quite clearly if you'd read the OP.

Either way, if you'd listed reasoning behind your opinions I'd be much more willing to appreciate and respond to your post.

I'm not even a fan of it, I just think that you should at least reason your decisions. I see too much of this already for Hip-Hop.

Yea, fair enough.

YOU DARE MISSPELL "YEAH" IN MY LAIR!?

YOU MUST DIE!!! *zaps you with disco lightning fingers*

~Tom</3