It's one of those threads where someone posts an old blog post of their's. For any possible context needed, this was 5 months ago.
I used to listen to a lot of dubstep. I loved Flux Pavilion, Klaypex, and even the one who wrought mainstream unto dubstep himself, Skrillex. I loved the unique sound and impact of the bass every time I listened to a song. Or, at least, I used to.
The more I listened, the more tired I got of the genre. I tried to put a mark on why this was happening.
Was it the fanbase divided between
1. ?hardcore? (hipster) enthusiasts who loved this genre back in 2006 and can?t believe everybody else is ruining their genre
and
2. "Newbs" who like Skrillex because he ?isn't mainstream like David Guetta? and he has the ?sickest drops, bro??
No, it wasn?t that; I listen to Pierce the Veil, and their army of screaming teenage girls never brought me down off their music.
Was it the sound itself that was displeasing to me? No, only in a few songs had the bass tones gotten ridiculous to a point of sounding like Transformers puking.
No, it was the structure. The structure of a dubstep song is like the storyline of Mario game the way you can almost sing along to the changes. Here?s almost every dubstep song ever made:
1. Fast High hat and soon-to-be background melody.
2. Bass?Snare?Bass?Snare?Bass..BassSnare?Bass.Bass.Bass.Snare.SnareBass (repeat)
3. A brief moment of silence.
4.WOBWOBWOBWOB WAHHHH WOB WOB WOB WOB WAHHH WOB WOB WAHH
5. The initial impact vanishes and the song goes back to the background melody.
6. Another silent moment.
7. WOBWOBWOB (reprise)
8. Song might repeat 5-7 or just fade out with the hi-hat and melody now.
Almost EVERY. DAMN. TIME.
This wouldn?t make me mad if I didn?t get criticized by some of my dubstep-adoring friends because ?all metal sounds the freaking same?.
So, the question is, will dubstep die?
At this rate, definitely.
But does it have to?
No.
Really, the only way for dubstep to ever endure is simple: make songs on a regular structure.
There?s a reason other popular genres aren?t afraid to just stick to the Chorus-Verse-Chorus structure even though it should be played out by now: it just works.
The structure hasn?t ever been fixed or changed simply because it is the Golden Ticket to making a solid song.
This is going to sound extremely stupid, but I think the closest that the genre has come to that is the Korn dubstep album, and I think that if Korn was replaced by a group with actual talent, that album would?ve been the fresh step forward dubstep needs rather than the laughing stock it became amongst fans of both genres.
The structure I showed before can?t last because while it sets off a huge payoff, it doesn?t have anything to do after that and sort of meanders around with the bassline until it?s 3-5 minutes.
Dubstep can be saved, but with a crowd of jocks who couldn?t stand electronic music if it wasn?t for the ?uber drops?, I don?t think that artists will take the step just because of the risk of losing the jerks? money.
I used to listen to a lot of dubstep. I loved Flux Pavilion, Klaypex, and even the one who wrought mainstream unto dubstep himself, Skrillex. I loved the unique sound and impact of the bass every time I listened to a song. Or, at least, I used to.
The more I listened, the more tired I got of the genre. I tried to put a mark on why this was happening.
Was it the fanbase divided between
1. ?hardcore? (hipster) enthusiasts who loved this genre back in 2006 and can?t believe everybody else is ruining their genre
and
2. "Newbs" who like Skrillex because he ?isn't mainstream like David Guetta? and he has the ?sickest drops, bro??
No, it wasn?t that; I listen to Pierce the Veil, and their army of screaming teenage girls never brought me down off their music.
Was it the sound itself that was displeasing to me? No, only in a few songs had the bass tones gotten ridiculous to a point of sounding like Transformers puking.
No, it was the structure. The structure of a dubstep song is like the storyline of Mario game the way you can almost sing along to the changes. Here?s almost every dubstep song ever made:
1. Fast High hat and soon-to-be background melody.
2. Bass?Snare?Bass?Snare?Bass..BassSnare?Bass.Bass.Bass.Snare.SnareBass (repeat)
3. A brief moment of silence.
4.WOBWOBWOBWOB WAHHHH WOB WOB WOB WOB WAHHH WOB WOB WAHH
5. The initial impact vanishes and the song goes back to the background melody.
6. Another silent moment.
7. WOBWOBWOB (reprise)
8. Song might repeat 5-7 or just fade out with the hi-hat and melody now.
Almost EVERY. DAMN. TIME.
This wouldn?t make me mad if I didn?t get criticized by some of my dubstep-adoring friends because ?all metal sounds the freaking same?.
So, the question is, will dubstep die?
At this rate, definitely.
But does it have to?
No.
Really, the only way for dubstep to ever endure is simple: make songs on a regular structure.
There?s a reason other popular genres aren?t afraid to just stick to the Chorus-Verse-Chorus structure even though it should be played out by now: it just works.
The structure hasn?t ever been fixed or changed simply because it is the Golden Ticket to making a solid song.
This is going to sound extremely stupid, but I think the closest that the genre has come to that is the Korn dubstep album, and I think that if Korn was replaced by a group with actual talent, that album would?ve been the fresh step forward dubstep needs rather than the laughing stock it became amongst fans of both genres.
The structure I showed before can?t last because while it sets off a huge payoff, it doesn?t have anything to do after that and sort of meanders around with the bassline until it?s 3-5 minutes.
Dubstep can be saved, but with a crowd of jocks who couldn?t stand electronic music if it wasn?t for the ?uber drops?, I don?t think that artists will take the step just because of the risk of losing the jerks? money.
