Poll: Dubstep. Music or not music?

[s0p0g]

snip!
It'd be more interesting to hear if people regard the following as music;

reminds me of an untuned radio, and later stormy winds.
is the static noise of an untuned radio music? not in my opinion.
can i elaborate this adequately? no, i lack the music-vocabulary for that, sorry about that

i mean, i can somehow understand why some say 2step garage ain't music, or some other electronic music-genres (especially the electronic genres), but what you posted there is... uuuh... DEFINITELY not music?

to come to a conclusion there (again, as a layman regarding music) i think about whether i can imagine people dance to it or not; dubstep? yep; rap? yep (ok one might have to define "dance" then ); pretty much any kind of metal (again, dancing up to debate )? yep;
the stuff you posted? no
could it still convey some sort of emotion? as Silent Hill background sound, sure (i dunno, but it sounds pretty Silent Hill...ish to me ^^ )

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I think it's because nustep (dislike the term brostep, it's not exactly accurate) has largely got big thanks to the internet and the USA's re-embracing of electronic music in general.

Of course it's music, you may not like it -I'm not a big fan of nustep- but it's certainly not anything else but music. It'd be more interesting to hear if people regard the following as music;

I quite like it. Bits of it sound like satan's own drumkit, where the cymbals are made from iron forged from blackened souls, and the skins are literal skins. Other bits do sound like someone held up a microphone to the wind and distorted the result a lot, but meh, still more interesting to listen to than nickelback.

Anyway, there's definite organisation in the sound, and intent to provoke an emotional response. You can count a beat to it in places (4/4, then it moves into something else). So yeah, it's music.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

Yes. It's music. That doesn't mean it's good, though. Frankly, it isn't. But it's music.

 

[TeeBs]

I don't like Jersey Shore, ITS NOT EVEN A TV SHOW!!!

 

[Something Amyss]

You, sir, have no taste. That song was beautiful.

If awesome tastes include finding rodents singing over cheap-sounding fake instruments to be beautiful, I'll stick to the myriad talents of Freddie Mercury and wallow in my status as a philistine.

 

[GoaThief]

/snip

Off-topic a bit but it has to be said I do love a bit of Autechre.

I've seen some of their project files, crazy automation going on in a few too.

 

[devotedsniper]

I used to listen to nothing but rock and metal but then i got into trance, dubstep, etc., some of dubstep can be terrible but i like alot of it.

...Also when you see a claptrap dance to it, it just makes dubstep better.

 

[Something Amyss]

So this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAFjgpuWREM

You compare to a Child's Painting?

I don't know, it sorta sounds like "Baby's First Composition."

 

[Something Amyss]

You, sir, have no taste. That song was beautiful.

If awesome tastes include finding rodents singing over cheap-sounding fake instruments to be beautiful, I'll stick to the myriad talents of Freddie Mercury and wallow in my status as a philistine.

Everybody loves Freddie Mercury. Even tasteless philistines, apparently.

The first part is completely false.

 

[AngryMongoose]

Strangely, the less it sounds like music, the more I like dubstep. The simple stuff just sounds like any pop since the millennium; the good stuff abandons any sense and just blasts you with awesome sound.

I believe in the dubstep scene this refereed to as being "Heavy" or possibly "Dirty"?



See, it's "Heavy" Dubstep, because it uses sound clips of the character known as "Heavy" from the popular series of competitive multiplayer First Person Shooter games, but also refers to a term used in- oh never mind...

 

[natster43]

Yes it is music. Whether or not it is good music is an entirely different thing all together.

 

[Euryalus]

Dubstep as a concept, an idea, a theory is absolutely valid.

However, since it really does seem to be about random kids playing around with illegal copies of some very specific and quite powerful software, there's an above average quota of redudant crap out there. Of 200 random tracks, about a dozen are 'interesting' and less than half a dozen are anywhere near 'art' or 'good'. The rest is rather uninspired and masturbatory.

I really don't mind boys and their toys as long as they come up with something that's worthwhile. Coil, Autechre, pimpin' Aphex Twin, Manchester Bedroom Allstars - they're all but boys with toys, but some fiddled together something that will touch your soul and tear your third eye a new one, the majority of gnats currently assembling on the sticky paper labelled Dubstep are really just forgettable, ephemeral, one-drop wonders. Hell, look at that Skrillex kid. He's pretty much the VHS of a scene that could easily encompass everything from Laserdisc to Betamax to BluRay... yet we're stuck with Skrillex and the suits buy into the hype. Sad, that.

That was... a dramatic way of putting it. You make good points though. Skrillex is really repetitive and to be honest I don't think he's talented at all.

 

[snekadid]

wubwub

 

[snekadid]

stupid thing double posted....

 

[Rainboq]

Yes, yes it is. Do I like it? No. But it is music none the less.

 

[theriddlen]

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.
Of course it's music. I wonder, why every time a new player comes to an old party some bizarre people (who I presume live on the moon and eat space dust for breakfast) say that it's not member a of their party, even though logic and all the facts state that it does belong in there. To give a nice example - this is the same phenomenon as people saying that games aren't art, because they're somehow so much different from tv, movies or books (even though, really, they are the ultimate combination all the old time arts, in a new form).

Yes, dubstep is music, people record different tracks of dubstep, different melodies and all the properties of older music genres (okay, maybe you doesn't exactly have a note sheet, but current music industry doesn't really do these things anymore - everything is made on computers). Dubstep is composed from bits by an artist, who turns ordinary sounds into an art - the art of music.

 

[Neksar]

It's still music, even if people don't like it.

Case in point, my captcha: Call Me Maybe

I find it interesting that there seems to be an opinion that music is performance-based, and that the ever-more-annoying-to-my-ears word 'skill' is leaking into this conversation as well. Just like people that claim to hate certain games because they don't take 'skill,' the nebulous idea of 'skill' can be used to claim that dubstep isn't legitimate music or is a lesser form of it in the same way that plenty of people claim Call of Duty is a bad shooter because it takes less 'skill.'

Hoo, boy, now that my pretentious assholery is out of the way, does anyone seem to think that the idea of dubstep boils down to this question:

"Is dubstep less than music because it's easier to do than a symphony?"

That's what all of these arguments seem to boil down to when I run into them. The same thing with pop music in general, actually.

 

[Arakasi]

My music teacher defined music as 'organised sound'.
So, yes, no matter how crappy it is, dubstep is music.

 

[Mitzeh]

Again with the "Is Dubstep music or not?" question? I listen to quite a lot of punk rock, alternative, metal and that kind of stuff and most friends that are "metalheads" post upon me this very question quite often, as I am an avid listener of dubstep,dnb, other genres & subgenres as well. When confronted with this question I have managed to come up with a short answer. "Yes." Answer which I then follow with : Rameses B. On what demented world can this not be considered music or art?

 

[chadachada123]

I like Dubstep. Certain types of it I'm not a fan of, but most electronic music I'm at least somewhat of a fan of.

Yes, it's actually music, and there is far more to it than just Skrillex.