Poll: Dubstep. Music or not music?

[razer17]

This is too much, Escapist, far too much. I had faith in you, for some reason that I cannot recall, but it was there! Now it lays on the floor like a spent condom: used up, tossed on the floor, and filled with the squishy refuse of a drunken minuteman.

I'd make my case, but I'm sure someone else here has tossed the 'Dubstep lacks talent because it's almost entirely automated' argument somewhere. Guitars, pianos, drums, flutes, cymbals, cellos, violins, violas, basses, tubas, trombones, bongos, xylophones and the human voice each require, talent, precision and finesse to be used to the best of their ability. Next, everyone's gonna cay loading a CD into a player and starting it makes you a musician.

This is it. Tonight, I am giving one more post to finish things off proper, and the Escapist forums and I are done.

Are you saying you're quitting this forum because some of us think that dubstep is music? If so:
Good. See you later. You're a close minded idiot, and you're insulting. There's too many of you're type around these parts anywhere. Go find a place where you can be with your close minded equals.

 

[Joey Bolzenius]

Dubstep is like hip hop and rap where samples from other music is used. The genre is very much a patchwork of sounds put together with new meaning and context. Hell Andy Warhol is world famous for painting brand name soup cans and a bunch of pictures of Marylin Monroe. In my view, Dubstep is a major upgrade to the boring ass overly repetitive techno music of the 90s.

Funny, had the internet been around in the 50s there'd be plenty of people saying rock and roll is garbage and just a fad. To those folks rock just did not compare to jazz or swing or whatever was established as an accepted music genre at the time.

Black Sabbath was far from accepted in the late 60s by contemporary music critics but look how many bands they influenced.

The music snobs will always get left in their own little corner where they cling to their music as the "best" while most people will look for new sounds, new compositions, new music paths.

 

[Kizi]

While I'm definitely not a fan of dubstep, it's still music.

 

[frizzlebyte]

Of course it is. Aside from some really short, explosive samples, though (like the one used in the Borderlands trailer), I don't find it to be very enjoyable.

 

[khaimera]

Since the answer to this question is an obvious yes, I'll contribute by helping others find amazing dubstep tunes in one easy to use place. Simply go to [link]www.soundcloud.com[/link] and look up my username, khaimera. Click on my name and then on the people I follow tab. I follow over 250 amazing producers of bass heavy music. Tons of music is available for free download or purchase. Enjoy.

 

[Vanilla_Druid]

I guess it can be, but I feel like I am being a bit too generous. I mean, I do have an appreciation for electronica, but I believe that it is better make new stuff rather than remix existing tracks.

 

[klaynexas3]

You are a terrible person. You are bad and you should feel bad.
My actual reaction to this video: this isn't so bad *hits the drop* god dammit. Wait, the music is somewhat coming back, and even with the robot voice, maybe they could salvage it *hits last drop* I'm done. Screw you Muse, you were once good.

OT: Of all my posts on this thread, I have yet to actually reply to the OP. Yes, it is music, and can be done well, but it is easy to put out garbage, so we see more of that. Also, most see it as a joke, case in point

 

[Crowbar_Abortion]

I have never understood why people enjoyed listening to the dubstep genre until I saw this:

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

Do I like the song at all? well yes strangely enough, but only when paired with the video. If I close my eyes then it becomes just like nails on a chalkboard.
But having it displayed satirically or ironically whichever is right or closest, makes this one of the funniest most enjoyable things ive ever seen. And since I can appreciate it in this manner alone, I must at least call it music or art.

 

[Lunar Templar]

its a way for people to make money in the music industry with out actually making music, like hiphop

 

[Keltrick]

"Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence"

You could have just described anything from the chatter of a waiting room to the cars passing on a motorway to the sound of typing in an office ...

On topic. When I was at school we were taught about musical instruments, among which was not the decks or the computer! It takes absolutely fuck all skill to make dubstep, all it requires is money for the equipment and a taste similar to everybody else's (or a majority at least).

You could spend 1,000 hours perfecting the "song" then all you have to do at a live performance is press play.

What about a visual medium? A film is recorded, then all you do is go to a theater and press play. You can edit, tweak, and reshoot what ever parts you don't like, just like with digital music. Once its done, you let it play. No one's arguing "Stage Acting is REAL art. The rest is fake." What about a painting? You Make it, then present it. Don't even have to hit a play button.

Skill is subjective. A taste to similar to everybody else? You mean like all music that floods my radio when I make the mistake of turning it on. I'm sorry, but I don't feel comfortable assigning the label of "art" to things and refusing it to others just because "you didn't deviate from the norm enough." A better microphone also makes singers sound better, but I'm not going to say Shakira sings well just because of her equipment. It takes that, sure, but it also takes talent and knowing how to use it.

I go back to editing film. You take what the camera man shoots, and what the actors did/said, and you make art out of that. No ones has seen Requiem for a Dream's editing and said there wasn't an artistic mind behind that.

 

[Songblade]

just a bunch of noise mashed together by people with too much time on their hands.

That IS music.

As for dubsteb? It's technically music, but it's starting to get a little old.

 

[Keltrick]

This is too much, Escapist, far too much. I had faith in you, for some reason that I cannot recall, but it was there! Now it lays on the floor like a spent condom: used up, tossed on the floor, and filled with the squishy refuse of a drunken minuteman.

I'd make my case, but I'm sure someone else here has tossed the 'Dubstep lacks talent because it's almost entirely automated' argument somewhere. Guitars, pianos, drums, flutes, cymbals, cellos, violins, violas, basses, tubas, trombones, bongos, xylophones and the human voice each require, talent, precision and finesse to be used to the best of their ability. Next, everyone's gonna cay loading a CD into a player and starting it makes you a musician.

This is it. Tonight, I am giving one more post to finish things off proper, and the Escapist forums and I are done.

Are you saying you're quitting this forum because some of us think that dubstep is music? If so:
Good. See you later. You're a close minded idiot, and you're insulting. There's too many of you're type around these parts anywhere. Go find a place where you can be with your close minded equals.

Seconded. I don't cry when I pull weeds from my garden to let the more beautiful plants have more room to grow. There is a big difference between copy/pasting an image, and then using a digital medium like photoshop to create and edit images. If you're equating dubstep to loading a CD, I think you're past help. I don't like dubstep in the least, and I understand it more than that.

 

[JWAN]

Makes my head hurt and people blare it so loudly I can feel it in my chonies.
Still music though.
I like when it goes wub wub wub though

 

[Burst6]

I won't say that dubstep isn't music. I'll just say that it isn't good (<opinion)

I have actually listened to some of the ones people are linking me on youtube and they all have the problems. Sometimes the bass overpowers any feeling the original song was trying to give, and other times the song is very random and has no decent beat.

for example.

I've seen this one linked plenty of times around the forum (perhaps by you Mr. Horrendus) and i feel like critiquing it. I do not see the beauty in that. The only dubstep i see in that song is the wub wub going on in the background (or is it supposed to be the foreground? i can't tell) and it's not helping. It has good parts, but the heavy bass usually ruins them.

That's the thing about bass. It penetrates. If you don't keep it in check it overpowers everything. When your bass is a simple repetition it's a better idea to keep it in the background. Sometimes the wub wub overpowers even the singer.

I enjoyed the song until about the 1:08 mark. It wasn't calming, but the deep bass in the background gave it a nice unsettling alien feeling, and the bass stopped before it got too overbearing. Matched with the background it was nice. When the high notes came at around 1:11 i thought i would like it but then my hope was dashed at 1:12 when the bass broke out of the back tried to match the rest of the instruments (for lack of a better word) in volume with the wub wub i hear from every other dubstep piece.


If i want electronic fast paced loud songs i'll stick to touhou themes thank you very much.

Spoiler: like so

 

[Yoshemo]

Of course its music. Its just bad music

 

[AlexWinter]

D-D-D-D-D-Drop the hates.

OT: Of course it is. Why would you even ask that?

Every sound is music, maaan.

 

[Olas]

Dubstep definitely fulfills the basic criteria for music, it seems to follow a set rhythmic pattern with some degree of tonality too.

Listening to this with in-ear headphones and it's making my eardrums feel weird. I'd still call it music though, even if it is on the very fringe. One could define anything that's intended to be listened to for it's sound and not for a carried message as music. Here's my contribution to the just barely music collection.

 

[thirion1850]

Yes it's music. It's sound tuned to rythim and/or beat, identical to DnB in some aspects. What part of that doesn't make it music, I don't understand. Now, if you wanna be hipster and go all "Oh, it's not music because it's totes mainstream and dumb people listen to it", then the entire argument is pointless. Just because it's shitty music in your (or my) opinion doesn't make it any less of a musical genre.

 

[Yopaz]

No, it's music. I dislike it, but I'm not so narcissistic as to believe that the only things that are music are the things that I like.

You know I thought this was a great way of saying it.

As the guy over me I have to say that it's not something I like, if it was up to me I'd never have to listen to a single second, but it's still music by its definition.