Poll: Dubstep. Music or not music?

Smeggs

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OhJohnNo said:
Before this goes any farther, I'd like to apologize to the OP about this possible derailment into rap vs everything else. Also I see three possible outcomes of this response,none of them good, but what the hell.

Now, to begin, this is not rap. Startling discovery, right? This has no bearing on the conversation at all. It's not rap, and it's not dubstep, so why are you posting it? If you're trying to show the deevolution of sound and evolution of this generation's pain thresholds, then fine. But this is regional, cutural,etc. music.

side note: love your avatar.
Not music?


It has a beat, it has flow, it has pretty much everything as you please. And I'm fairly certain that there is rap, unless everything I've ever known about rap in my life was incorrect.
 

GLo Jones

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It's generally not my thing, but I'd go as far as saying it's the best thing for music in years.

It pushes the boundaries of what we would have previously thought of as music, just like rock & roll did in the late 40s/50s. Whether it stands the test of time like that is irrelevant, it's still pushing us forward.
 

Not G. Ivingname

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First we have to define what music is. Here are five from dictionary.com:

mu·sic   
noun
1.
an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.
2.
the tones or sounds employed, occurring in single line (melody) or multiple lines (harmony), and sounded or to be sounded by one or more voices or instruments, or both.
3.
musical work or compositions for singing or playing.
4.
the written or printed score of a musical composition.
5.
such scores collectively.

The first one is a bit subjective, but I am sure that some dubstep makers feel they are expressing some idea or emotion through there dubstep. It is unarguable that it meets the rest, it has tones, it is played through an instrument (electronic instruments have been the most common ones used in the music industry for about a century), their are definable compositions and a score that can be printed, and they can be gathered collectively.

So yes, it is music.

Is it good music or bad music? That depends on your own personal tastes, but it is music.
 

ElPatron

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Again the "you just don't like it argument".

I don't agree that all dubstep is "not music". But from what I have heard, not all dubstep can be considered music. Just noises.
 

Fishyash

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Redryhno said:
It's not rap, and it's not dubstep, so why are you posting it? If you're trying to show the deevolution of sound and evolution of this generation's pain thresholds, then fine. But this is regional, cutural,etc. music.

side note: love your avatar.
Devolution of sound? :( You have made me very sad now. :(

However, if you're implying african drumming is somehow inferior to contemporary western music, African drummers of this nature in general have an understanding of rhythm that is beyond most western Europeans listeners' (when I say european, I mean people who listen to european music, which obviously includes America) comprehension.

In hindsight, I guess I didn't have to post a video of an african drumming performance.

But it basically has a similar property to rap, being focused on rhythm, but with a different instrument.

In regards to its regional or cultural significance, well, I could have posted the amen break or a drum solo of of a random band performance and said the exact same thing. African drumming came to mind first though.
 

Redryhno

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Fishyash said:
Devolution of sound? :( You have made me very sad now. :(

However, if you're implying african drumming is somehow inferior to contemporary western music, African drummers of this nature in general have an understanding of rhythm that is beyond most western Europeans listeners' (when I say european, I mean people who listen to european music, which obviously includes America) comprehension.

In hindsight, I guess I didn't have to post a video of an african drumming performance.

But it basically has a similar property to rap, being focused on rhythm, but with a different instrument.

In regards to its regional or cultural significance, well, I could have posted the amen break or a drum solo of of a random band performance and said the exact same thing. African drumming came to mind first though.
Again, someone has misread what I said, I find this fine, but when you start adding in the lyrics and microphone-splish-splash of over 98% of rap, then that's where the deevolution of sound comes in. And the african drumming thing was an ok thing, but I wanted to head off another rap discussion if I could seeing as this thread is asking about dubstep, and while it has some roots in rap, I've seen too many threads, discussions, and general arguments devolve into "yes" and "nuh-uh" back and forth. In fact, I prefer this kind of thing to a band set, you can follow it pretty easily without not really listening to it, which is how I normally listen to music seeing as I'm normally doing about four other things at the same time.
 

Jailbird408

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This thread is pointless. Dubstep is music, good music, and here's why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqD17ZDpVCk
 

Grant Hobba

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Vault101 said:
Grant Hobba said:
I studied music for a few years... loosely dubstep is music but my personal opinion is if the instruments are not under these categories, it is not music, the classes are Wind(including voice), Brass, Percussion and stringed.
so the electronic genre isn't music? I don't understand that at all

(as somone said) by that logic your avatar isnt really a picture

and ANY genre of music is heavily affected by artificial means if it isn't performed live...
okay, look at it this way, if electronic is a genre, so is my dog barking, so are my farts and so are computers starting up. Just because something makes a sound, an arrangement of such does not make music.

I said in my personal opinion, not cold hard fact. I studied music for a few years and the actual definition is "The art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion" to do this, you need musical instruments which were labeled in my previous comment. At uni we were taught electronica was not a legitimate category of instrument and therefore it is not actually able to create music. However like everything you hipsters people in life always ruin, it has to be called music and so our uni taught us about it too, only out of necessity. Any real.. and I say real because people over the internet clearly don't count, anyway real music buffs will agree with me.

My entire point was, yes it is music only because the definition of art changed, that was only because it has to be so people like you and the artsy fags would stop bitching.

In my opinion it is not.... like like I said in my original comment... IN MY OPINION IT ISN'T.... did you not read that? ... kids these days....
 

Vault101

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Sep 26, 2010
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Grant Hobba said:
okay, look at it this way, if electronic is a genre, so is my dog barking, so are my farts and so are computers starting up.
I find it hard to belive that somone who actually studies music seems to forget how diverse Electronica is


[quote/]Just because something makes a sound, an arrangement of such does not make music.

I said in my personal opinion, not cold hard fact. I studied music for a few years and the actual definition is "The art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion" to do this, you need musical instruments which were labeled in my previous comment. At uni we were taught electronica was not a legitimate category of instrument and therefore it is not actually able to create music.[/quote]

so its about the tools and not the sound?

[quote/]However like everything you hipsters people in life always ruin, it has to be called music and so our uni taught us about it too, only out of necessity. Any real.. and I say real because people over the internet clearly don't count, anyway real music buffs will agree with me.[/quote]
ruin? its somehow wrong of me to belive its music?

I would have thourgh music buffs were more or less opned minded about it rather than putting abitrairy "rules" as to what is and isnt music

define "music buff" I'd like to know what such people think

[quote/]My entire point was, yes it is music only because the definition of art changed, that was only because it has to be so people like you and the artsy fags would stop bitching.[/quote]
bitching? we are not the ones bitching....the ones bitching are the same kind of people will will ALWAYS complain

rap isnt trash! dubstep is trash! current music is trash!

well it gets alittle frustrating when people have silly predjudices over certain things used in (what I call) music

but whatever..peopel can like or dislike whatever they want... just to see

this is not only one of my all time favorite electronic songs..but one of my all time favorite songs ever...

so you would say this isnt music?

 

viking97

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isn't dubstep just a term for remixing something into techno using the sounds contained in the thing being remixed with a few choice wubs thrown in? or have i missed something and it is classed as its own genre now?
 

Vault101

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Sep 26, 2010
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viking97 said:
isn't dubstep just a term for remixing something into techno using the sounds contained in the thing being remixed with a few choice wubs thrown in? or have i missed something and it is classed as its own genre now?
remixing somthing into techo?

whhaaa?

Techno and Dubstep are completly different sub-genres of electronica

[small/]*grumble*....why they gotta call ALL of it techno?![/small]

or are you talking about sampling or remixing? what are you talking about?
 

DugMachine

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ElPatron said:
Again the "you just don't like it argument".

I don't agree that all dubstep is "not music". But from what I have heard, not all dubstep can be considered music. Just noises.
You people can't seriously be tone deaf or incapable of picking up on rhythm and simple chord progressions, can you? Tired of hearing 'it's just noise'. I'm taking what you said literally here and that you just can't hear basic music structure in dubstep. Hell I don't even like the stuff that much but the 'it's just noises' argument is ridiculous.
Vault101 said:
bitching? we are not the ones bitching....the ones bitching are the same kind of people will will ALWAYS complain

rap isnt trash! dubstep is trash! current music is trash!

well it gets alittle frustrating when people have silly predjudices over certain things used in (what I call) music

but whatever..peopel can like or dislike whatever they want... just to see

No point in arguing with them Vault. Most who study music have this prejudice so deeply ingrained there is no chance in swaying them. Because something isn't played with a physical instrument that they spent years mastering they can't see the value in musical composition, seeing as most just play back what other musicians have already created and not their own compositions... and even if they do they're simple and forgettable at best. Anyways i'm ranting.
 

Saulkar

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As long as there is no drop then I like it. It can be as heavy or hard as it wants to be but the moment it drops its melody then fuck you very much.