Something that's been interesting me of late is how certain musical concepts from way back are being blended into newer styles and being heralded as progression when in fact the idea may be over ten years old.
So in dubstep say, we had the minimal techno element (early 90's or earlier), wonky (plenty of early-mid 90's hip hop, mid 90's chicago house) and a lot of more melodic, ambienty tunes which seemed to hark back to the mid-90's chill out/noodle sounds. A lot of producers in dnb seem to just be trying to continue where Photek left off before he got all Hollywood
In house there seems to be a resurgence in jackin tracks (chicago again), and old rave elements and funky does seem to have some obvious comparisons to old soca 2 step and broken beat (although I don't think anyone is heralding this as a move forward as yet). Even in the world of rock it seems quite a few bands are having dance producers remix their tunes (Madchester anyone?).
Personally I'm not that obsessed with music needing to be cutting edge to be good but at the same time is passing off old ideas as original a bit arch and just padding out time before something truly groundbreaking comes along, and doesn't this in a way just perpetuate people's ignorance of what went before so music continues to work in cycles of rediscovery/regurgitation.
So in dubstep say, we had the minimal techno element (early 90's or earlier), wonky (plenty of early-mid 90's hip hop, mid 90's chicago house) and a lot of more melodic, ambienty tunes which seemed to hark back to the mid-90's chill out/noodle sounds. A lot of producers in dnb seem to just be trying to continue where Photek left off before he got all Hollywood
In house there seems to be a resurgence in jackin tracks (chicago again), and old rave elements and funky does seem to have some obvious comparisons to old soca 2 step and broken beat (although I don't think anyone is heralding this as a move forward as yet). Even in the world of rock it seems quite a few bands are having dance producers remix their tunes (Madchester anyone?).
Personally I'm not that obsessed with music needing to be cutting edge to be good but at the same time is passing off old ideas as original a bit arch and just padding out time before something truly groundbreaking comes along, and doesn't this in a way just perpetuate people's ignorance of what went before so music continues to work in cycles of rediscovery/regurgitation.