stelfox said:jesus, ladies, calm down. the fact is that if you're talking about 2step/grime-as-scene in the US, it's pretty pointless anyway. the real evolution and birth of the scene happened in london, then the music was adopted by djs, from whetever field d&b, house etc, elsewhere after the fact. thu us didn't have a 2step scene worth talking about much, really, because it was all secondary action.
yes, but it ties into the larger question of the credibility of uk sounds in the us -- a question that the americans on this board care about
(so whether uk people care is, sorry to say, irrelevant)
i'm suggesting that rave had credibility b/c early rave sounds were close enough to indigneous american house sounds that, in the first instance, credible us djs were willing to play the records -- and then, over and above that, the rave phenomenon was so powerful there could simply be no resisting its claims
jungle/d'n'b was then the soundtrack of the hardcore us rave scene -- and so long as rave was happening big time in the states, never on european scale, but still a pretty big time scene in mid to late 90s, then no questions need be asked
2-step came in board in late 90s and was -- again speaking from my very narrow, provincial experience -- the kind of thing the more down-with-it house djs would play in the closing hour of their sets -- again, played by djs w/ serious credentials out in vast swathes of provincial, midwestern america
grime, by contrast, is being referred to as music for trend-spotters -- is this fair to grime? probably not -- and is it fair to the people in the us who are supporting grime? probably not -- but that's the perception
now when i use phrases like "credible djs" and "djs w/ serious credentials," the obvious reply is to ask why should the old guard be in charge indefinitely? why not bring in new blood? -- and these are of course perfectly valid rejoinders -- having underground stalwarts in their late 30s serve as arbiter is no less suffocating or unhealthy or burdensome than the millionare dj mafia in the uk
the question, rather, is how does the new blood establish its authority, credibility, position
if they're perceived as overly dependent on internet channels then they're gonna have a credibility problem
and, yes, perhaps the subterranean dj tribe networks of yore are something of a myth --
but again, that's the perception, i.e., subterranean networks back then versus trendspotters on the internet now