When did dubstep lose the plot?

[Martin Dust]

Crikey has Dubstep now gone "teenage"?

The Thug thing is really funny as most don't look like they could punch their collective way out of a wet paper bag but I guess the magazines like it

 

[hopper]

I'd still say Distance is more towards the spacious end of things, doesn't mean it's any good though.

some of the worst examples of metalstep:

those are a million times worse than metal slug and most of the distance things... and sadly what tonnes of people seem to play

 

[bob effect]

If this wasn't so drearily predictable it would be funny. From Blackdown's blog post

"Mid range distorted heavy metal is a total betrayal of everything we tried to build as a scene"

What exactly did you expect to happen? Who did you think would be buying dubstep records outside of London? It's the same people who like their d'n'b fast, plastic and overly compressed, anyone who was ever into breaks, basically any 18-25 year old male who makes shitty loops in Ableton, thinks they're a producer and when they read stuff like "stoned swagger/paranoia/dub-echo" and think "wow cool that'll feed my fantasies of being some sort of underground music bad bwoy while I finish my media studies degree. Get the pints in".

My solution? 1. Ban these people from making, buying, listening to or commenting on any music at all ever until they're at least 30. 2. Stop talking about paranoid darkness and emphasise the fluffy bunnykins aspect of your music. It may grate with your underground image, but it's surely preferable to cod-rock.

 

[john eden]

I was hoping dubstep would be bought by middle aged reggae fans who still liked to 'ave it occasionally.

I'm optimistic, me.

 

[john eden]

But actually, yes, you are right.

I think a large dose of revival Lovers Rock is what is needed right now.

 

[luka]

from the very day it started i thought this was the worst music i'd ever heard in my life. comedy joke music with the most boring raves known to man. (and only to man, at least in those days. not a girl in sight)

 

[mos dan]

isn't anyone paying attention to zane lowe - dubstep has just arrived!!! ahem.

fahkin ell. only just seen this, and martin's (spot on) post, and its 56 comments, and.. i have work to do!! argh.

i could be reductive and silly and say it 'lost the plot' around the time alex and i left dubstepforum because of pokes and others' protectionist, purist mentality

http://dot-alt.blogspot.com/2006/09/purists-are-revolting.html

the truth is the dubstep i fell in love with in the first place was great because of its close sibling relationship with grime.. so i could be reductive and silly and say dubstep lost the plot when fwd banned skepta and stopped booking grime djs.

just noticed that in that 2006 post above i wrote

The hubris has gone to their heads and the very ideas of cross-pollination, of shared roots, or of cultural pluralism are to be avoided at all costs.

and now*, as blackdown has written, that pluralism is back! a vibrant genre pluralism in uk bass music somewhat goes against the idea of a linear continuum too, doesn't it? not that i want to reopen that can of worms hehe.

re: corpsey's smoking ban comment, yh that certainly changed a lot.

*EDIT: i say 'now', but standardly ben, bk bk, blackdown, and other people who don't begin with 'b' have been doing this for a good few years

 

[baboon2004]

so i could be reductive and silly and say dubstep lost the plot when fwd banned skepta and stopped booking grime djs.

re: corpsey's smoking ban comment, yh that certainly changed a lot.

Re Fwd banning Skepta - totally ignorant of this story...what happened?

Didn't seem difficult to get a spliff passed round at Fwd, and I wasn't even trying...though maybe sitting down in a dark corner for a bit helped..

 

[matt b]

^

Shouldn't that read

"Didn't seem difficult to get a cigarette passed round at Fwd, and I wasn't even trying...though maybe sitting down outside while we shared it helped."?

 

[baboon2004]

Yes, you're absolutely right.

Actually it should read: "I thoroughly disapprove of smoking, and am overjoyed that the ban on smoking has allowed genuine enthusiasts of musics such as dubstep to enjopy their skanking free of all extraneous psychological stimulations."

 

[tom lea]

plus i just like that it still favours bass. grime has virtually no bass action and neither does funky.

virtually no bass action's harsh - terror danjah's tunes have rakes of weight, so do dva's, maniac's, lots of people. problem is you don't get to hear them in fwd often enough (and when you do it's usually off cdjs), something like 'rhythm and gash' is so heavy but you need to hear it in the right place.

 

[benjybars]

virtually no bass action's harsh - terror danjah's tunes have rakes of weight, so do dva's, maniac's, lots of people. problem is you don't get to hear them in fwd often enough (and when you do it's usually off cdjs), something like 'rhythm and gash' is so heavy but you need to hear it in the right place.

yep. rhythm & gash on PP soundsystem = pure rib shaker.

 

[benjybars]

(and only to man, at least in those days. not a girl in sight)

one consequence of dubstep becoming more student-y is that there are many, many more girls at raves now.

 

[tom lea]

know it's not strictly dubstep (and it was the macbeth, not plastics), but at about half 12 at alex nut's thing last night the front of the dancefloor was like a dozen girls plus me and dancox. it's not so blokey anymore, hasnt been for a while. the hud mo ep launch at pp had a higher man ratio than fwd has in a long time.

 

[mos dan]

the hud mo ep launch at pp had a higher man ratio than fwd has in a long time.

that's because the ep was released on warp i reckon. no offence, mms

 

[baboon2004]

one consequence of dubstep becoming more student-y is that there are many, many more girls at raves now.

and thank God for that

 

[Slothrop]

Although there is still a lot of good nights out there, the spirit which was at it's core is completely gone and there is no community. A while back I could pitch up at any night and see at least 20 familiar faces or thereabouts. Fwd sunday is definitely good musically, and I love the early finish but it's not the same as the old dubstep nights

I kind of wonder whether the loss of a sense of community is partly because FWD has been keeping it real so well - I mean, I think there is a sort of potential community of people who like what dubstep was and what it might be but don't like what a lot of it is now, but FWD is so bloody good that those people get their night out at FWD and don't really get the critical mass to splinter away decisively and become their own thing.

This all seems very very reminiscent of the arguments on subvert central about five years ago over whether it was better to stay in the mainstream of DnB and try to make the whole thing better, or to disengage entirely and start to build your own thing with what you've got...

 

[Tentative Andy]

This all seems very very reminiscent of the arguments on subvert central about five years ago over whether it was better to stay in the mainstream of DnB and try to make the whole thing better, or to disengage entirely and start to build your own thing with what you've got...

I think which way you go on this perhaps depends on how heavily you've invested in the music and culture up until now, and how closely you identify with it in particular.
Might just be eternal optimism, but I reckon there's a good chance both of the things you mention will happen and will be reasonably succesful, in fact we're probably seeing it now.

 

[mos dan]

Re Fwd banning Skepta - totally ignorant of this story...what happened?

i think he egged the bouncer after not being let in once. that was the end of 05.. they stopped booking maximum/karnage/bossman/target/etc around the same time.. mary anne hobbs dubstep wars show followed shortly.. fwd moved to fridays.. everything entered a new phase basically.

I kind of wonder whether the loss of a sense of community is partly because FWD has been keeping it real so well - I mean, I think there is a sort of potential community of people who like what dubstep was and what it might be but don't like what a lot of it is now, but FWD is so bloody good that those people get their night out at FWD and don't really get the critical mass to splinter away decisively and become their own thing.

what loss of a sense of community? i don't really get this. since fwd got good again (i.e. when it moved to sundays) i see as many familiar faces down pp every week as 05 days, at the early dmzs or when fwd was on thursdays. so many of the people at the alex nut/cooly g night last night were the same people i see at fwd/dirty canvas/night slugs/etc. i'll say again: genre cross-pollination ftw.

 

[Corpsey]

one consequence of dubstep becoming more student-y is that there are many, many more girls at raves now.

Q: Do girls like wobble?

A: Sometimes