Mixing Dubstep with Pop

sargentpilcher · Post by **sargentpilcher** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:09 am

I'm sure many people here will disagree, but this is just how I see it. I want to make a career out of music, and that requires that I need to write music that other people will enjoy, and not just dick around making things only I would like. If you want to call that selling out, then so be it. I really love dubstep/brostep or whatever name you want to call it. I love songs like "Dirty Dancer" produced by redone with enrique iglesias singing, because it has a womp on the verse, and I thought it was really cool having that in a mainstream song. I also love the bridge to "Hold it against me" by britney spears. My favorite songs by skrillex, are his remixes. In particular "Hey sexy lady" I think is just amazing.

My problem, is I'm having a really hard time tying the 2 together. I am working on a pop song right now, and the chorus just wasn't working at all (Verse sounds great though!), so I decided I wanted to try and throw some dubstep in the chorus, while still keeping it pop. It's a pretty straightforward electro/pop song right now, and I keep playing it back trying to get ideas, but nothing is flowing to me. Is there anybody here who has tried melding pop with dubstep? Anybody have any ideas? Am I alone in this?

edit: I also want to throw in that I think I would have a much easier time if I was doing a dubstep verse, because it's often times the case that the chorus is the pretty part, and the verse is the "dirty" part, but the verse in this song IMO is perfect, and don't want to touch it. I don't know if I've ever heard dubstep over a chorus, with singing over it, but that's what I'd like to try and make work.

mikeyp · Post by **mikeyp** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:20 am

just go on youtube and search *insert pop song here* dubstep remix. there will be a ton of hits

you'll get ideas and shit from that. most of them won't be good but meh it's something

sargentpilcher · Post by **sargentpilcher** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:57 am

mikeyp wrote:just go on youtube and search *insert pop song here* dubstep remix. there will be a ton of hits

you'll get ideas and shit from that. most of them won't be good but meh it's something

That's actually a really good idea haha. I don't know why I didn't think of that.

legend4ry · Post by **legend4ry** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 3:48 am

I'm sorry to be "that" guy but dubstep isn't something you insert into a track.

Its feeling, a community and a mindset. Just adding a womp here and there on a pop tune - makes it still a pop tune with a womp in it.

Maybe you should be looking in places what specialize on making pop music?

To answer your question though - its just a matter of using the right sounds for the track (just like anything).
Dubstep is a very dark and broody style of music, I honestly can't see how it'll relate to mainstream radio though, unless we gave everyone a free sub?

narcissus · Post by **narcissus** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 4:19 am

oh god, it's begun.

just do what they do to any style that becomes mainstream-ized.
listen to a couple of the biggest dubstep songs right now.
dumb it down. make it simple enough that anyone can follow it. people like saw waves and filtered supersaws a lot. 808 never hurts.
clean it up. it has to be annoying enough catch the ear, but not so grating that the majority of 12 year olds will find it jarring.
add lyrics with strong sexual innuendo. vocals should be autotuned, and fill up most of the song. stick to melodies using only 2 or 3 notes for the most part, and definitely don't span more than an octave throughout the whole song.
also, no more than 4 chords. maybe a fifth if you have a bridge.

gen_ · Post by **gen_** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 4:26 am

And so begins the dawn of a new age at DSF.

We will wish for the days that noobs came here and said 'how to make Skrillex bass'

BTW OP you have no idea the amount of good dubstep you are actually missing out on if your really believe that Britney's tune was good. The dubstep industry farts out tunes better than that...

Wait. Farting sounds.... 1 sec, I have some sampling to do!

sargentpilcher · Post by **sargentpilcher** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 4:43 am

gen_ wrote:BTW OP you have no idea the amount of good dubstep you are actually missing out on if your really believe that Britney's tune was good. The dubstep industry farts out tunes better than that...

Let's hear them then

accordionfan · Post by **accordionfan** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 5:05 am

sargentpilcher wrote:
gen_ wrote:BTW OP you have no idea the amount of good dubstep you are actually missing out on if your really believe that Britney's tune was good. The dubstep industry farts out tunes better than that...
Let's hear them then

the tunes in the dude's sig eat britney alive....you really don't need to look hard :>

sargentpilcher · Post by **sargentpilcher** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 5:11 am

I have looked, and the fact of the matter is that there really ins't much dubstep out there that is as well produced as the Britney Spears bridge. There are a million different metrics you can use to say one song is better than another. It comes down to opinion. I want to hear an example of something you guys think sounds better than the britney bridge, so I can see what you're talking about.

gen_ · Post by **gen_** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 5:24 am

Okay you wanted something fairly shite/old so it can constitute as 'farted out' and you like Britney so I'll give you a tune... Try Womaniser - Borgore ft Britney

@accordionfan thanks, glad you like

If you want to look at production levels in dubstep, Try Blame - Star (Doctor P Remix), thats my monitor reference tune. Also try anything made in the last 3 years by Flux Pavilion, Doctor P, Joker, Benga, Skream, Me, any producer on DSF etc etc

wormcode · Post by **wormcode** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 5:55 am

Hey, Sonic Academy has a video series on making "popstep". Fucking lol.

sargentpilcher · Post by **sargentpilcher** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:06 am

gen_ wrote:Okay you wanted something fairly shite/old so it can constitute as 'farted out' and you like Britney so I'll give you a tune... Try Womaniser - Borgore ft Britney

@accordionfan thanks, glad you like

If you want to look at production levels in dubstep, Try Blame - Star (Doctor P Remix), thats my monitor reference tune. Also try anything made in the last 3 years by Flux Pavilion, Doctor P, Joker, Benga, Skream, Me, any producer on DSF etc etc

I didn't think a single one of those had higher production value/ was a better song than "hold it against me". The way the vocals fit so perfectly with the song. I mean, it's just plain good songwriting. Doctor Luke is an amazing songwriter.

sargentpilcher · Post by **sargentpilcher** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:07 am

wormcode wrote:Hey, Sonic Academy has a video series on making "popstep". Fucking lol.

It sucks

mikeyp · Post by **mikeyp** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:20 am

sargentpilcher wrote:
gen_ wrote:Okay you wanted something fairly shite/old so it can constitute as 'farted out' and you like Britney so I'll give you a tune... Try Womaniser - Borgore ft Britney

@accordionfan thanks, glad you like

If you want to look at production levels in dubstep, Try Blame - Star (Doctor P Remix), thats my monitor reference tune. Also try anything made in the last 3 years by Flux Pavilion, Doctor P, Joker, Benga, Skream, Me, any producer on DSF etc etc
I didn't think a single one of those had higher production value/ was a better song than "hold it against me". The way the vocals fit so perfectly with the song. I mean, it's just plain good songwriting. Doctor Luke is an amazing songwriter.

you mean all 8 words during the "dubstep" part fit perfectly?

(btw 2:40 if anybody wants to skip to it)

mikeyp · Post by **mikeyp** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:25 am

and say what you want about the production or the skill of those artists, but they make music that brings thousands of people together at a time and makes them move in unison.. the point of pop music or this song in particular is to make bitches sing it in their cars and sell albums. no pop music, no matter how well produced, will ever be able to do the things in the real world that good or even decent dubstep can do.

I might be going on a rant and this is all personal taste (I guess) but I don't think you can really compare the two or even blend the two well really.. you can't make a good pop dubstep song. Any good dubstep remix of a pop song ever was no longer a pop song. It was a dubstep song with lyrics that people knew.

anything like hold it against me, no matter how dubsteppy or grimey it gets will always be pop.

S1NTH3TIC · Post by **S1NTH3TIC** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 8:29 am

look up eyes on youtube, he does a lot of remixing thats pretty decent.

Also, saying that the brittany bridge is better quality than most of dubstep out there now is sorta like walking into a ghetto hole in the wall southern cooking restaurant and telling them KFC is the shit.

gen_ · Post by **gen_** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 9:32 am

sargentpilcher wrote:
gen_ wrote:Okay you wanted something fairly shite/old so it can constitute as 'farted out' and you like Britney so I'll give you a tune... Try Womaniser - Borgore ft Britney

@accordionfan thanks, glad you like

If you want to look at production levels in dubstep, Try Blame - Star (Doctor P Remix), thats my monitor reference tune. Also try anything made in the last 3 years by Flux Pavilion, Doctor P, Joker, Benga, Skream, Me, any producer on DSF etc etc
I didn't think a single one of those had higher production value/ was a better song than "hold it against me". The way the vocals fit so perfectly with the song. I mean, it's just plain good songwriting. Doctor Luke is an amazing songwriter.

I feel sorry for your kids. Doctor luke is an excellent writer of nondescript mush, and the apparent 'production levels ' you are hearing from this break are nothing more than space created by having no hi-hats = something you won't find in much dubstep as it murders the concept of pace and therefore makes a dubstep track useless. All the rest of that 'lets fade out the face every bar and alias the voice through a bitcrusher etc' are gimmicks, not production levels. It was easy to make this track because it's not dubstep, its a parody of dubstep.

Dystinkt · Post by **Dystinkt** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 11:01 am

The dynamics of that song will be terrible also. Pop tunes get compressed to fuckery for pure loudness, which fools people into thinking they sound good. For an example of credible(ish) mainstream dubstep, look at magnetic man, their stuff is definitely dubstep but does ok in the charts. karma crazy is probably my favourite tune they've done.

ComfiStile · Post by **ComfiStile** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 12:29 pm

Katy on a mission was a pretty good crossover. As is some (some as in, it's not all dubstep the release) of the stuff magnetic man brings out.

leeany · Post by **leeany** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 12:41 pm

the production on tunes like this one is way better than the production on that Britney bridge

Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Re: Mixing Dubstep with Pop

Who is online