MP3 is a continuation of Dubplate culture

[wub]

MP3 is a continuation of Dubplate culture, except they've completely transformed the whole process. A continuation because they keep going what Dubplate culture put in place, this thing of being able to have exclusive music and send it to people very quickly. They completely transformed Dubplate culture because they attacked the exclusivity of it. If your track goes online, because of digital technology you have infinite replication, you can copy a piece of music as many times as you want without any degradation of quality.

[dooshbhag]

It looks like you just said that it's an extension of dubplate culture because it attacks dubplate culture?

[Genevieve]

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not but I think it's true. Breakcore was the first "real life" scene that was centered around filesharing in the mid '90s and it was a direct descendant of soundsystem culture as well, with Ambush records and also Praxis when it was still in London. It was a digital rebirth of soundsystem and '80s political/anti-establishment rave culture and it tried to echo its ethos through new, available, technology.

People get too caught up in the physical aspects of things while forgetting about the ideas. Soundsystem culture was about vinyl and dub plates in the '60s and '70s because that's what was available. But the idea itself was about the DJ pushing the musician/engineer (who was the same thing) to create cutting edge ways to make new music for a very demanding crowd over and over again. Dub plates just sort of happened, but they're replacable symbols of an era, not the focal aspect of the culture.

Here's another one for people to think about and I don't think they're gonna like it: considering what I just posted, is dubstep still soundsystem culture music? Because the DJs didn't push the musician/engineer to make cutting edge music, but to get them to recreate old soundsystem music/ideas using new technology? x: Though I'm aware that even as fat back as Jamaica, there were really only a handful of original ideas with a looooot of knock-offs.

[Jizz]

I think theres 2 sides to it, there are definitely people in dubstep who do push it forward as a soundsystem culture. But how authentic this culture will be is questionable, because its just not as practical anymore is it. And like you said originality's another thing that gets compromised when people start going all #truhead. So you get lots of people building systems, playing dubs etc. but only few of them genuinely bring something genuinely new and exciting to the scene.

But then again, does it always Have to be new and exciting? I love going to the odd Dub night where nothing groundbreaking is played but its still a great experience. Theres also nostalgia, out of which things like vivek's System are born, which is also great.

@OP: I agree with kode, mp3 is definitely an extension. Exclusivity still exists imo

[test_recordings]

It looks like you just said that it's an extension of dubplate culture because it attacks dubplate culture?

I think it's just a badly worded title. Kode 9 basically said that, because it's so easy to copy things digitally, it makes dubplates even more exclusive as you can be more certain it's rare.

I hadn't really heard or thought about the concept of dubplates until some DnB track talked about cutting one because MP3s are crap or something. Pretty funny track, nice and messy as well

[koncide]

I'd say mp3 has heightened the status of dubplates and vinyl in general. Back in the day, the only way to hear recorded music was a physical medium, primarily vinyl. Nowadays when the average music listener doesn't even own a cd, vinyl attracts a much higher degree of prestige. Dubplates have always been cool, but in an age when vinyl itself is more of an artforn than a necessity, the dubplates out there have that heightened sense of awe.

[benjam]

The quote is from Dub echoes btw

[slothrop]

It looks like you just said that it's an extension of dubplate culture because it attacks dubplate culture?

I think basically he's saying that playing out mp3s of new stuff continues some fundamental thread of dubplate culture but changes quite a lot of stuff in the process. The thread being the very short feedback loop between the club and the studio - the fact that now, as in Jamaica in the 60s and 70s, you can go out this weekend and here a rival DJ try out a new sound or a new beat or a new trick that totally goes off and then you can head back to the studio and come back next weekend with the same thing but better for yourself. So the sound evolves on fast-forward, from month to month rather than year to year.

I can see his point, but I'm also not convinced that it happens much thesedays, at least not in dubstep. There doesn't seem to be the same sort of (friendly or unfriendly) rivalry that you got with JA soundsystems or the early days of dubstep, maybe because the scene's gone so much bigger that DJs aren't all hanging out in the same clubs and competing for the same audience any more, or maybe because there are so many producers in so many places around the world that they don't share that common measure of what's going off in the club this week.

[didi]

couple of weeks ago for the bandulu003 launch party oh91 posted a picture of a zip he'd been sent by spooky containing a bunch of refixes of bristol grime tracks.

biggest was the spooky refix of tron (joker). there's a vid of oh91 drawing for it and it shelling down the dance.

that's pretty much dubplate culture in action

the riddim's defo not getting a release, spooky played it on his deja vu show the next week but i don't think it's gonna be getting many more plays. he's not gonna give it away, that's it. it was the archetypal dubplate, made for the dancehall.

mp3 made that easier. dubplate culture isn't gonna die any time soon and lives irrespectively of music format

[koncide]

couple of weeks ago for the bandulu003 launch party oh91 posted a picture of a zip he'd been sent by spooky containing a bunch of refixes of bristol grime tracks.

biggest was the spooky refix of tron (joker). there's a vid of oh91 drawing for it and it shelling down the dance.

that's pretty much dubplate culture in action

the riddim's defo not getting a release, spooky played it on his deja vu show the next week but i don't think it's gonna be getting many more plays. he's not gonna give it away, that's it. it was the archetypal dubplate, made for the dancehall.

mp3 made that easier. dubplate culture isn't gonna die any time soon and lives irrespectively of music format

Rare music regardless of medium will always attract attention