Is my love affair with dubstep over?

[notez_]

I went to Bloc over the weekend and had a wicked time. Only one thing bothered me though, I found Benga and Skream's set, in a really weird way,boring. The crowd was going wild but I had just seen flying lotus the other night and had been completely blown away by him, his set was just incredible, every tune creative and completely original and all, at the same time, massive dancefloor killers. A lot of the tunes i heard heard from skream and benga ii'd already heard on the radio and the rest, i hate to say it, just sounded like the tunes i had heard on the radio. I know im talking about two of the biggest heads in dubstep and don't get me wrong, Ive been buying benga and skream for a long time and i havnt missed many releases, Skream! was a huge release and so has bengas latest ones, but for some reason now i just cant get as excited about a new skream tune than say a new pangaea, dmz or ramadanman dubplate.

Another disturbing thing is that now when people ask what kind of music I'm into i don't like saying dubstep because everytime i say it i cant help thinking of all this shit on youtube and all the mounting crap i have to sift through when i go record shopping. There's also that fact that so many people are now running around skreaming for some more midrange wobble step without the faintest clue who digital mystikz or kode9 are so when you say, yea I'm a dubstep lover (or whatever) you get immediately associated with these guys who in a year or so are going to be listening to the next big thing. Lately, i find myself just naming a few labels or artists instead.

Am i alone? not just in relation to benga and skream, but in general? Am i just an elitist tnuc who cant appreciate the scene getting bigger and bigger, i mean i started off not knowing who dmz or kode9 were but i wasnt just shoving tonnes of youtube rips off inspector dubplate onto my ipod and i was always searching through the internet looking up any of the artists i stumbled upon listening to fabriclive 37 or the dubstep allstars series. I admit, however, my horizons and knowledge were only really significantly broadened when i started buying vinyl and over the years my appreciation for the more experimental labels has grown and grown but i never considered buying cdjs and just ripping any old tune off youtube and burning it onto cd saying things like "this shit is filthier than your mum" ect. ect. Am i wrong to think this? Am i right? (and yea, i know, this thread has got a lot of potential to turn into one of those threads that just consists of endless argument)

[1017_duck]

I feel the same way sometimes. when an "anthem" like 'sweet shop' or 'when I look at you' gets wheeled or even played more than once, it irritates me. I have love for some of that style, so I'm not coming at it from the IDM cack angle (lol, new brostep? ). But some of these wobblers getting play from some big names haven't got me too excited...

I'd rather a root canal than sit through 'I Remember..' or 'In for the kill' one more time...

[sigbowls]

this is the first time ive herd this other then kp mike

[gravity]

you are into the music rather than the scene

therefore you want to hear new and interesting stuff

and its there btw, your just not likely to hear it at big raves and what have you

especially if you go to see skream and benga

most people 'into' dubstep are more into the scene, particularly as its the new cool thing (well, has been for a while really), so are more into going to raves, hearing the big tunes, and then listening to them, rather than exploring the possibilities of the genre

[fractal]

Mine isn't... There's a lot of crap out there right now, but there's also a lot of great shit going on right now, in all styles of dubstep

the sounds of: Fantastic mr fox, scuba, Jamie vexd, James Blake, mount kimbie, starkey, mala, raffertie, gemmy, joker, guido, Noah d, terror danjah, Addison groove, kryptic minds, Von d, burial, ginz, ikonika, untold, skreams latest on swamp81 and keysound, zomby, coki, joy orbison, sully, el-b, ld, lv, pervelists, hyetal, and 2562 just to name a tiny few are killing it right now, imho

sounds like you just went to a bad show, I was a Shackleton show a couple weeks back that totally revived my belief in both the music and our local dance community here... The floor was going off!

[skitz_0]

the sounds of: Fantastic mr fox, scuba, Jamie vexd, James Blake, mount kimbie, starkey, mala, raffertie, gemmy, joker, guido, Noah d, terror danjah, Addison groove, kryptic minds, Von d, burial, ginz, ikonika, untold, skreams latest on swamp81 and keysound, zomby, coki, joy orbison, sully, el-b, ld, lv, pervelists, hyetal, and 2562 just to name a tiny few are killing it right now, imho

[brasco]

the sounds of: Fantastic mr fox, scuba, Jamie vexd, James Blake, mount kimbie, starkey, mala, raffertie, gemmy, joker, guido, Noah d, terror danjah, Addison groove, kryptic minds, Von d, burial, ginz, ikonika, untold, skreams latest on swamp81 and keysound, zomby, coki, joy orbison, sully, el-b, ld, lv, pervelists, hyetal, and 2562 just to name a tiny few are killing it right now, imho

KEEP THE FAITH.

[Pistonsbeneath]

i feel like dubstep is full and should be locked down...too many people are hurting it by crowding themselves into it and all they want to do is wreck the place with the dumbest violence imaginable

[Funk Eh]

Either Skream and Benga set the standard or they follow the standard, but in any case they are the standard... they sound like pretty much anything else you'll here out there. Just the way it is man.

You said you like Fly Lo. Some of it is great, most of it is utter trash. Just keep looking and listening to what you like and who cares what it's called.

[notez_]

the sounds of: Fantastic mr fox, scuba, Jamie vexd, James Blake, mount kimbie, starkey, mala, raffertie, gemmy, joker, guido, Noah d, terror danjah, Addison groove, kryptic minds, Von d, burial, ginz, ikonika, untold, skreams latest on swamp81 and keysound, zomby, coki, joy orbison, sully, el-b, ld, lv, pervelists, hyetal, and 2562 just to name a tiny few are killing it right now, imho

[shambandito]

the sounds of: Fantastic mr fox, scuba, Jamie vexd, James Blake, mount kimbie, starkey, mala, raffertie, gemmy, joker, guido, Noah d, terror danjah, Addison groove, kryptic minds, Von d, burial, ginz, ikonika, untold, skreams latest on swamp81 and keysound, zomby, coki, joy orbison, sully, el-b, ld, lv, pervelists, hyetal, and 2562 just to name a tiny few are killing it right now, imho

[finkthast]

has it spilt into two camps. progressive natured electronic headz and new-skool rave heads.

the first lot will make/listen too/appreciate music that has new sounds but influences that could come from any point in the "arcore num" and contain use of space, percussive ryhthms and often stylistic nods to other moments or scenes in electronic music, where as the other camp is mostly just looking for a uber charged version of the sound that broke around 07/08 with maybe influences from jumpupDnB, Metal, films, electro and drugs?

I'm aware that that maybe over simplification but it could also be the truth and even a generation gap may be a factor. Pretty nuts really.

Also, is it possible to judge the level to which supply and demand effects the output of a scene/artistic group and apparent popularity of that art/product?!!

[Acre]

i do get what you mean, recently when i've been saying to people that i like dubstep they treat it like i'm just into some passing fad and they tell me that i'll be listening to something else in a few months
this does piss me off abit because i've been into dubstep since around 2006 but i'm much more into the deeper stuff these days and i dont see any sign of me throwing in the towel especially since theres been so much good stuff coming out recently. But i have distanced myself from the whole wobble kind of stuff, i guess it just gets tired. . . to me dubstep has always been a genre that was free to interpretation in the way pretty much any genre could get mixed up and experimented with and it would still be dubstep, i'm starting to see less of this happening with the "Jump Up" side of dubstep and more people who don't know what their talking about saying people like Shackleton aren't dubstep then saying listen to some Datsik which i guess is just depressing

[Mr. Mittens]

You can't have something cool without people finding out about it. Generally speaking, the more people that find out about it, the less cool it becomes, forcing innovators to do something else cool. But people will just wind up copying that too...

As long as certain heads are doing their thing my passion for this music will be alive and well. Swamp81 just got started for goodness sake...

[spydee]

without going off into a rant or a debate....

ye the excitement levels are dropping, mainly for the sets i hear at raves. like sumone said already, when they rinse an anthem and wheel it a million times it can get a bit dull. maybe the tune rotation is slowing down and sets arent staying as fresh and as "dub"-full as they used to, or maybe we just listen too much and the rotation is still fresh for heads just gettin into dubstep.

as long as the general scene maintains the dubplate culture and producers push for originality, then theres always gonna be some excitement there. its just more diluted now because of the inflation the genre has experienced.

[kwun-tings]

you know what notez, i think you've hit the nail on the head. well.. from the way i see it anyways. i wanted to post this a couple weeks ago but i was afraid my balls would've been nailed to the wall.

i makes me kinda angry when you ask someone 'into' dubstep who they like and they just stream off artists like borgore, excision, funtcase, cookie monsta etc. i mean dont get me wrong, i have a lot of respect for these guys cos they have pretty much gone global and thats more than i could ever do. but its just the same tear out bullshit over and over, it just sounds all the same. i used to go to a dubstep rave and leave with my ribcage crushed from all the ridiculous sub-bass. now most of the time i just leave with a horrible ringing in my ears from all the squeeky, chainsawy noises.

i cant totally agree with you about on the skream and benga front tho. benga's tunes are so so sick, and skreams doing a lot of different stuff which is a nice, like his recent releases sweetz, killa sound remix and kinky.. 3 very different styles of dubstep.

i totally agree with the point that there are many people in a rave just for the 'scene'. many people go just to get fucked up on drink, pills, ket and the ever more popular mephedrone. i cant say that im a saint and never touched the stuff but ive seen past that now. for me, i am there purely for the music (except for maybe a few pints).

i think that my point of view is exemplified by the DMZ's 5th birthday just gone.
i try to reach every dmz possible, but due to university i havent been able to make it as often as i wish. i remember the first DMZ i went to in 2006 and i was just fucking amazed by the atmosphere. everybody was so nice, the people were from all sorts of backgrounds. i vividly recall a group of businessmen and a married couple in their 40's! No beef with anyone, just there for the music and for a good time.
Then at the 5th birthday, i realised its become slightly pretentious, if i may call it that. there are many people there just because dubstep is 'cool' and worst of all a fight broke out in the 2nd room during oneman and joy orbison. i mean COME ON! the lights came on and security kicked out the group.

but later on, walking down the stairs, a lad (who i assume was in the fight) got bottled in the back of the head. blood pissed everywhere and the attacker ran off. the guy was left pretty much unconscious until a bouncer dragged him outside.

now, to me that is just upsetting. i used to fucking LOVE DMZ, but i feel that dubstep has got so big it is drawing in the wrong type of crowd...

but anyways, rant over. thats my 2 pence.

[oski]

take a few weeks listening to other stuff or older stuff then POW everything's new again

[spydee]

^^^ye man i definately agree with you about DMZ.

the first one i went to was 3rd bday, and even tho it was probably drawing a bigger crowd then compared to like when you went in 06, the atmosphere in there literally amazed me and was a natural euphoria if there ever was one, as cliched as it sounds.

but the 5th bday was a more aggy crowd and even tho i didnt see any trouble it just didnt feel like everyone fully knew about how dmz is "done" for a lack of better words. i aint got nuffin against the crowd being younger, or being on a mash up...but dmz is what it says on the tin, a place to meditate on bass weight...but some of these people wernt even thinkin about that and seemed to just be looking for the next mental wobble to twitch and mosh to. that community vibe and intimacy wasnt really present like it has been for past nights.

im nt gna be bothered tho, cos its just a bit petty to moan over and people should be free to enjoy themselves to dubstep however they feel. but its definately a noticeable feature.

it was inevitable tho given the growth of dubstep.

[WatchYourStep]

Just imagine what Techno fans must go through.

(Techno = in the public's eye)

[misshin]

Just imagine what Techno fans must go through.

(Techno = in the public's eye)

Go on holiday....come back and you'll be sweet