Dubstep in Academia?

[invaderzim]

My friend is looking for academic literature about dubstep. I told her she should check out Steve Goodman's (aka Kode9) book Sonic Warfare: Sound Affect and the Ecology of Fear but am wondering if there are any other academic books with references to dubstep or similar music. Any suggestions?

[dickman69]

was gonna suggest that book, only 1 i know of

best bet imo would probably be to check out those red bull interviews & the like

[invaderzim]

which red bull interviews in particular? Kode9 ones?

[ehbes]

I liked addi grooves

[Func]

Doubt there's anything on dubstep. Might be able to find something on UK Garage though, best bet would be to look at Dub music

If you're looking at Red Bull interviews look a the one with Mala, Artwork and anyone who's been involved since the beginning.

[alphacat]

"All Crews" is on jungle/DnB, but really informative in documenting how British bass music evolved up until the late nineties;

"Dub" is SERIOUSLY academic (author's an ethnomusicologist) to the point of being just a bit dry at times, but still invaluably educational (honestly, you could teach a college course on the history of dub with that book as the sole text);

"People Funny Boy" is an extraordinarily detailed, huge, and very entertaining read about the godfather of Dub (and great uncle of Dubstep), Lee "Scratch" Perry and how Jamaican music has evolved over the last 60+ years. I learned more about Jamaican music from the first 100 pages than anywhere else in the rest of my life put together. Covers the spread of dub sounds from Kingston to London and their subsequent mutations.

None of these are explicitly 'bout dubstep, but all of them provide excellent academic references for the core aesthetics/philosophy.

Simon Reynolds' essays might also be a good read along these lines. You may not always agree with the man but he knows his stuff.

[ariosa]

which red bull interviews in particular? Kode9 ones?

The one with mala convinced me to try using reason and got me a lot more into producing.

[nerve]

"All Crews" is on jungle/DnB, but really informative in documenting how British bass music evolved up until the late nineties;

"Dub" is SERIOUSLY academic (author's an ethnomusicologist) to the point of being just a bit dry at times, but still invaluably educational (honestly, you could teach a college course on the history of dub with that book as the sole text);

"People Funny Boy" is an extraordinarily detailed, huge, and very entertaining read about the godfather of Dub (and great uncle of Dubstep), Lee "Scratch" Perry and how Jamaican music has evolved over the last 60+ years. I learned more about Jamaican music from the first 100 pages than anywhere else in the rest of my life put together. Covers the spread of dub sounds from Kingston to London and their subsequent mutations.

None of these are explicitly 'bout dubstep, but all of them provide excellent academic references for the core aesthetics/philosophy.

Simon Reynolds' essays might also be a good read along these lines. You may not always agree with the man but he knows his stuff.

I've just recently begun reading Veal's book on dub and, with all of his references to Katz's works, I wanted to look into one of his books sometime. Thanks for the recommendations.

[alphacat]

No worries. I had "People Funny Boy" on my to-read pile for a long time and was put off by how huge it was, but as usually happens wound up wishing I'd read it sooner.

Really educational, highly readable, always enlightening and entertaining (I mean, how can you not be entertaining talking about Scratch? Man's a character!) Also interesting is the extent to which African cultural practices survived directly in Jamaica as opposed to America where the deculturization campaign was much more successful. We never had large, successful Maroon colonies to speak of in America that lasted or had much impact outside their immediate locale; Jamaica did. That shit is crazy and really interesting to me.

[ultraspatial]

Sonic Warfare isn't about dubstep though. There's one paragraph mentioning it.

[pompende]

No worries. I had "People Funny Boy" on my to-read pile for a long time and was put off by how huge it was, but as usually happens wound up wishing I'd read it sooner.

Really educational, highly readable, always enlightening and entertaining (I mean, how can you not be entertaining talking about Scratch? Man's a character!) Also interesting is the extent to which African cultural practices survived directly in Jamaica as opposed to America where the deculturization campaign was much more successful. We never had large, successful Maroon colonies to speak of in America that lasted or had much impact outside their immediate locale; Jamaica did. That shit is crazy and really interesting to me.

neat! that sounds like a pretty awesome book. I'm assuming it touches on the maroon colony stuff?
i am always interested in "sub" cultures ... and i often feel like something truly fucked happened with musical heritage in america .

love your new sig btw mang

[mrdii]

Doubt there's much writing on the subject if honest, seeing as the entire genre is fairly new in musical terms, I assume the more it matures, the more content/incentive on writing about it will emerge...until then.

[alphacat]

No worries. I had "People Funny Boy" on my to-read pile for a long time and was put off by how huge it was, but as usually happens wound up wishing I'd read it sooner.

Really educational, highly readable, always enlightening and entertaining (I mean, how can you not be entertaining talking about Scratch? Man's a character!) Also interesting is the extent to which African cultural practices survived directly in Jamaica as opposed to America where the deculturization campaign was much more successful. We never had large, successful Maroon colonies to speak of in America that lasted or had much impact outside their immediate locale; Jamaica did. That shit is crazy and really interesting to me.

neat! that sounds like a pretty awesome book. I'm assuming it touches on the maroon colony stuff?
i am always interested in "sub" cultures ... and i often feel like something truly fucked happened with musical heritage in america .

love your new sig btw mang

Oh yeah - it talks specifically about which traditions from which African groups survived in what form in various parts of Jamaica - the Maroon colony stuff, the development of Burru drumming from Ashanti roots, the preservation of Junkunu harvest festival dances from the Yoruba and Ettu spirit possession dances from the Edo - and a topic I've always been really interested in since I saw "Rockers" but have never been able to track down much information for, Pukumina drumming.

America's musical heritage is interesting to me because despite the heavy repression/brutality, what was it that shone through and survived and influenced and ultimately became the soundtrack of the slaves' captors' grandchildrens' lives? Why, African music of course! Nice irony there. The force of the repression backfired and turned into even stronger musical forms IMO.

The Jamaican musical tradition is really low key and folksy until post WWII, when some key technological innovations fell into the hands of the few recording engineers originally on the island - that's when it really exploded and mutated rapidly from Calypso/Mento and R&B/Jazz hybrids into ska, rocksteady, reggae, dancehall, and into the future. Both Veal's book and the Perry book talk about the influence of American black music on Jamaican forms. For instance, one account of the origin of "Skank" as a sound was an interpretation of the sound of American boogie-woogie broadcasts from the mainland that weren't fully reaching Jamaican radios and caused every other downbeat to get lost in static...

Re: Sig - thanks man!

[test_recordings]

`Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King ` is also pretty interesting; though the title might make you think it`s mostly about reggae there`s massive amounts of content about how the sound systems started, the general culture and society of Jamaica that blended with the music scene, the change from American imports to home-grown material, and so on. Worth reading even if just to cross-check facts (which you damned should be if you`re doing it seriously)

[seckle]

"All Crews" is on jungle/DnB, but really informative in documenting how British bass music evolved up until the late nineties;

great book

[topmo3]

this one guy in the forum said sometime that he's making a dubstop book, wonder if its done already

[wub]

this one guy in the forum said sometime that he's making a dubstop book, wonder if its done already

http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=231750

[invaderzim]

brilliant replies, thanks for all the advice guys, i think my friend will be very happy i might try and get her to link the essay when she's done if any of you are interested...it's on the ' module "soundscapes" which pretty much examines the history of music in the media context. But when it comes to the assignment we pretty much can write about anything music related'