Skrillex: Is it Dubstep?
An Observation and Commentary on Modern Genres
Alright, this may be a tad more rant than post. But in my
day to day life, I hear people that consider themselves music aficionados
referring to Skrillex as belong to the Dubstep genre.
Before I proceed, I feel I need to acknowledge that in
today’s society, musical genre is subjective at the end of the day. Though
certain genres have specific transgressions and conventions which are followed
by artists (intentionally or not, there tends to be a well-defined pattern);
this is not seen in just EDM subgenres, but in near every genre (and
subgenre…and sub-subgenre, and so on).
And thus, I shall begin my justification for why I believe
that Skrillex is not, in fact, Dubstep.
Firstly, one must take into account that Dubstep is far from
new. It may shock some that original, classic Dubstep was actually derived from
Garage, Drum ‘n’ Bass, and Reggae music. It initially began (so it is told) in
Croydon, located in South London as an ‘underground’ genre. Gigs would consist
of several people (at this point in time, Dubstep was very much a male
dominated genre, in regards to both artists and listeners) gathered around the
artist, not only acknowledging the music produced, but the process in which an
artist would go about to create such sound.
Unfortunately, modern Dubstep and other ‘steps’ (Chillstep,
Brostep, and so on) do not hold the artist process in such high regard. While
certain listeners will acknowledge and appreciate the creative process an
artist has gone through, casual listeners do not pay nearly as much attention
as what was formerly the case.
The gigs would be performed in clubs with fantastic grade
sound systems, with subwoofers that would make a one salivate in jealousy. It
is fabled that, due to these great
sound systems in addition to the original extremely low frequency bass they
would produce, people would actually vomit from the vibrations hitting their
stomach. (citation needed!)
Dubstep also has specific transgressions and elements which
are held true to the genre, and these are genre specifics that are not held and
followed by Skrillex. To be truly technical, Skrillex belongs more closely to a
genre known as ‘Brostep’.
Skrillex does not have the low bass that traditional Dubstep
does, but instead has a slightly higher sound, much easier to listen to in
cheaper head/earphones. Brostep tends to be designed to be heard via cheaper
output devices (Apple earphones and such) rather than studio headphones or
proper stereo speakers (with subwoofers).
To conclude, Skrillex (while being a fantastic musical
artist who, despite common misconception does work hard on his music) is not
actually Dubstep, but instead belongs more to the genre of Brostep.
I will leave you all with a couple of links for you to
listen to and compare, enjoy!
Here we have some more traditional sounding Dubstep by Skream.
And to contrast, here is some of Skrillex's lesser known Brostep.
Keep it wubbin’,
Kat.
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