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Of Dubstep and DJs

Published: Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012 12:01

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The day after Thanksgiving, I attended a concert featuring headliner Breathe Carolina, as well as two supporting acts I had never be­fore heard of. One in particular, Big Choco­late, was especially intriguing. Introducing himself as "an American music producer," he clicked a button on his Mac and proceeded to head-bang for the entire set.

I should precede the rest of this article by saying that I have a very eclectic palate when it comes to music. Though I primarily write about the comparatively obscure rock and metal genres (as I seem to have cornered that market among both Maroon-News staff­ers and the Colgate community at large), I listen to everything from rap to R&B, coun­try to classical. Even the precious few genres I generally dislike – instrumental jazz and blues among them – are musical endeav­ors for which I have nothing but respect. Surprisingly, the one genre that I not only outwardly loathe but have little regard for, however, is dubstep.

When I say "dubstep," I am referring not to the genre in its purest form, but to the many fine-line derivations thereof, as well as any kind of music that is entirely or almost entirely computer-generated and created by a DJ. It's not that I don't like elements of elec­tronica (I was at the aforementioned concert to see Breathe Carolina, after all) but I find that not only does every song sound the same – grating – but seems accompanied by a holi­er-than-thou attitude from the self-described "artist" who gave it birth.

As someone who not only has tremendous respect for musicians, and a flautist myself, I find it incredibly offensive to true artists that DJs demand the same approbation. It takes a lot of guts to put yourself out there and per­form, especially if you lack musical talent. But from what I can tell, all DJs lack said talent; in my opinion, dubstep sounds like something any five-year-old could put together if left alone to toy with Garage Band. And the result of that, unsurprisingly, is considerably less than musi­cally appealing. If a DJ has real talent, he should prove it. He should create something using le­gitimate musical elements and/or instruments and perform it, at least in part, himself. (And yes, I am aware of Skrillex's previous work with From First to Last, but for the purposes of this article, I am referring to his more recent solo pursuits.) The attitude becomes even more in­sulting when a DJ requests equal credit simply for remixing another artist's song; isn't that akin to praising oneself for butchering another's art?

I know that dubstep has its place in the club, though I'm not sure of the justifica­tion for that either. What happened to the heyday of dance-pop and electronica (al­beit with live-music elements)? Why have Deadmau5 and Skrillex eclipsed the overall much more popular (and talented) Lady GaGa as the party music of choice?

Though music does, of course, have a technical definition, I define it for myself in a broader way: aside from having one or more live-music (i.e. non-computer-generated) elements, I must, even if I do not like the music myself, understand on some minute level how someone else could possibly like it. And to me, dubstep not only fits those criteria on a song-by-song basis, but as an entire genre. Add to that the fact that everything sounds the same – including the song and album titles (com­pare Skrillex's "More Monsters and Sprites" to Deadmau5's "Moar Ghosts N Stuff") – and the case against dubstep becomes even more compelling.

So am I crazy for taking a genre inexplica­bly beloved by my peers (and current youth culture) and deeming it noise instead of mu­sic? Perhaps. But after enduring a uniform-sounding set by Big Chocolate, what should have been a valuable opportunity for the per­former (I cannot in good conscience say "art­ist") to win new fans not only confirmed all my prior biases, but strengthened them. And until I find a redeeming quality buried with­in the robotic basslines, synth and screeches, I'll continue to count being alive as a central component of live music.

Contact Alanna Weissman at

aweissman@colgate.edu.

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3 comments

Anonymous
Fri Jan 27 2012 21:35
This article comes out every year, congrats on being the one to write it this year. I DJ and don't consider a DJ a musician. The thing is playing electronic music live is simply impossible, that's just the nature of the music. You can't just get up there with a guitar and drums and what not and play electronic music, so obviously they're just going to be up there and mix pre-recorded songs. Electronic music isn't something people sit around and think about how technically brilliant it is, it's all about the feeling. I've been at shows when a DJ drops a song and the energy that pulses through the crowd at that moment blows the energy of any rap, indie, rock show out of the water. Yes, the sounds coming out of the speakers may not be as technically brilliant as Mozart, but the energy that comes with those sounds is what it's all about. Maybe I'll save this comment somewhere so I can just copy and paste it into the freshmen's article who writes this next year. Please don't bitch about something you don't understand, and please don't write an article about it.
Me You and Us
Fri Jan 27 2012 14:54
Alana doesnt seem to understand the difference between a DJ and a producer. in fact, she doesn't seem to understand much about electronic music or its production, which is a shame because she writes with authority and conviction. I wish she had done a bit more homework with this article. It's one thing to critique dubstep from a personal point of view. I, for one, find its sound abhorrent. But it is a totally different thing to cast a dragnet across all electronic music and mischaracterize it.
Matt Gibson
Fri Jan 27 2012 13:09
Deadmau5 has funded the building of the largest and most complex synthesizer in the world. When using this synthesizer to produce music he is capable of making a larger variety of sounds and recording them than anyone ever in the history of music. If he can conceive of a sound, there is a good chance that he can bring it to life, that has never ever been musically possible before. We are coming into an age where the spectrum of sounds artists can create with technology has eclipsed the spectrum possible acoustically and better yet, this spectrum is theoretically available to anyone who can afford a high end production program. This isn't to say that this person could produce them (as I address later, production of Electronic music is much harder than you seem to think it is in your article), but this means that more people now have the possibility to express themselves creatively. As for your garage band comment, I don't see how someone who claims that they love music so much could be so comfortable with ignorantly dismissing a genre as capable of being "produced by a five-year old" when the top EDM producers such as Wolfgang Gartner, Nero, and Deadmau5 all have extensive musical backgrounds and put hundreds of hours in programs like Logic and Ableton live to produce something as simple as a bassline for their music. All these noises aren't "sound banked" on a computer somewhere, the artists have to create them themselves and thus develop specific styles. You also confuse production with DJ'ing, they aren't the same thing. DJ'ing is the art of beat-matching by ear one song to another song, manipulating the levels of the music, and using effects to create artful transitions between songs. Learning how to DJ by ear well enough to put on a festival show can take thousands of hours of practice-time and the reason you see so many artists pressing play on a lap top or not DJ'ing by ear is because they aren't good enough to do is at as DJ because they AREN'T DJ's. If you see an artist "pressing play," think of it less of a live show and more of a museum exhibition because the artist produced a great set, usually with artful transitions in the studio, and is now exhibiting it to his/her fans. As for Dubstep, it isn't everyones cup of tea, I admit. But the whompy ridiculous sounding music you hear in frats or at the jug are designed for drunk people to bang their heads to. If you want artistic/melodic dubstep, listen to Nero, Chase & Status, Skream, and pretty much any Skrillex that isn't "Scary Monster's and Nice Sprites" (his new album), you'll find a great variety of sound. Usually, I'm fine with people expressing opinions that are different from mine, but this one seemed so informed by ignorance, misconception, and some crappy Dubstep producer I've never heard of called "Big Chocolate" that I had to say something. Rant over.






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