Imagine playing Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, drifting along with the playful exchanges between wind and strings in the opening...feeling the accelerating tension sweep through you and continue along like an emotional butterfly, all as fluid as thought. Play this enchantment upon the average American pop-listener and he'll tell you, HARDER. I want to feel that precious butterfly CONVULSING INSIDE OF ME.
The story of electronic music in America has gone similarly awry. Beside the venues of trashy nightclubs and sporadic “raves,” electronic music is widely dismissed as “Eurotrash” and seems to be just another misunderstood subculture. However, there is one form that appears to be gaining mainstream popularity in the Western world. Dubstep, the queer form of electronic dance music, has been gaining commercial success in the States, even recognized by the 2012 Grammy awards. However, this adaption of electronic is becoming a satire of what originally started in the UK. As we see electronic music slowly crown its head here in America, it's curious to wonder why it's spent decades on the fringe. What is to be said about our appropriated version of the European custom and how does that reflect our society?
Electronic music has a young, albeit dynamic history. Pioneered primarily as an art form with the message of nonstop dancing, it gradually developed into a multitude of genres and subgenres, some of which are still tastefully respected, some are not. But any music to be considered art requires some knowledge for comprehension and appreciation. It's like looking at a piece of fabric- what one sees as a bunch of fibers, a skilled eye will notice how tightly the fibers are bound, how nicely they blend, how durable yet soft they are. Modern electronic music has been fabric that's too avant-garde for America until recently.
Laymen are usually turned off by the element of repetition, but when looked at from different angles, there's incredibly complex patterns and tonal sequences to be noticed. Many pull from classical influences that aid to take you down a melodic journey. I'm not sure if it has the clout to stand next to Beethoven, but there are interesting nuances and intelligent structures that can easily go unnoticed. This new dubstep doesn’t seem interested in paying homage or advancing the rich, soulful history of some of its predecessors. Instead, it’s threatening music that was celebrated for complexity, not how quickly your eardrums are annihilated.
Laymen are usually turned off by the element of repetition, but when looked at from different angles, there's incredibly complex patterns and tonal sequences to be noticed. Many pull from classical influences that aid to take you down a melodic journey. I'm not sure if it has the clout to stand next to Beethoven, but there are interesting nuances and intelligent structures that can easily go unnoticed. This new dubstep doesn’t seem interested in paying homage or advancing the rich, soulful history of some of its predecessors. Instead, it’s threatening music that was celebrated for complexity, not how quickly your eardrums are annihilated.
Considered by in large the black sheep of electronic music, American dubstep has online communities ranting. Traditionally beginning in South London, dubstep was originally recognized by its dominating bass and layers of synthesizers. However, the sound that has evolved is often referred to as aggressive robot mating calls. It's like androids screaming in your face relentlessly. This has left a bad taste of disdain in the mouths of the community, along with many other confused listeners. They’ve even given it a cute pet name, BROstep, in obvious attempt to stress we do not agree with this shit.
Americanizing culture is an eternal concept that’s contributed to the unflattering stereotype of lazy, simple-minded people only concerned with money. Sadly though, our tenacity to take something of meaning and then strip it bare, water it down and exploit it for money has sort of made us accountable. Bred under capitalism, the American music industry is only concerned with one thing, profit maximization. Music must produce mass commercial interest and attract the widest audience possible to survive. What results is a standardized structure: obsessively repetitive rhythms, manipulated effects and reverberating bass, all woefully drenched in 4/4 meter. Contrarily, Europe has leniency to focus on formal structure, sonic properties and theories about sound. There's more of a luxury to explore the intellectual areas of their music. European music is usually more artistically involved, opening thoughts for criticism and demanding focused attention. It’s art. So here we have a frank display of where two societies go with their ideas of music and art. On one hand, we have droning robots that exasperate the ear with belligerent bass lines and drops while, on the other hand, there’s popular music with subtle patterns between spacey atmospheres and thoughtful melodies.
Our society likes things harder, faster and easier. The ramifications of this highly produced stimulation are self-evident. It’s undeniable that the modern attention span is worse than a gnat’s, that “immediate gratification” isn’t fast enough and the remaining traces of creativity left are being channeled to advancing technology and advertisement-fueling the source to this miserly cycle. So the million dollar question remains, is dubstep popular because it reflects our innate behavior; sociologically representing us as we are? Or are we being sculpted by the PR firms and cultural taste-makers of the media, becoming lazy and passive from the lack of refined art and higher levels of thinking?
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