DUMBSTEP

Right off the bat, let me make some things clear: I like dubstep. And I don’t mean the old-school, true dubstep – I mean the Skrillexes and Neros of dubstepdom, the most commercial, watered down kind. I love the sound of aliens farting and transformers mating – to me, dubstep feels like an electronic version of a metal breakdown. Hell, Skrillex’s Scary Monsters pretty much helped me write my graduation thesis. But I think now is the time to also admit it:

I am beginning to hate dubstep.

Why, you ask? There is two parts to the answer. Lets split it.

ITS REALLY NOT THAT INTERESTING – The type of dubstep I’m talking about is actually a fairly straightforward deal. You have some more or less melodic, electronic riff and then WHAM! At one point the aliens begin to fart you have this pfatt, head-bobbing breakdown. Aaaand that’s about it. No more, no less. While the melodies can be more or less entertaining, and the breakdowns headbang-worthy – that’s all there is to it. There is not that much difference between songs: cue melody, commence transformer sex, end. Unlike drum’n’bass, a genre also based almost solely around one gimmick, namely the Amen break, dubstep really DOES get old real fast.

                                                                  A visual representation of dubstep.

IT. IS. EVERYWHERE! – And I mean everywhere. Don’t believe me? Pay attention – artists of almost every genre are ramming dubstep breakdowns in their music. Everything from pop and r’n’b artists such as Britney or Rihanna to metal acts are in on it. Korn even made an entire dubstep album. A pop metal bend decides to cover a Cher song…and then sticks a dubstep breakdown for the hell of it. The coup-de-grass came to me in the form of MUSE, a band whose ''sold out'' status I've been admittedly hesitant about, chucking a motherfucking DUBSTEP breakdown in their new single. NOW MUSE ARE MAKING DUBSTEP SONGS??!?! WHAT.THE.FUCK.

 

                                     We are a non-conformist rebel opera rock group that fights international conspiracies. 

                                                                           Also, please listen to our new dubstep single..

When you combine the fact even I can only take so much formulaic music (bye bye 90% of metalcore!) and the fact I loathe mindless adoption of trends, my love of dubstep seems to be nearing its end. I think its time from me to step away from dubstep in the same way you’d step away from a big, fat chocolate cake…It was nice to get a bite, but now I am getting stuffed. Soon, I might puke.