Are you angry yet?
I’m not annoyed by any individual dubstep song. Even that such a word exists hardly bothers me. The premise of a singular sound that an artist pigeonholes himself into does irritate me to no end, but that runs in every genre from the very real Flanders Recorder Quartet on up to Dimmu Borgir.
I’m also amused. I was old enough in the 1980s to remember that brand of heavy metal. I always knew the sound had roots in my parent’s generation yet was somehow made dumber. I listened anyway.
Hair metal was almost manufactured to be extremely accessible. The drum beats were spaced out from each other but played hard (ie, Twisted Sister, RATT, Quiet Riot). Basslines could frequently consist of very few notes so long as the rhythm was intact (Falling to Pieces by Faith No more). Everything else was played aggressively, and the quality of lyrics was a joke. Those bands followed paths blazed by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Cheap Trick and Jimi Hendrix.
Hair metal looked like sheer stupidity to our parents, who had seen masters of the craft also step forward to pioneer the sound. As all popular music should, to be honest.
Dubstep does all of these same things. Sure, there aren’t five guys in leather chaps parading around a stage any more. A lot of these guys look like nerds when you can even see them from behind their gadgets and/or masks.
Yet, dubstep comes on the heels of acts like Moby, the Crystal Method and the Prodigy, who in turn followed the likes of Thomas Dolby and Gary Numan. Older fans of electronica listen to this stuff with the same disbelief that our Hendrix-loving parents felt listening to Cinderella.
Dubstep has also set aside the work of electronica’s forefathers in favor of producing electronic cock rock. There are long passages between the drums, overly simplified bass rhythms and distorted melodies. The tools are different but the method remains the same.
Do you think this is false? Imagine, then, the rhythm section of a 1980s heavy metal band has been asked to cover a Skrillex song. Are the drums going to be that difficult for the heavy metal star? Does the bass player need to do much more than bend a string rhythmically? Can’t you even imagine the keyboard player frantically looking for the “Atari Dropped in Bourbon” patch on his instrument?
Close your eyes. Picture that scene and imagine what happens after the drummer counts out the rhythm. One. Two. Three. Four. It’s not hard to imagine at all.
Dubstep has also achieved the honor of angering this generation’s parents. We’re wondering why we waited for Fatboy Slim to fall off the map if you were just going to replace him with this crap.
My congratulations to the new generation of music fans. They actually remade hair metal in their own image without blatantly aping this long-dead trend. You’re even pissing off your parents in interesting ways.
You did such a great job that you even fooled yourselves. Keep up the good work.
He has worked as a level designer for a small online video game, as the grim reaper in a haunted house, and traded web design for concert tickets and tattoos.In years past, he could be found performing improvised comedy or stage magic in the south side of Austin, Texas.
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