The Non-Edge
Posted on February 23rd, 2012
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 2:30 pm
So, as I recently tweeted, I was in a McDonalds the other day and heard a Skrillex song. Now, unlike a lot of other people, I don’t really take issue with Dubstep nor Brostep nor the influence they’ve exuded on other genres. It’s cool to hear HipHop pick up on it, and while it feels weird to have Dubstep breakdowns in Pop songs, it’s adding sonic diversity to the mainstream. Even in the underground music scene, the Brostep sound specifically has back flooded into other electronic genres like Dutch House and Moombahton. The resulting fusions, while perhaps being latched by listeners to the exclusion of the the source genres, do ultimately draw new ears into Electronic music as a whole. That said, even though I had a blast of time seeing Skrillex and Dillion Francis dj an afterparty last October, I know it was anything but subversive even at that point, at least amongst peers in my age group. It was good to be introduced to Moombahton and get reacquainted with EDM as whole since I’ve not been able to keep as in the loop in university, but it’s not like anyone I attend university with anyone didn’t already know what Dubstep was back then. In fact, I remember playing with Dubstep influences in my own remix work in 2009, and back then I was worried I was being a bit derivative.
Oddly enough, it’s probably the older genres in the Electronic music family tree that have maintained a greater distance from mainstream success. For example, little tinges of Drum n’ Bass have popped up in on an occaision, but even in Drum n’ Bass’ birthplace of the UK, there wasn’t a number one single from the genre until recently, and it’s essentially a pop song with a Dn’B underpinning. While mainstream pop basically all sounds like what being spun at Ibiza about decade ago, the more progressive forms of House, Trance and Techno are still largely a club and rave phenomenon. Even insanely catchy artists like Benny Benassi and Bingo Players don’t directly make it on to pop radio in North America inspite of being staples on BBC Radio One. I think Brostep might be the first pass at getting the broader public in North America into the wide world of Electronic music, and that’s a good thing.
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