next »

[MoritzPGKatz]

Hello,

Once a certain style accumulates and gets its own genre name, it's probably already played out - it gets boring, cliché, kitsch, stale. And there are a lot of people trying to jump on the bandwagon, and a lot of the music sounds uninspired, merely good to dance to for the next five years.

I never even got the concept of genres, really. Or at least why people insist on pursuing them when making music.
Just produce what you want to produce and let people call it whatever they like to, or even better let them associate your name with it.

Just my 0.02!

Cheers,
Moritz

[gimymblert]

you might like moe moe kyunstep then. it's laser chiptunes, although it remains moe.

@sinclair: yeah, the "original" dubstep has a lot more to offer because it's just not so focused on drops and wobble sounds.

This originally was the result of a rather heated debate with a friend that despite all of its limited audio features... an 8-bit NES can truly make bass-heavy growls without the need of samples.

HOLY SHITting in my pants 

[melos]

Hello,

Once a certain style accumulates and gets its own genre name, it's probably already played out - it gets boring, cliché, kitsch, stale. And there are a lot of people trying to jump on the bandwagon, and a lot of the music sounds uninspired, merely good to dance to for the next five years.

I never even got the concept of genres, really. Or at least why people insist on pursuing them when making music.
Just produce what you want to produce and let people call it whatever they like to, or even better let them associate your name with it.

Just my 0.02!

Cheers,
Moritz

My sentiments pretty much - I feel like you will limit your creativity by pursuing a genre actively, rather than just doing what you really enjoy (there is a fine line there but the two are worth distinguishing)...it's always why I kind of laugh when I have to pick genres for my songs on tindeck/sc/bandcamp , like, how the hell am I supposed to do this ?

[s0]

welp if you're a professional electronic dance music producer (think about why it's "producer" and not "composer" for a second) you're catering to a market of DJs who want to play your tracks as part of a set. that's why there are strict formal standards and its also why there are so many subgenres in EDM.

[Lauchsuppe]

In addition to what sinclair said, genres are also usually made up afterwards and not beforehand (except when you're producing for a certain audience of course). It's just a way of categorizing popmusic. It might not be totally precise, but I feel it helps a lot in talking about music.

[GhostBomb]

I'm kind of torn on dubstep.

On one side, a lot of good dubstep songs are fun because of how quirky and offbeat their melodies are, which is hard to find in other electronic music.

On the other side, I often find the actual "drop" of dubstep music to be absolutely terrible.  I don't like the "wub wubs" and jarring noise found in a lot of hard drops.  I've heard some good drops that actually sound amazing because they don't seem to be set on making my ears bleed and use cool/unique sounds rather then the generic "SCREEEEEEEEEEECH WUB WUB WUB" but those seem pretty rare.

I usually end up liking a dubstep song because of a certain part rather then the entire song.

(dubstep tracks I like for one reason or another)




END TRACK IS AMAZING





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubyjO4X9gzA
(Mostly just because of the beginning but the whole song is pretty good.)

[petertos]

I'I'm watching and listening almost any example that is being suggested here, and I'm liking many of them!

When I first listened to a couple of dubstep songs I enjoyed them like so many time ago, almost like when I heard Daft Punk for the first time or Chemical Brothers.

But right now I'm a bit tired of it, almost all songs are the same, an introduction part, a progressive part, and a strong part, and especially the strong part is very similar in most 'dubstep' songs. 

[Zoe Coleman Music]

I'I'm watching and listening almost any example that is being suggested here, and I'm liking many of them!

When I first listened to a couple of dubstep songs I enjoyed them like so many time ago, almost like when I heard Daft Punk for the first time or Chemical Brothers.

But right now I'm a bit tired of it, almost all songs are the same, an introduction part, a progressive part, and a strong part, and especially the strong part is very similar in most 'dubstep' songs. 

Agreed, as much as anticipating the next part of the song can be exciting I've always preferred being surprised by music and not able to predict its layout at the very start (if that makes sense).

[MoritzPGKatz]

welp if you're a professional electronic dance music producer (think about why it's "producer" and not "composer" for a second) you're catering to a market of DJs who want to play your tracks as part of a set. that's why there are strict formal standards and its also why there are so many subgenres in EDM.

True - if you want to play that game, knowing some standards of the crowd you're producing for can be pretty important.
I just feel that many people are deliberately limiting themselves by following those sets of rules all-too-strictly, and that's when the music ends up being just part of a fad instead of great tunes on their own.
And there are great producers and producer teams out there who manage to do that tightrope walk or even kick off a new trend by combining some of the rules with a fresh brand of sound. Petertos mentioned the Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk, and you could easily add a lot of other names to that: Fatboy Slim, Moby, Gorillaz, The Prodigy, Röyksopp... or less-"mainstream" people like The Knife, Squarepusher or Mr. Oizo, or even whole labels like Warp, Ghostly International or Ninja Tune.

...Of course, it's hard to exclude personal taste when talking about stuff like that, but I feel that the amount of freeloading and uninspired formula-riding is somewhat proportional to the music being a fad or a genre. And not just since Dubstep.

Cheers,
Moritz

[mono]

welp if you're a professional electronic dance music producer (think about why it's "producer" and not "composer" for a second) you're catering to a market of DJs who want to play your tracks as part of a set. that's why there are strict formal standards and its also why there are so many subgenres in EDM.

I don't think EDM producers focus on producing for others as much as for themselves and their own sets. If there are such producers then I don't listen to it probably because it's commercialized, crappy and generic. The reason why there are so many sub-genres right now is because of the new bedroom producer phenomenon, Soundcloud etc.

[Lauchsuppe]

commercialized, crappy and generic

Those things don't neccessarily go hand in hand. You can write good music with a clear target in mind; writing soundtracks is no different.
People who label themselves "producer" usually understand their music as some kind of service already - being danceable is fundamental for club music. Producers want to get their music played by DJs, so they'd stick to some common traits of techno for example (certain bpm, a long intro part etc.) in order to make their song fit into a typical liveset.

[s0]

ya even if you DJ your own material your music ultimately has to 1. be danceable 2. sound good in a club 3. fit into a DJ set (usually of similar sounding tracks).

talking "pure" EDM here and ignoring shit that isn't strictly made for clubs ofc (re: moritz's mention of warp, ninja tune etc.)

[mono]

All of that is self serving as well.