JAMES BLAKE AND DUBSTEP

Liz Pelly recently interviewed James Blake for The Boston Phoenix, and James stated something that I can completely agree with:

“I think the dubstep that has come over to the US, and certain producers– who I can’t even be bothered naming– have definitely hit upon a sort of frat-boy market where there’s this macho-ism being reflected in the sounds and the way the music makes you feel. And to me, that is a million miles away from where dubstep started. It’s a million miles away from the ethos of it. It’s been influenced so much by electro and rave, into who can make the dirtiest, filthiest bass sound, almost like a pissing competition, and that’s not really necessary. And I just think that largely that is not going to appeal to women. I find that whole side of things to be pretty frustrating, because that is a direct misrepresentation of the sound as far as I’m concerned.”

For those of you that know me, you know I love to dance. I went to dubstep night at one of the local clubs in my city to see what the deal was with the recent popularity of this genre (music with focus on the bass is something that has always been pretty popular in the UK) and to be honest, I was pretty disgusted with what I experienced that night. When my friends and I left, we determined that it was a place ravers would go when they couldn’t find a good warehouse to rave in. The music was fairly disinteresting and is a lot what like James Blake stated to be, “…who can make the dirtiest, filthiest bass sound, almost like a pissing competition…”. What I experienced wasn’t really dancing, it was more like stopping on the ground in a somewhat coordinated fashion. The worst part of this night was – there were barely any women whatsoever there to dance with, and I can’t blame them for not attending. Below is a short clip of what I experienced that night, a video that shows James Blake’s description of “a pissing competition” coming to life:

It’s a shame, really – that a fickle trend can seemingly ruin the integrity of a genre.