Dubstep Reflections

There is a new music genre called Dubstep that some of you may not be aware of. The technical definition, taken from the all-knowing Wikipedia, is:


"Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London, England. The music website Allmusic has described its overall sound as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals"."


According to Adubstep.com the top Dubstep artists are Benga, Doctor P, Flux Pavilion, Modestep, Nero, Rusko, Skream, and Skrillex. Out of these I especially like Flux Pavilion, Doctor P, Skrillex, and some of Nero's works are good. Along with these I like Bassnectar, The Glitch Mob, and some songs by Deadmau5.


At the end of "Rock n Roll (Will Take You To The Mountain)" are the words "You have technicians here, making noise, no one is a musician, they're not ours because nobody can play the guitar," bringing up the discussion of whether or not Dubstep artists are technically musicians. Some would claim that if they don't have mastery over traditional instruments then they don't count. I disagree.


To be a successful Dubstep artist one must have mastery over many other things besides traditional instruments. In order to make a good Dub-song you have to be able to balance very deep and very high sounds, have many different levels of song going on at the same time, sense of when to repeat certain sections, being able to balance between chaos and order, and above all a very refined sense of rhythm.


Just because someone can't play a conventional instrument doesn't mean that they're not a musician. Skrillex and all the rest play technological instruments, and they still fulfill the requirements of organizing notes and lyrics and what-not. It's almost as if Dubstep artists are not only the writers, but also the conductors of their songs. 


By the way- I made a Dubstep playlist on Youtube. Feel free to check it out. I take no responsibility for the comments section. 


Note of warning: Do not get lost in Dubstep. It may be easy for some to meander through the chaotic, jumpy notes, to lose themselves in the deep, booming base-lines, to immerse themselves in the pandemonium. This is dangerous two-fold. 


Primarily, and most obviously, Dubstep is geared toward and created by young people, and especially young men. With that comes much worldliness and sin. There is one Skrillex song entitled "I Want To Kill Everybody", and many Dubstep songs center on sex. It's the sad truth. Avoid that.


Secondarily the mayhem, havoc, and maelstrom of notes when taken only by itself is not true to the world the way that God made it. An old classical song with orderly notes is much closer to the real world, then all the random disarray. Though the flip side of this is that God is always perfectly organized, boring, and slightly OCD. Watch a rainstorm. God can be disorganized at times. Balance between the two.