Comments on: Thoughts for Tonight: Dubstep’s place in British Popular Music

By: Eklipse

Eklipse — Wed, 05 May 2010 12:48:14 +0000

I believe with the economy the way it is, people just wanna make money so they can support what they love doing – making music. Its fact pop music = popular. Remix a track and if you do it well it will extend its popularity allowing you to cash in on it.. so the more people cottoning on to this, the more mixes made = more crap to sort thru.. so instead of dubstep becoming popular in a good way it gets branded “sellout”.. we seen it with techno, electro, dnb and in between.. its a phase and when the masses are over it, the purists can come out of there emo sulking skins and have it to themselves again, I for one am embracing this and exposing my friends to the origin behind the music and opening there minds one at a time.

By: junglist 4 life

junglist 4 life — Tue, 04 May 2010 15:16:09 +0000

I personally would like it to totally collapse and dissapear from the face of the earth. It’s so lethargic, devoid of and kind of soul or passion and you CANNOT dance to it. I’m hoping once the trendy crowd find the next big thing dubstep gets driven back underground so i don’t ever have to hear it again.

By: joshua

joshua — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:34:14 +0000

BBC is basically the main radio you get in the UK. There are a lot of commercial stations, and then speciality stations as well, but BBC Radio 1,2, and 3 are the main sources of music on the radio.
Radio 1 plays popular music, while 2 will accomodate for more easy-listening, folk, rock ‘n’ roll, etc. Radio 3 will play mostly classical and jazz.

I’m intrigued as to what the BBC plays stateside, and what station it is. Here, daytime Radio 1 plays pop as I’ve said. At night you have ‘rock’/'indie’ shows, and hiphop shows, and then a selection of electronic shows. The indie or rock shows generally are quite up to date as to what they’re playing, and what is happening amongst smaller bands around the UK. The electronic shows though, is where our radio falters; there is so much exciting underground dance music in the UK, that Radio 1 will take years to catch up to.

Its a double-edged sword, a lot of people/snobs wouldn’t want their ‘underground’ music getting mainstream attention, and when it does it inevitably creates a backlash. Dubstep is one of the best examples of this, as Radio 1 started playing it quite prominently over the past few years, and naturally, i’ve heard and read so many complaints about Radio 1 for doing so.

Its a nice compliment on behalf of our mainstream radio to say its ahead, but by the time Radio 1 will play something, there will, 9 times out of 10, be better music of the genre that they wouldn’t touch, because they need to cater for the entire public.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:18:24 +0000

Hey MIS – I think it is interesting to hear the perspective of someone who has been listening to dubstep for years. For us in the States I feel like we’re still only just discovering the genre and personally, I still am thrilled by Skream and Joker and all those dudes who may have been doing it for years. They still sound fresh to me. Really fascinating how people can perceive differently based on experience.

Also really interesting to hear how BBC Primetime can be too “pop.” But again, for the average American, BBC is totally cutting edge when compared to our average American radio (excluding KCRW, WFMU, etc…).

Maybe it just proves how so far ahead you guys are compared to us. Not sure. But it is a good sign when Mary Anne Hobbs makes two trips to the West Coast to hear/play with American producers like Flying Lotus and Nosaj Thing…