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Americans are homophobic, therefore Skrillex. I think that's the takeaway from this New York Magazine piece on the ascendency of Skrillex and his bro-stepping brethren to the forefront of the shitty teenagers getting shitty movement. "Keep in mind that Americans, and especially American males, have traditionally had some weird reservations about electronic dance music—at our worst, we’ve written the whole thing off as silly, trashy, soulless, effeminate, or 'gay.'" writes Nitsuh Abebe in this thoughtful piece which attempts to wrestle in the mud with the same conceptual bear in a neon pink tutu that many other music writers, myself included, have fuxed wit the past year or two in order to answer a pretty interesting question. That question is "how do I turn this popular, but highly controversial cultural movement into page views?" See my previous posts What the fuck is dubstep anyway?; The kids these days + Identity Festival; The day, the duuubstep died; Somehow people still don't know what dub step is; and WTF is dubstep part 50 featuring Nero for evidence.
The secondary question, of course, is a more direct, but complicated one: "Why? Just why?" It's something you've probably asked yourself about dubstep, only the latest example in a long line of rotted-out cultural meat stinking up the back corner of the taste fridge, and every other genre that's been popular amongst children and recently-non-children since you yourself were within shouting distance of your first boner and/or girl boner. Back then the answer was self evident: this is fun, and girls seems to like and/or I am a girl.
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As I said, this is all ground that's been well-covered everywhere this year, so no need to rehash the concept of why teenagers want to be in big sweaty crowds with their clothes off in an environment in which drug use flourishes, because that would like asking where babies come from. Let's do it anyway though since I was already having this argument with a couple of my fellow old music nerds and I hate to let a couple of half-assed turns of phrase go to waste on merely one or two people. What am I, a cave man?
Popular music, into which I include EDM and all non-purposefully reactionary, intentionally difficult sub-genres, has always been made with the consumption habits of young women in mind, and therefor the men who want to be around them when their inhibitions are lowered. There have been many notable exceptions of course, but they stand out all the more as such for not falling into the Young Pussy Paradigm, which should probably be a science themed teen POV series if it's not already.
The entire reason rock and roll exists in the first place, which isn't a very minority opinion I'm putting forth here I don't think, is the old in out in out. Specifically sex between young people. Gross, hot, gross young people. The entire reason all forms of culture exist, for that matter, is to get dem panties wetz. Maybe not butt rock or prog or huffing-your-own-farts-rock, but that stuff is reactionary to the sex motive. In that case being anti-sex still qualifies as being about sex. The ommission is indicative of its overarching permanence. Even highly "authentic" music, like Burial, for example, or all of the other acts your average TR000DUBSTEPP fan is mad about (many examples of which you can find in the NYM comments thread2) is just a process of narrowing the parameters for potential sex parters through exclusionary taste. (i.e. I like people who don't like x therefore let's makeout). Side note, haven't had sex/jerked off in a few days, so maybe that's clouding my thinking here.
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I do think, however, that the thesis in the NYM piece, that songs from the likes of Skrillex express this musical sex-motive in specifically hetero-friendly terms -- in other words, all of his songs basically come with a giant implied #nohomo affixed -- is an interesting one.
"It’s another species of that rare and lucrative beast: A form of electronic dance music that does not threaten anyone’s masculinity. Sort of like the last time electronic music threatened a sales boom in the U.S., when one of the top successes was the Prodigy, whose 1997 single 'Firestarter' felt as aggro as anything else on offer."
What do you think? Are Skrillex and Deadmau5 and company massive because they are the musical equivalent of conceptual date rape, or is it maybe that bro-step is big precisely because older people do not now, and refuse to ever, understand, or appreciate what it means? Is it the hippity hoppity rap, or the punk rocks of today? Is it basically saying U MAD MOM? every time a young person does that weird bass-drop hailing-a-cab-in-space dance up at the club on dubstep night? Maybe it's not "Americans are homophobic, therefore Skrillex," then maybe it's "Parents are confused, therefore Skrillex."
1Go watch that video Abebe links to in the quote above if you didn't already. If that doesn't make you want to get in a time machine and go make out with a dude at a baseball game in the seventies wearing a suicide bomb jacket I don't know what will.
2"Burial- a musical genius who grew up in South London, the epicenter of the dubstep scene, who painstakingly crafted 2 albums by himself in his bedroom before dubstep had even grown out of his neighborhood, which were then largely considered to be the genre's crowning artistic achievements, while hanging out at FWD>>, the most integral club to the scene with his friend Kode9, the head of Hyperdub, the most integral label to the genre's success... Skrillex- some emo kid in LA deciding he wants to make "dubstep" in 2009, 3 years after the fact, and his releases are a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of a genre that was actually really cool once, but has now become a gross caricature of itself.If you don't understand the difference in authenticity between Burial and Skrillex, then I really don't know what to tell you. "
1Go watch that video Abebe links to in the quote above if you didn't already. If that doesn't make you want to get in a time machine and go make out with a dude at a baseball game in the seventies wearing a suicide bomb jacket I don't know what will.
2"Burial- a musical genius who grew up in South London, the epicenter of the dubstep scene, who painstakingly crafted 2 albums by himself in his bedroom before dubstep had even grown out of his neighborhood, which were then largely considered to be the genre's crowning artistic achievements, while hanging out at FWD>>, the most integral club to the scene with his friend Kode9, the head of Hyperdub, the most integral label to the genre's success... Skrillex- some emo kid in LA deciding he wants to make "dubstep" in 2009, 3 years after the fact, and his releases are a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of a genre that was actually really cool once, but has now become a gross caricature of itself.If you don't understand the difference in authenticity between Burial and Skrillex, then I really don't know what to tell you. "
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13 comments:
That disco demolition video always pisses me off. What a douche.
As for the rest of it, as a gay man, the notion that dubstep is very hetero centric would explain an awful lot about why I instinctively dislike it (which is not the same as saying I dislike heterosexuals), but I'm also over 40, so I probably have 2 strikes against me.
OVER 40!? JESUS CHRIST DUDE HOW DO YOU LOOK AT YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR EVERY DAY?!!!?
I apologize in advance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7jyuPR2TVA
isn't there another "e" in therefore? therefor doesn't seem right. unless this is some stylistic thing that cunts who don't have blogs don't know about. fucking elitists.
Doh. that's embbarrasssing.
One other reason "culture" exists:
"Hey, we lived in this particular manner and we didn't all die, so you (the next generation) should try to live like us and you'll also not die. And don't forget to pass it on to your kids, forever, etc."
right?
Yes, but that's only so our kids can live on to get some action.
Luke. You're my best friend.
There will always be a need for the cool kids barely legal sex party show. It was Girl Talk for awhile. Now, it’s Skrillex. Soon it will be something else.
Oh right, Girl Talk. Forgot about him. Same thing.
Thanks Jules. Wtf did I do?
Burial doesn't sound very dancable to me. It is pretty depressing sounding. Same with James Blake. A can't get all worked up that 17 year olds don't like subtle and depressing music.
That's a good point. I'd say under the semi-coherent guidelines here that both of those acts fall under the "exclusionary taste barrier for potential banging partner" corollary.
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