Behind The Decks: The Underdog Genres
Given the rise of the Internet and the Information Revolution in our lifetimes, it’s hard to imagine anybody being narrow-minded anymore. With just a few minutes on an iPhone, one can have access to the King James Bible, the legendary scientific paper providing evidence for the asteroid-based extinction of the dinosaurs (Extraterrestrial Cause by Alvarez et al), and an online version of Predator. As Gaz Cobain of the group, “Future Sound of London” says about making electronic music, “It’s a very clever way of making yourself look like the most cosmopolitan travelled interesting multi-headed individual.” The same is true in spades of the way our current society uses technology – encyclopedic knowledge has become a Windows “thumbnail.”
So, naturally, we should all be well-versed in (or, at least, open-minded to) every single specific discipline of every following out there – post-modern art, laissez-faire business theory, animal training and education, etc. One particular following in which nobody has an excuse to be ignorant is music. People do everything with their ear buds in. In fact, people listen to music so often that the human race, by now, should have collectively gone spelunking into even the darkest chasms of Krzysztof Penderecki’s back catalog. And yet, the most popular response to the question, “What kind of music do you listen to?” goes something as follows:
“I listen to everything, really. Well, except for [x]. I hate [x].”
We have all answered this way at some point. I know I have – and I am ashamed of myself for it.
To deny the legitimacy of a genre because you haven’t dug deep enough into it is just rude. People like Kenny Chesney and Skrillex exist – yes. This is true. But they do not define the entire sound of the genre by any stretch of the imagination. To say you don’t like Country music just because the people in the spotlight right now don’t tickle your fancy is not very open-minded. There are people in Country music who live solely to play the banjo like a fiend, and their lives are not to be discredited because people like me get angry when they hear about a recent “heartwarming” Taylor Swift concert.
I don’t appreciate that.
What I do appreciate, however, are people who wake up every morning to fight life into these genres with notoriety, people who take up the torch for The Underdog Genre.
This article is concerned with targeting two specific genres – Dubstep and Trap – and displaying their legitimacy in the world of current music.
Underdog Genre #1: Dubstep
“WHERE’S THE DROP, BRO?!?!?!?!?!!!!?!?!”
By now, most everybody has heard this said, both ironically and in an all-too serious context. Dubstep has become the “science of Drops,” or the point in a song at which the bass frequencies literally “drop” onto the listener – typically with a synth line gliding upwards to the point of critical mass, at which point it falls into an incredibly loud and powerful bassline, along with gritty saw-wave based “wub-wub-wub’s” and FM-based screeches abound. On paper, this sounds like absolutely awesome party music. In reality, it is a cacophony of the highest order. Most Dubstep requires absolutely zero musical training to make and is just… well, horrific.
Skrillex is, by now, a household name. Credited (falsely) with creating the genre, he is famous for being “The King of Drops.” He is a common headliner at festivals, guaranteed to bring the party-goers out for some PA-bass madness.
Have I said that I hate Dubstep before?
Yes.
Was this before I truly dug into the genre?
Yes.
Skrillex did not, in fact, create the genre. Dubstep has been bubbling since the late 90’s with bass-oriented music like Drum and Bass, Jungle, and Ragga. The concept of the Drop was not Skrillex’s either – this was actually a popular practice in Drum and Bass, found in many “bangers” (very powerful rave-worthy tracks) such as Capone’s “Massive.”
As we can hear from 0:55 seconds onwards, there is a build-up of the sample, “Massive” – hypercoded (or repeated very rapidly) for 8 bars (which gets somewhat repetitive, admittedly) which culminates into an absolutely “massive” (haha) Drop of epic proportions. The breakbeat becomes very complex, and the song becomes extremely danceable and “dubby,” or bass-laden.
Dubstep evolved almost directly from Drum and Bass. Drum and Bass is, in its purest form, approximately 150-200 beats per minute (pretty fast) with only drum breaks, basslines, and a supporting sample or synth line. Dubstep is, at its roots, approximately half that speed (75-100 beats per minute, typically), with somewhat identical drum patterns and even stronger, more prominent basslines.
The original, true Dubstep did not even emphasize the Drop that much. Ramadanman’s “Dynamic Balancing,” one of the first Dubstep songs, demonstrates this perfectly.
This track’s Drop that comes at 0:55 that has practically no attention drawn to it. The song’s focus is its humongous kick drums, roasted and toasted basslines, and grit-filled buzzy “wub-wubbed” synth lines.
The Drop itself became popular through crowds getting more and more excited about these insane basslines. Electronic musicians realized they could harness the power of building up to a bassline by “dancing around it” for a few bars and prepping the audience for what was to come. After enough artists started doing this, the habit sunk into the crowds, and typical moves like increasing the pitch of a leading synth line became indicators for a huge Drop that was about to kill everything in sight. These indicators, in turn, made the crowd go wild, even before the Drop – thus increasing the potency of the Drop itself.
This is not to say that the Drop has become an evil sin in electronic music. As stated earlier, the fact that Skrillex has become the face of Dubstep does not mean that the genre itself is defined by his sound. His drops are repetitive, formulaic, simplistic, and unexciting. They ride the fact that crowds right now are in LOVE with bass, and will have nothing to do with anything else.
Don’t get me wrong – Skrillex has a remarkable knowledge of production. His tracks are very clean and very well equalized. He knows what he’s doing – it’s just that he doesn’t acknowledge the fact that music itself is based on artful sound and melody, not just screamingly awfully annoying noise.
Songs like Knife City’s “Slam Dunk Lifestyle,” however, sport Drops that prove to be tasteful, melodic, and quite awesome. See 0:48 onwards.
This is true ingenuity. As a statement musically, this proves that you can make absolutely amazing and legitimately DEADLY party music without relying heavily on just bass, and that you can make Drops that are just hilariously cool whilst maintaining musical integrity.
(Thanks go to Emily Hunt for digging and finding absolutely brilliant 8-bit Dubstep.)
However, tastefully relying on bass itself for an effect is not evil either. Objekt’s “Cactus” is one of the craziest Drops I have ever heard in my life, and the ensuing bassline has, I’m almost certain, damaged my headphones on more than one occasion. See 2:04 onwards.
As you can probably feel, there is a huge buildup in the overall energy of the track leading up to the point of ABSOLUTE EXPLOSION – at which point, my neck snaps off every single time with the sheer force of the head-banging that ensues.
(Thanks go to Will Flemer for showing me the track that will likely put me in a neck brace.)
It is clear that the Drop is often most powerful when pure bass is the result, but it is also clear that this bass must be used artfully and with finesse – not just thrown at the drunken crowd every forty seconds, as Skrillex does.
Dubstep does not even have to be about partying. One of my favorite times to listen to Dubstep is, well, around now – cold sober, at 2 AM. Nobody else is awake and I am free to wave my arms and shake my head all I like to the madness of the Reduxed 909 Hats Objekt throws at my face.
It is clear that there are many people alive today who dedicate every breath they take to the art of perfect Dubstep, and that the genre deserves infinitely more credit than what good ol’ Skrill is responsible for.
Underdog Genre #2: Trap
I have always been of the opinion that about 95% of music in general is just plain awful. Of course, the 5% gives me reason to be alive, which makes up for the rest of it. This is a pretty over-arching view that is probably more founded in teen angst than in reason, but I still stand by it. This case is even more prominent with the case of electronic music – of which 98% really isn’t worth listening to (this I can safely say, I’ve dug electro quite a bit and really, really bad stuff just keeps coming up…). And, of course, the 2% gives me reason to write obscenely long articles like this one. But Trap music – Trap music is a different beast entirely. Approximately 99.53% of Trap music is just AWFUL. It makes my ears bleed to be standing on a street corner when suddenly, a bro-filled car drives by blasting A$AP Rocky. Again, there was a point in my life, not too long ago, where I uttered the words, “I hate Trap music.” And, again, I was not deep enough into the genre to make such a bold claim.
{What little I do know about Trap has all been taught to me by resident Trap expert Grime Fighter (Will Flemer), so let me say now that it is because of him that I am writing this portion of the article, really. (As an aside, keep an eye out for him. He’s already making some ABSOLUTE BANGERS and it won’t be long yet before the Trap world recognizes his expertise.) Let me also say that if I somehow misrepresent Trap music through writing this, it is entirely my fault and not his – he has taught me extremely well and if I miss some facts in the process it is due to my negligence, not his.}
Trap music is classically recognized as the use of the Roland TR808 Drum Machine alongside very heavy basslines. The use of the 808 is very unique in this genre, however, in that the distinctive sound relies on hypercoded, or “drilled” 808 Hi-Hats. For anybody familiar with any Trap music but unfamiliar with the minutia of the genre, you may recognize the very fast “ticking” noises that resemble tapping on the Hi-Hat in a drum kit – these are 808 Hi-Hats. As one article stated (the title of which I don’t know, I heard of it second-hand and I hope to avoid plagiarism here), Trap is “the combination of Dubstep Drops and artillery-fire Hip Hop beats.” I cannot envision a better explanation of Trap.
Trap is the ultimate party medium – it entertains the Dubstep fans AND the Hip Hop fans (two of the most major party denominations), as well as the Bass fanatics and the Drumcore nerds. Trap is viewed as party music by all, including the artists themselves; they live the absurd lifestyle to exactly the same extent they propose in their music.
Again, on paper, Trap sounds awesome. And yet, in practice? Popular Trap music is extremely predictable, bass oriented, non-melodic, asinine, and boring. When rappers involve themselves in Trap, the lyrics are basically the anti-Christ of true Hip Hop – all they talk about are guns, girls, and money. Hip Hop is not about this – it is about expressing poetry and feeling through music, rhythm, and rhyme. People like Odd Future and the A$AP crew do not do this. Tyler the Creator may say that his lyrics are introspective – they aren’t. They are just typical cries of teen angst that are relatable only because they are average. They hold virtually no intellectual power and serve as an immediate middle-finger to the establishment with no lasting value.
BUT before I fall too deep into my cynical anti-happy trap, let’s remember that the faces of Trap do NOT represent Trap on the whole.
True Trap music is absolutely bombastic. The bass assaults the listener, and the hypercoded Hi-Hats serve as the “street-sweeper,” tick-ticking away at the grime the bass left behind. The juxtaposition of the incredibly low bass frequencies and the incredibly high Hi-Hat frequencies is just delicious to the ear.
But what the hell am I doing babbling. You’re probably itching for an example. Well, an example I will give you, alright.
Just in the intro of the song, we can hear a parallel to Dubstep – the Drop. The first 16 bars are dedicated to the build-up, the increase in energy, and then the inevitable bass drop. Which is HUGE.
As you may hear, the bass is not an independent synth line – it is ONLY THE KICK DRUMS. The 808 is legendary for having a Kick drum with an insanely long decay time, which, when properly harnessed, serves as a bassline unto itself. The Hi-Hats also drop in around 1:14, which are INSANE. You may notice them flying around your speakers or headphones – this is the result of very smart channel panning and spread.
And then, the song falls quiet again – ONLY TO DROP A SECOND TIME AT 2:27.
WHAT?
I mean, come on… isn’t one drop enough?
NO. IT ISN’T.
Trap music is meant mostly for live mixing and seeing play in festival sets. At these festivals, the speaker system is always absolutely bonkers – it holds up to bass very well. As a result, Trap musicians exploit the bass and literally kill the crowd over and over and over again with the bassiest songs possible – lining them up against each other, one after another, Drop into Drop into Drop. The crowd will literally mosh in these scenarios – it’s totally wild. So when a song Drops twice, it means you can mix it seamlessly into another introduction of a totally separate song, which flows into another Drop in that song, and so on and so forth…
… Which is madness. It’s almost evil to the crowd. There is no room for break time, no room for breathing, just endless bass. They can’t help but LOSE THEIR MINDS.
A very interesting evolution of Trap is that it seems, in general, exactly half the time of Drum and Bass – which lends it to being mixed with Drum and Bass very efficiently. Bass music mixes with itself extremely easily – something that many musicians take serious advantage of.
But mixing Trap is an art, to be sure. Aphex Twin (not a Trap musician, but serves a purpose here nonetheless) was always happiest by being able to make a crowd dance like there was no tomorrow. Trap music does exactly this – I sweat listening to Trap music in a library. I can’t imagine how fast I would die at a Trap festival. It takes serious skill to be able to move thousands of people to be complete animals just by playing them specific frequencies of air moving in time, and Trap music does this in a way no other music has ever been able to do.
Take it seriously. It’s happening.
Of course, this article has only covered two small avenues of electronic music. There are countless others in said discipline, and that doesn’t even touch on the merits of Country, Screamo, Death Metal, and so on, and so on. Every genre will get knocked. Every genre will have its notoriety and its ups and downs. But no matter what, remember this: before you write off a genre, ask yourself: “Have I searched the depths of this genre in its entirety? Have I asked my friends who are in love with the genre to show me good music from it? Have I given it a second, third, and fourth chance?” If after all of that, you STILL don’t like the genre, well… you just haven’t tried hard enough. There is beauty to be found in every discipline of music ever conceived, and there is infinite beauty yet to be found – it’s just a matter of rooting for the underdog.
Post Script – I wanted desperately to write about the genre of Screamo and why it has serious and absolute merit in music today, but when I called up resident Post-Modern Rock expert Stefan Milojevic to ask him a few questions about the genre, it quickly became clear that I was not at all capable of doing justice to the genre – the definition of Screamo is incredibly specific and detailed in a way that I am simply not able to describe given my limited knowledge of Punk and its shifts. Expect to, if anything, see an article from him sometime soon about the beauties of Screamo and Hardcore music and the dispelling of the common misconception that the two genres are explicitly about hate and violence. But just remember, in the meantime, that EVERYTHING IS WORTH LISTENING TO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jack Impink appreciates the french horn, the Roland TB-303 and Force of Will, not necessarily in that order. check out his most recent music here.
[Editor's Note: it is fucking awesome.]