Being a prick on youtube is fantastic. Recently I posted, with a fairly heavy handful of salt, on a video for the song "Plastician - Japan" with the sole intention of provoking a reaction from the people that seem to get angry the moment their cheeks touch their office chair. The comment read "wat de fuk is dis? dubstep so much betta these dayz" obviously trying to provoke an interesting discussion about the way dubstep has changed from music to take you through a k-hole to what can only be described as a building site with melody. The responses were typical for a youtube debate, ranging from a simple "you're retarded" to the old classic grammar attack "how 'de fuk' can you expect anyone to take you seriously with grammar like that?" and some even questioned my knowledge of the genre "shut up you mong, youve only just found out what dubstep is" [sic]. Now while it may come as a shock to some that displaying an opinion on youtube, however stupidly and inflammatory, can give people license to say your IQ is lower than 100 in as many colourful ways as there are colours in the rainbow, this came as no surprise to me. However, one comment did surprise me "get your Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites ass out of here and go listen to your mainstream crap. btw, im a big fan of Skrillex, but that song, Equinox, and Will Take you to the Mountain are just too mainstream". This provoked further discussion "skrillex is mainstream dumbass, not just those songs, hes a BROSTEP producer who was taught to produce his garbage by deadmau5. he has no idea what real dubstep is and he never will". So now we had a full blown conspiracy on our hands, deadmau5 had groomed the midget Skrillex (I've met him, so I'm allowed to call him a midget) into ruining dubstep for everyone by making it "mainstream". Allowing outlandish statements like this to go unchallenged was not in my nature, but since I could feel the pitchforks prodding into my back as I ran back into my hole, I decided to let this moron go his whole life thinking the world of dubstep had been ruined by a man who literally could not give a fuck whether he had one fan or a billion.
Like Skrillex, David Guetta has been the object of hate for house music listeners for a few years now. Recently David had an interview for the Telegraph and this paragraph in particular stuck out to me :-
"Having come from an underground culture that relentlessly analyses itself, the dance music world often frowns upon mainstream commercial success. There are relatively few acts which have managed to combine huge success while retaining credibility. "In a way, this is what killed dance music for so many years," argues Guetta. "That spirit of wanting to keep this only for ourselves, and anything that's successful is bad. That culture that goes in a cycle where everybody loves someone and they're all talking about him, and then in one second, because he's successful, 'Ah, fuck him, he's bullshit!' What? But you were saying the same guy was a genius last year, now he's the worst person?"
While I object on principle that Guetta is labeled "Lord of Dance" at the beginning of the article, that issue can be left to another day. My youtube comment episode had led me to believe that this "mainstream" problem was limited to the dubstep world. However, it was not. Further research led me to more witch hunts. Swedish House Mafia are regularly accused of not being proper DJs because they don't use headphones sometimes, Afrojack is seen as a producer who just throws out endless garbage and Avicii has been lambasted in the forums despite only being in anywhere near the top of the class for only a year.
I can understand the criticism of Guetta. Back in 2009 I saw Guetta doing a two and a half hour set, the first hour and a half to this day is still the best electro set I've ever heard, the music was perfect, the lighting was way ahead of it's time and Guetta had the crowd screaming everytime he put his hand in the air. However, the less said about the last hour the better. It was an hour of "The Killers", and more sing-a-long indie music that tarnished the good work he had done at the beginning of the set. But the crowd went even more wild at this. The sound of people singing along was almost as loud as the music and it's the closest I've ever seen a house music night get to a mosh pit. Incidentally, it was around this time that Guetta's track with Kelly Rowland "When Love Takes Over" came out. Guetta had tasted success in the UK before when his track "Love Don't Let Me Go" reached number 3 in the charts after appearing in a Citroen advert but it wasn't until his Kelly Rowland collaboration that he achieved global success with it peaking at the top spot of the charts in 11 countries. The combination of the fact that people responded better to his sets when they played popular music and the fact that his own music did better with a big name seemed to click something inside Guetta, His next singles featured, Snoop Dogg, Fergie, Akon, Rihanna, Flo Rida, Usher... The list could go on but I didn't want to waste valuable calories writing down their names. Whether Guetta likes it or not, the evidence stacks firmly against him that he "went mainstream" to make money. And this is where the problem with Guetta lies. His music used to be soulful, "Just a Little More Love" and "Baby When The Light" are excellently produced songs that would silence any Guetta critic but now it is essentially crowd pleasing music that is not that hard to produce. rant over.
Now the fundamental difference between David and all the other DJs accused of selling out is that David sold out and the others became popular. Actually, I take that back, Afrojack can go in the cauldron with Guetta as well as he ruined my summer last year with "Give Me Everything". Skrillex, however, has never changed his sound. It surprises me somewhat that music as unique and strong-minded as the stuff made by Skrillex is considered mainstream as its rare that music like this can be liked by so many, but if you go back to the day he left the world of emo rock music and started making dubstep, his sound has rarely digressed. I would go so far to say that someone with an acute sound for music could tell a new Skrillex song because of his signature noise. Avicii has never changed his sound. The phenomenon of the internet created him as his song "Levels" flew around the world on Facebook and other sharing sites. Now bear with me because I'm about to get really brave here. Even Justin Bieber isn't a sellout. He was found by some music producer and essentially dumped on the doorstep of Usher who helped him make the track "Baby". Swedish House Mafia became popular because of the buzz of three of the biggest electro producers of the time combining spilled over into the mainstream and their music became unavoidable.
So no matter how much people accuse these artists of selling out and going mainstream, we cannot deny that the reason they are mainstream is because their music appeals to the masses. Guetta starts to get to the crux of the problem, but I don't think he quite realises what it is. "That spirit of wanting to keep this only for ourselves, and anything that's successful is bad. That culture that goes in a cycle where everybody loves someone and they're all talking about him, and then in one second, because he's successful, 'Ah, fuck him, he's bullshit!' What? But you were saying the same guy was a genius last year, now he's the worst person?".
Not liking someone because they are successful, what do we call that again? *pssst* jealousy. Yes, that's it! Thank you voice-in-my-head. People who listen to underground music, get a strange satisfaction from listening to a song without that many views on youtube. It doesn't matter whether the song is good or bad, it's just whether lots of people like it or not. My friend from youtube even openly admits, he's a fan of Skrillex but "Equinox, and Will Take you to the Mountain are just too mainstream". Now we can only speculate on the reasons my friend doesn't like "mainstream Skrillex" but the rest of it is kosher. It could be the same reason that I don't like David Guetta's new music, in that he actively changed his style to suit the music that was making more money that has little creative input, unfortunately the time frame doesn't work and these songs are no different to the others. I believe the reason is three-fold.
1.) He enjoys the fact that people don't know the other songs like he does, and can enjoy an air of smugness when he shows someone said songs and smirks when they say "who is this?"
2.) When listening to an "underground" song, the artist isn't successful necessarily. By listening to this song, he is supporting the artist and helping him gain success
3.) The fact the song isn't popular means it hasn't made much money so the artist is probably poorer than him and you he can therefore feel less jealous.
Early fans of Skrillex loved it, they listened to his music, called it groundbreaking, amazing, the best thing they had ever heard. When he became popular, it seems these people felt betrayed. How could the artist that they had supported relentlessly by illegally downloading his songs and hitting the like button on youtube turn his back on them and starting playing music to big crowds? Skrillex was "theirs", they felt ownership of him and didn't like it when these "noobs" came along and also liked his music. "How could you?" they said "this music is crazy and only some people should like it!". They looked for a scapegoat and they couldn't find one so they made up an abstract concept, mainstream = shit. The same issue happened with dubstep. Early fans of dubstep loved it, they listened to all the music, called it groundbreaking, amazing, the best thing they had ever heard. When it became popular it seems these people felt betrayed. How could the genre that they had supported relentlessly by illegally downloading its songs and hitting the like button on youtube turn its back on them and start being played to big crowds? Dubstep was "theirs", they felt ownership of it and didn't like it when these "noobs" came along and liked the music. "How could you?" they said "this music is crazy and only some people like it!". They looked for a scapegoat and they couldn't find one so they made up an abstract concept, brostep = shit.
The fact of the matter is, the reason people enjoy underground music, is that they feel part of something, it's like being a goth or being good at football, you are different in someway. When the music becomes mainstream, that identity seems lost as everyone you know and everywhere you look you hear the stuff that used to be just for you. It's almost sad in a way, but it isn't. These people are selfish and actually don't want the music to succeed. They want to keep it to themselves but unfortunately in a world where a 14 year old girl can become headline news because she made what some called "the worst song ever" the very concept of underground music no longer exists. If a song is good and gets the distribution it will become mainstream. The people who hate the music for being mainstream still actually like the songs. My friend from youtube clearly likes "Equinox" because it is like a lot of other Skrillex songs but won't listen to it out of principle. People hate Skrillex because he is famous, not because his music is bad. I don't like Skrillex's music in general because I don't like it, however I have called him a musical genius. Someone who can be so versatile and capture the essential elements of so many different genres is surely an incredible musician. My case and point in this was when I discovered his song "DnB Ting". He keeps his signature sound but manages to also make an incredible song at the same time. When I played this song to a self-confessed Skrillex hater and drum n' bass lover he asked me what the song was. I said "do you like it a lot?" he said "yeah, it's sick". When I informed him it was by Skrillex his face dropped (cue me looking smug and feeling like a true underground lover). Skrillex isn't bad, he's successful. Hating something because people like it is pathetic. Therefore, "underground" is a load of bullshit.
Oh, and here's some music. Keyworth - Chameleon (Original Mix). Released 24th June.
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