Will Dubstep Finally Die in 2012? Five Signs the End Is Near
Categories: Lists, Talking Shit
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From collaborations with Korn to Christmas carol remixes, signs of its imminent demise are springing up all over the place. But will 2012 be the year that dubstep finally dies? Or will it desperately cling to life and linger like a zombie for another whole year?
Well, we here at Crossfade think that the Dubpocalypse is almost upon us. See the cut for five signs the end is near.
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5. Nobody Even Knows What Dubstep Is Anymore
Talk to any "real dubstep fan" and they'll probably tell you that 2011 dubstep is not like true dubstep. They'll name-drop a few producers, mention something about the old days, and bemoan the evolution of Skrillex and brostep.
This friction between the "real dubstep fan" and angst-ridden teenagers over what actually constitutes dubstep sparked the genre's mid-life crisis. Plus, the average person's idea of dubstep retains neither the "dub" nor the "step" attributes for which the genre was named. The dub-style sub-bass was replaced by distorted mids and lots of wobble, while the two-step was basically abandoned in favor of someone screaming in your face for 40 minutes.
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4. Nearly Every Possible Dubstep Track Has Already Been Made
At some point in 2012, it will become impossible for producers to create a new, original dubstep track. It won't be for lack of creativity or trying. But there are only so many ways to arrange female vocals, a wobbly bass, and a huge drop. And we as a society are fast approaching these limits.
Thanks to the proliferation of music software in recent years and the deluge of newly minted musicians that followed, it became a race to see who could churn out the gnarliest wubs on their copy of Native Instruments' Massive synthesizer without straying too far from a particular structure. Rather than evolve organically, dubstep became homogenized, which meant many more musicians would have to cover the same ground.
Because of this, every possible variation on dubstep will soon be exhausted, every last temporal avenue explored, every possible combination of filter and LFO discovered. Very soon, there just won't be any more dubstep left to make.
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