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Dubstep And Beyond: The Electro Reggae Connection To World Music


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Old 07-11-2011, 23:48
Artlaurent88
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Even before Sly and Robbie coined the term Electro Reggae for their 1986 Taxi Gang LP release, they had begun experimenting with dissonant, electronic sounds. Random, computer-generated blips and electric percussion permeated the Black Uhuru albums the duo produced. A year earlier they would claim Reggae’s first Grammy on the heels of such innovation.

The 1990’s would see a migration in the music with Reggae-related styles becoming as varied as the population. As Drum and Bass took hold, fans of the music never forgot its roots. UK soundsystems and producers would incorporate the MC skills of heavyweights like MC Conrad, Skibadee and The Ragga Twinz. The part they played in the evolution of the music was magnified by the growth of the internet. The scene was no longer confined to a geographic region. Roni Size even conquered the American music marketplace with his 1998 “Reprazent” release on Universal Records.

Around the turn of the millennium, UK producers began building on their more insular genres such as two-step and grime. As Reggae-Dub had by then permeated the cultural landscape, it was included to create a new sound. The result, characterized by a tempo of 140 bpm and syncopated high hats, also placed a heavy emphasis on Electro bass line permutations. It would not be formally recognized or called by its name “Dubstep” for several years after its inception. Championed first by BBC radio host John Peel and Mary Anne Hobbs afterwards, the new form of Reggae-Influenced Electro music took the world by storm.

After 2008 Dubstep began a move to the mainstream, but the Electro-Reggae innovation continued. An XLR8R Magazine acknowledged the contributions of America-based Reggae artists like Trinidadian Dub Poet Juakali, Jamaica’s Lexie Lee, Panama’s MC Zulu, and DJ Collage. Juakali spent years as the host of New York’s Dub War introducing Dubstep sounds to an eager fanbase. MC Zulu and Lexie Lee would both collaborate with Electro-Reggae luminaries South Rakkas Crew, with Zulu taking the modernization to the extremes. Wildly experimental and defiant in his approach, MC Zulu created new cadence structures, incorporated weighty lyricism, and can even be heard singing backwards on some releases.

The commercial success of Dubstep finds fans of Electronic music at odds with one another, separated into camps of those who remember the roots, and those who have no idea. Balance that against the continuing innovation in the production, and you will find genres such as Baile Funk (Carioca), Moombathon, Kuduro beginning to move to the forefront. Each of them are suitable vehicles for Reggae lyrics, with fans from the corresponding areas more readily identifying with Reggae’s quasi-political, globalist leanings. Reggae MCs who sing in different languages are emerging. The movement is now commonly described as Global Bass with new, innovative compositions flooding the net on an almost daily basis. Regardless of their region of origin, however the influence of Jamaica’s music is often quite prevalent.
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Old 08-11-2011, 00:06
Breakadawn
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I know what real dub is, and i know the music coined as mainstream dubstep atm has about as much in common with dub as metal does with classical music, i also know that the mates and people i've known through college that like dubstep wouldn't give reggae or dub music the time of day if it was played to them!
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Old 08-11-2011, 03:01
scrilla
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That promo article tries to tie up so many things but fails miserably because it's vague, brief and dishonest. The writer clearly knows very little about reggae, so at least they have that in common with the average dubstep fan.

Just a case of the proponents of one genre trying to trade on a tenuous link with another which they are broadly ignorant of. Reggae MC's 'singing' indeed. I tend to agree with this ...


I know what real dub is, and i know the music coined as mainstream dubstep atm has about as much in common with dub as metal does with classical music, i also know that the mates and people i've known through college that like dubstep wouldn't give reggae or dub music the time of day if it was played to them!
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Old 08-11-2011, 12:24
shackfan
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Interesting post op, but what do you actually want to discuss? And did you just c&p that article or write it yourself?
I actually like both reggae and dubstep and can see where they are connected.
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Old 08-11-2011, 12:43
Wild-Child
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I get what that article is going on about, dubstep music has become a little too electronic and now in alot of tracks the original "wobble" (sub-woofer) bass and dub like pattern seems to be disappearing.....

For me dubstep is the baby of drum&bass & dub genre's mixed up, hence the fast bpm.
Although I will listen to dubstep 80% more than other genre's
I also have my fair share of ragga, reggae & dancehall music
on my ipod still. (reggie stepper, aswad, bob,)

But sometimes I fear whether dubstep as a genre, is straying
abit to far from its roots. : / wait and find out.....in that case
the fans will further divide into mainstream and underground listeners.
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Old 08-11-2011, 14:06
O.Michel
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I don't really see many similarities between dubstep and reggae.All the genres have certain similarities of course, but these two genres don't really sound alike and the whole idea of the artilce just seems a bit far-fetched I like 'dubstep' and 'reggae' and I don't really need to put them together in order to have a "connection to world music" Is that too bad?

Anyway, I don't believe 'REAL' dubstep.Dubstep, like all the other genres, has evolved and developped through the years.It couldn't stay the same forever Especially when dubstep started getting recognition and taking over YouTube's main page, it was inevitable for the sound to change.When dubstep acts are charting, they will have to start making dubstep more mainstream and take away some of its experimentation in order to introduce it to the masses.I personally dislike 95% of the dubstep songs that are successful on the internet right now, but that's how dubstep evolved
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Old 09-11-2011, 00:27
PiedPiperPromo
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theres gotta be an element of dub in the dubstep for it really to be considered tho dont you think???

the whole "brostep" term is really helping to defen the new types to that which remember the reggae roots... beng a big reggae fan i think its important dubstep has that smooth dub vibe... early Rusko was a good for that although he appears to be more tailored to whats selling at the moment which is less dub influence (and more a la skirllex imo)
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Old 09-11-2011, 12:21
Alrightmate
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I get what that article is going on about, dubstep music has become a little too electronic and now in alot of tracks the original "wobble" (sub-woofer) bass and dub like pattern seems to be disappearing.....

For me dubstep is the baby of drum&bass & dub genre's mixed up, hence the fast bpm.
Although I will listen to dubstep 80% more than other genre's
I also have my fair share of ragga, reggae & dancehall music
on my ipod still. (reggie stepper, aswad, bob,)

But sometimes I fear whether dubstep as a genre, is straying
abit to far from its roots. : / wait and find out.....in that case
the fans will further divide into mainstream and underground listeners.
I think that Dubstep still exists as an underground thing, but this diluted kind of pop-Dubstep is just that. Mind you they do that with all forms of underground music.
The more mainstream Dubstep probably has to sound different because raw Dubstep is hard to get sounding right for mainstream radio.
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Old 09-11-2011, 12:27
Alrightmate
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theres gotta be an element of dub in the dubstep for it really to be considered tho dont you think???

the whole "brostep" term is really helping to defen the new types to that which remember the reggae roots... beng a big reggae fan i think its important dubstep has that smooth dub vibe... early Rusko was a good for that although he appears to be more tailored to whats selling at the moment which is less dub influence (and more a la skirllex imo)
I think so. Otherwise you may as well just call it something else.
Some of the stuff is more like just normal mainstream electronic dance music that may be a bit more bassy, or sometimes even not. Which would be sacrilege I have to say.

A lot of the original Reggae Dub had that spacey feeling of depth. I believe that if you don't have that then you don't really have much in the way of Dubstep. It might be Dubsteppy, Dubstepesue, or Dubstep-like, but I think it'd feel like an inferior imitation of what it's trying to be like.
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Old 09-11-2011, 12:42
Alrightmate
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I don't really see many similarities between dubstep and reggae.All the genres have certain similarities of course, but these two genres don't really sound alike and the whole idea of the artilce just seems a bit far-fetched I like 'dubstep' and 'reggae' and I don't really need to put them together in order to have a "connection to world music" Is that too bad?

Anyway, I don't believe 'REAL' dubstep.Dubstep, like all the other genres, has evolved and developped through the years.It couldn't stay the same forever Especially when dubstep started getting recognition and taking over YouTube's main page, it was inevitable for the sound to change.When dubstep acts are charting, they will have to start making dubstep more mainstream and take away some of its experimentation in order to introduce it to the masses.I personally dislike 95% of the dubstep songs that are successful on the internet right now, but that's how dubstep evolved
I don't think that making Dubstep more mainstream in order to appeal to the masses is the same thing as the music evolving.

People will experiment with it and it will evolve, but I think you're more likely to see that in the underground where it came from.

The mainstream are only going to cherry pick the bits they want that they believe will sell, and that hardly ever involves evolving or experimenting. Conversely when the mainstream takes music from where it came from in most cases it tends to devolve it and dilute it until it sounds like other genres that have melted into the mainstream pot.
That will also include production sound. With Dubstep the sound production is vitally important so it's not going to be that easy to make a direct transplant and present it to the masses. Although some reasonable Dubstep influenced or inspired music may come of it.
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Old 09-11-2011, 13:12
O.Michel
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I agree that dubstep seems to be losing a lot of its principal elements in order to crack the mainstream, but don't all genres have to go through that phase??Look at hip hop for example.It used to be the music that inspired the whole hip hop culture, but now it's just bubblegum nursery rhymes for the radio.However, I get your point that changes like that are not actually an evolution, but more like a way to conform with the mainstream and the current relevant music genres....

That said, even the new watered down and altered version of dubstep seems to be just a little more creative than the techno/electro pop mania of the last few years.I prefer the old dubstep, but I think that its new form is at least tolerable and that's more than I can say for some of the biggest pop hits in 2011
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Old 09-11-2011, 15:31
PiedPiperPromo
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do genres crack the mainstream or does the mainstream crack the genre? its only where i see artists changing there own style to fit to a mainstream lable that i think that woudl be relevant... alot of dubstep artsits still produce the same type of music they always have, if the mainstream tastes change to incorporate that its not so much the artist trying to crack the mainstream

i guess it poses the queestion of why artists make music. for the music or for the fame (no lady gaga quotes please lol)
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