Excision weighs in on the ‘death of dubstep’Ecision Live

Excision weighs in on the ‘death of dubstep’

As electronic gains popularity in the American sphere, its dissemination and evolution has become expedited to such a point that the pursuant influx in genres – and the correlative appreciation of their fan bases – has seemingly reached an impasse. That is to say, as new genres constantly emerge, and their coverage becomes increasingly detailed, it is hard for any electronic genre to have a lasting impact.

In 2010 and 2011, the American iteration of dubstep found itself in the spotlight. In following years, the 140-BPM, LFO heavy genre has yielded its significance to trap, future house, and other genres, leading fans to the popular conclusion that dubstep is “dead.”

Jeff Abel has established himself as a figurehead of the now-diminutive genre under his widely celebrated alias, Excision. Abel took to Facebook this week to share his perspectives on the popular but dismissive aforementioned sentiment:

The reality is that Dubstep became bigger than anyone ever expected it to, and for a time, a large portion of the people attending shows were there because it was the “cool” thing. Those people have all moved on to the next hipster trend, and the Dubstep scene was left with all the people who are there for the music.

In my opinion that’s a huge win. For someone outside our scene looking in, it would make sense if ticket sales, track sales etc completely fell off the map. I can’t speak for other artists, but for me, they have been steadily increasing every year and continue to do so. The amount of energy I’ve seen from dance floors this year puts the previous years to shame! Part of this is because the crowd has been refined to music lovers, the other part is because there has been a reduction in quantity, and an increase in quality.

We are seeing all the guys who got big in Dubstep experiment with making a wide variety of genres, and that’s a good thing. It’s fun to mix things up, and you can hear the influence of Dubstep sounds in every current big genre from Trap to Downtempo stuff to nearly every subgenre of House. It’s influenced other genres so much that the internet explodes with people arguing over what’s what. Forget about classifying everything, but if you must, I prefer to simply use the catch-all “Bass Music”.

Regardless of how popular a genre is, its popularity has nothing to do with how we feel about the music that we love, and that’s how it should be. Spread and support music you love.

The umbrella-term of “bass music” is all but ubiquitous in electronic music’s current state. Dubstep artists at all levels have evolved; Smaller producers have tried their hand at fame by experimenting in other realms, while dubstep icons internationally have transcended their original limitations. In terms of musical flexibility, Skrillex leaves no stone unturned, while dubstep progenitor Skream has diverged into totally different directions.

Excision closes his argument by stating that a genre’s “popularity has nothing to do with how we feel about the music that we love, and that’s how it should be.” Though classic dubstep names may have veered away from the classic definitions of the genre in its strictest form, their pursuit of new and interesting sounds continues. True fans of the genre haven’t dismissed the sentiments that are inextricable from the music that they love, but have moved onto the most current music that evokes the same feelings.

Dubstep isn’t dead, but limitation is dying.

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Excision & Pegboard Nerds – Bring the Madness (Original Mix)

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