Not What It Was Meant To Be

I was reading an article recently where James Blake was talking about the current state of things with dubstep.  He basically said there was too much testosterone in it, and women would probably have a hard time relating to it.  He went on to say that this is not what dubstep was supposed to be about; it had much different origins.  

I must first of all say, I bought the James Blake album, and love it.  But I don't share this opinion.  Here's why.

When I was in highschool, I was in a punk band. (Yep)  I remember this topic was a regular conversation piece at that time.  There were the "real" punk bands, and then there was bands like us- who just loved punk music, and also sometimes dressed like one a little bit.  There was always lots of talk about the REAL meaning of punk music and it's roots.  We were often told that spoiled suburban white kids couldn't really grasp the meaning.  But my feeling was always, "We just play music that we like" and tried not to get hung up in the politics of the punk world.

While I certainly can respect a good story about where a genre came from, I respectfully disagree with Mr. Blake.  And though I used something he said in passing, I'm trying to illustrate a larger point here.  And that is this.  Almost nothing we do creatively, is completely mindful or respectful of it's roots.  Music right now is not what it was supposed to be.  We base our system of music on a series of notes within a scale.  This scale was created by men- not God.  There were hundreds of years spent studying melody and harmony.  You may not know this, but for a long time there were rules for which chords you could use in a piece.  Rules for which chord must follow another, and how chords resolved.  Rules for intervals that the melody line was allowed to jump.  It's also important to note that music was not intended to be quantized, and snapped to a grid.  It was meant to speed up and slow down, get louder and softer.

I will freely admit that I give little or no thought to the traditional rules of harmonic practice while I am writing.  But I write music that I like.  And oddly enough, the thought of the composers before me taking offense to my music doesn't hinder me in the slightest.  

Just a thought.  Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

Comments

[Mydumbcreations.wordpress.com]

Well I recently saw a woman out-moshing all the guys in a mosh pit. It was fairly impressive. I could never do that kind of stuff. So I don't really think it's a gender-issue. It's more about your temperament and personality the way I see it.