Now, this is going to be the first instalment of a two part blog. I read an article written by a "Christian", professing how Skrillex advocates rape, devil worship and other horrific and unforgivable sins such as lesbianism. Obviously cat shit like this deserves a response but this particular blog is going to focus less on crazy Christians and more on the people in my age group who seem to have taken a huge offence to his existence.
Now. Firstly I want to say what an amazing gig it was. I've seen some pretty big acts (Aerosmith, AC/DC, Rage Against the Machine, Nero, Ed Sheeran) and I can honestly say that, not even taking the actual music into consideration, Skrillex was by far the best. He interacted with the crowd, got sweaty with the rest of us as he bopped around stage, mixed his songs up a bit so we were hearing fresher versions of the hits we've grown to love and played an absolutely amazing variety. Knowing his songs were high energy and that the audience would probably flag towards the end, Skrillex included remixes of popular songs by Nero, Fat Man Scoop and Flo Rida in the middle of the set, opening and ending with his biggest hits so as to keep up the spirits of the crowd and prevent them from growing tired as it got closer to 11pm.
However, despite all this, the guy's definitely attracted his fair share of haters, and I can't understand why. The two main arguments that I have heard are "wa wa waa, he's ruining dubstep" and "but he's mainstream dude, talented people never go MAINSTREAM", oh fuck off.
First of all, Skrillex, or Sonny Moore, never claimed to be a conventional dubstep artist. He never claimed to have subscribed to this stereotype of what dubstep is. He describes his own music as "electro meets dubstep" and his Twitter states that he likes to "make all kinds of music", so why take such huge offence that it is not your typical underground dubstep sound? Nobody complains at anybody else for not being "dubstep" enough, not even those acts such as Nero, who do fall into that genre, so why attack somebody for not doing something properly, when they are not even trying to do the thing that you say they are failing to do?!
Skrillex is one of the few people in this day and age who has been innovative enough to create his own sound, and I think that he should be appreciated for that. He isn't just making music to fit a particular scene: he's taking different kinds of music from many different genres, even reggae, and mashing it all up to create his own individual sound. It might not be to your taste and it might not sound like normal dubstep but does that matter? Just because something isn't to your taste doesn't mean that the person producing it is not good at what they do. I'm not a fan of opera but I can hardly sit here and have a go at opera singers for being untalented.
Skrillex is clearly passionate about making music. That much is evident. He even says that as soon as he finishes a gig, he goes home and writes more music. If somebody is genuinely passionate about something then who are we to tell them that they should not be allowed to do it? Plus, is dubstep evolving necessarily a bad thing? All music evolves. Imagine what people thought when punk rock emerged, but without it would we have huge pop-punk bands like Blink 182, or even modern indie music as a genre? Of course not!
Nobody likes change at first but something developing and changing is inevitable, and it doesn't mean that the older dubstep will cease to exist: it is merely giving birth to younger, slightly different versions of itself and how can the birth of new music ever be a bad thing to somebody who is supposed to appreciate music?
As for the second argument, do me a favour and grow up. If something is mainstream then it means it is popular and that the artist is successful. If my favourite band were an unknown act and then they suddenly got recognised and became famous, I'd be pleased that more people were being exposed to, and enjoying their music! I'd also be pleased for the artists for achieving their dream. It might not make you seem as "cool" as you did when you were talking about bands that us mere mortals had never heard of but who cares? You can still listen to people's music whether they are underground or mainstream, and if you love dubstep so much then just be happy that more people are discovering it, even if it isn't exactly the kind of dubstep that you'd choose to listen to.
It's a teenage thing. Teenagers have always had this strange sense of elitism and superiority where music is concerned and it's fucking pathetic. If you don't like somebodies music then don't listen to them. If you don't like the fact that they're successful at what they do and have a bigger fanbase than your favourite act then grow up and stop being so bitter.
As Skrillex himself said, "Should I not be allowed to do this? This is what I love to do! Regardless, I'm not doing anything wrong! I'm not killing babies, you know, I'm not doing anything bad. You don't have to like my music."
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