Those who know of Skream know of his influence on the current state of dubstep. Without pioneers like him, Hatcha, Benga, Kode9 and others, who knows if the “dubstep” sound would have ever been achieved or reached the popularity that boasts today? However, Skream has long since thrown the dubstep moniker to the side, and Benga has left DJing behind completely. So where do we go from here?
Skream recently did an interview with Fact and happened to talk about what he thinks the future of EDM will hold.
In the States, things like Disclosure becoming really popular and being massive is great, especially off the back of fucking EDM – I call it the mushroom cloud. At the moment, it feels like people are realising that the music that is involved is shite. And now good music is starting to become popular. Especially in America: people like Kaytranada are fucking amazing, and he’s actually getting props, whereas in the past you’d have someone like that who would be really good, but it would be held really underground and not really appreciated.
I do think EDM’s coming to an end – well, not an end, Vegas will always be there, Vegas isn’t dying! Everyone seems to be embracing deep house – I do hear deep house around a lot more then before. If you think about six/seven years ago, deep house was like Naked Naked music, it was almost jazzy! In America, if you go to a good house party, it’s now just generally good music, nobody really knows what it is. There’s a lot more interest in it, people are interested in good music again, which is good. The sort of umbrella term for it seems to be ‘deep house’, although it’s not really deep house. You get SOHN – he’s doing some amazing stuff, and it all stems off the back of what everyone classes as ‘deep house’.
So for sure, he isn’t saying EDM is coming to an end. And when Skream says “EDM,” he’s not talking about the umbrella term but rather the acronym denoting what I would rather call commercial dance music. It’s utterly perplexing how this argument of “such-and-such is dead/dying” continues to persevere despite staggering evidence to the contrary in almost every context. People thought drum & bass would die but it’s still one of the strongest underground genres today, alone with techno, garage and breaks. While I would concede that dubstep had its peak in 2010/2011, the scene is still strong with rising stars like Twine, Trollphace, and Getter.
“XXXX Is Dead” is what I would consider a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more you tell yourself that and surround yourself in that mentality, the more likely it is to come true. And with the human race loving drama as much as we do, it’s a mentality we tend to exploit. In order to combat the “supposed” decline of EDM or whatever genre-of-the-day it is, my advice would be to simply put that thinking out of your head and live on doing what you’re doing. As long as one person loves a genre and embraces it, it will never die.
I think those preaching some variant of ‘EDM is dead’ are missing something. Yes, the scene has a rather uninspiring crust of worn-out party music (and this is what the world sees of us), but buried deep within there are pockets multifarious of honest, underground goodness. I still see them from time to time. You just have to know where to find them.
I can understand––now more than ever––the temptation to shun anything with 10,000+ follows/likes and plunge headlong into hipsterism, scoffing at the aforementioned crust all the way down. But there’s an evil of a different kind in this: thinking in terms of PLUR, hipsterism necessarily alienates, bringing disunity. I don’t ask you shun anything or anyone. In fact, I ask that you embrace the scene: yes it has its flaws, but you have to see the GOOD in it. It’s not all corrupted. I’ve seen the good. There are those out there just as interested in keepin’ it real as you are, and who have done their best to make it so. You just have to find them. They’re waiting for someone like you.
It’s about good music, guys: don’t ever forget that. And as long as there is anyone, even a single person in the scene who remembers this and lives by it, EDM IS NOT DEAD. – Martin Reid
Photo Credit: Fenna F
