Grinds my Gears: Dubstep

You know what really grinds my gears?
This techno/dubstep movement.

Now, I can’t tell people what kind of music to like or what to listen to, but this is hardly music. There was never a composer that spent countless hours sweating and agonizing over a single note, nor was there even a thug from the streets putting together lyrics about how low his significant other gets on the dance floor. Dubstep music and the genres similar to it are primarily manufactured by some societal reject sitting at home on his computer putting together computer synthesized sounds while eating Cheetos and debating whether his next shower will be tomorrow or next week. There is no problem with people finding these computer generated strings of sounds appealing, but it isn’t music.

Furthermore, I fail to understand why people will pay $60 or more of their hard-earned money to go to one of these concerts? Getting my eardrums blown off and having to smell everyone around me while the only visual entertainment available is some dude with long hair bobbing his head on stage does not sound appealing. Personally, if I wanted to see a stoner on his computer listening to bad music, I could go to the University of Colorado at Boulder library for free.

I have a confession. Two years ago, over Christmas break, my friends convinced me to go to an electronic music concert. Having nothing better to do and not knowing much about these things, I agreed to go. Immediately after setting foot inside the venue, I was greeted with more flashing lights than Justin Bieber walking the red carpet, and a smell reminiscent of Boulder on the week following 4/20. That I could deal with, as I do not suffer from epilepsy or emphysema, however, I had not been there for five minutes when some short guy with dreads came up and said, “Bro you got some ‘X?'” I later found out “X” was slang for ecstasy – needless to say, I wasn’t in my element. One, I am not your bro, so quit acting like you know me. Two, this guy must have been on something heavy at that point because, in my opinion, I thought I was the only person there who looked like he wasn’t on some kind of illegal substance. I stayed throughout the concert and acted like I was having fun for my friends’ sake, but I vowed to myself never to return.

Whatever happened to real music that is not computer synthesized noise? Even Lil Wayne is producing more harmonic sounds than these electronic “artists.” This kind of “music” is on the rise, and that rise may bring an end to music that involves sweat, tears, and actual meaning. Skrillex, with his long hair and fake glasses, may be replacing the classic artists like Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Akon.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what grinds my gears.