A thing called music

One of the things I most often hear about dubstep is that it's not 'real' music. That because it has no melody or vocals it has no meaning, no musical structure. I say that's poop. Did you know when the electric guitar was invented the general population thought it was the music of the devil, just screechy dissonance with no musical merit? Something the kids would get over in a matter of years, a fad born out of the youth's desire to rebel and be different to the previous generation. Then, as we all know Rock and Roll became the most succesful musical genre ever, capturing millions of people's hearts and souls, inspiring countless works and movements, bringing our culture out of the repressive early 20th century into the decadent, liberated times we live today.

Adults and the Elderly say similar things about dubstep now. It's 'Just noise' to them. I ask you, what is music if not 'just noise'? If dubstep is not real music, what about manufactured artists and bands like Justin Bieber or One Direction? They do not write their songs or their music, their moves are choreographed, their tours planned by managers, their sponsors decided for them. Is that 'real' music simply because it has words and a standard melody? What about beatboxing? Is beatboxing music? Of course it is. So is One Direction, so is Rock and Roll and so is dubstep.

One great thing I heard from the mother of my half-sister was that to her dubstep sounds like factory noises (that being why she didn't really like it when compared to her favorites such as Billy Joel or Ben Howard). I actually quite liked that because in a way she was right. What music could possibly sum up this generation better than the sounds of the factory? The school system: Churning out the future workforce with no regard to individuality, recognising special needs only when there is a bit of paper to authenticate it, forcing every malleable young mind through the same mold, acting like it is the fault of the product when the the assembly line has failed. The factory of our future. If Mozart was born today his genius would likely never have been properly nurtured. How could he focus on music, his life's work when first he had a legal obligation to sit through science and geography lessons, knowing full well his place was behind the piano and not scribbling down calculations and locations. If Mozart was born today, no doubt he would be called a drop-out and a lout. The factory is all we know, from age five to death. After we leave school we take our places in an even larger factory, but instead of the goods being handled we are the cogs of the machinery that keep it all running, the lubricant and the moving parts, the technicians and the button-pushers. If Rock and Roll was the sound of freedom, dubstep is the sound of seven billion caged monkeys.