elitism in dnb

Now some of you might like this, and it maybe isn't true but here is another take...

When you first start listening to dnb at a younger age you fall into a few categories: the jump up raver, think youre a badman kinda thing... Which i fell into for a bit. Or maybe you start out as an indie kid and dig the Hospital good vibes scene...

Then you go raving for a few years and start to find your style... Those who do and stick with dnb usually become progressive. Leaving the straight jump-up and maybe going to deeper darker, maybe tech stuff. The hospital heads then realise stuff lies beyond High Contrast and seek some more soulful tunes, Calibre/Marcus/Klute stuff.

Either way I think its all gravy as long as you are supporting the scene.
 
Different opinions are great, and this type of dialogue is wonderful.

RocksteadyUK said:
It's all bollocks.... Grow up a little, accept other peoples views and move on.
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Agreed.

As much as i accept others points of view, i don't have to like every bit of music i hear or every point of view that is presented to me. If i wanna say i don't like jump up, or we should throw hazard to the wolves: this should never translate to elitism.
 
deadaelus said:
If i wanna say i don't like jump up, or we should throw hazard to the wolves: this should never translate to elitism.
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Joker...

Though he would blatantly turn a quote like ' thrown to the wolves ' in to some wobble jump up anthem that youngins would chew their lips off too
 
Cosmo said:
I've seen a lot of people ridiculed for their taste in drum and bass, not just here but particularly online and on youtube videos as well.
Now there's loads of people who don't listen to drum and bass at all; some listen to jazz, others hip hop or metal, so usually it's just accepted that some people will want to listen to one kind of music or another.
Most sensible people don't mock ska musicians or whatever for their taste in music, because its simply pointless to try to criticise people for having an opinion of what music is good and what is bad. Ridiculing someone for liking jazz is like ridiculing someone for liking marmite or anchovies.

So why within drum and bass should the same not apply? If people want to listen to Pendulum or Clipz I don't see what the problem is if they enjoy the music.
Indeed, I've seen many examples where someone's first introduction to dnb is Pendulum, and surely if this introduces people to the scene it can only be a good thing? There's definitely no harm in enjoying a piece of music, that's what it was made for. Just because someone wants to listen to jump up but not dark/neuro, does that make them somehow lesser to those who do the opposite? Not at all. And if they've not heard a drum and bass tune from before 2000, does that make them not 'leet' & 'hardcore' enough to enjoy and discuss the music? It shouldn't

I've seen this kind of egotism before, and I vividly remember how prevalent it was in the metal scene (and undoubtedly still is), particularly in the 'underground' black metal circles. In these cultures, people even go to great lengths to make their music obscure, hard to find and sometimes atonal, just to keep it 'grim' and elite. Any group that is too 'soft' or not evil or dark enough is simply dismissed. Music that slightly deviates from the format is classed as pussy emo music. It's pathetic and makes me sick with general distaste for the human race. I'm sorry but that's how I feel, because arrogance and elitism and two things that I find unforgivable. One could even consider the similarities between this kind of elitism and civil rights issues of the past decade.

Drum and bass is getting bigger and bigger all the time, especially here in the UK where it has already touched the mainstream and gets regular plays on radio one. There is no better way to kill what is such a diverse and exciting genre than by strangling it and forcing it to be this or that, forcing it to fit to a certain criteria. One of the reasons drum and bass has developed so well is because it hasn't been afraid to take influences from other genres.

rant over
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Shoulda locked the thread right after you posted this and have it stickied. Pure truth. Tasty.
 
right... I'm going to get gunned for this.
I completely agree with the fact that elitism in D&B is a bad thing first off.
BUT, is it not fair to say, those who only delve in jump-up or "pendulum heads" as were mentioned earlier are actually less involved with the scene? I mean, I've got a shite load of jump up and Hold Your Colour on vinyl, but i still think to be kept to your catchy basic listening of say jump up or "cheesy" pendulum [although i think there works like Still Grey and Girl in the fire were incredible] is a very lame thing to do. So when i hear somebody say "Little hud-rats just love their wobble" it is kind of true, and maybe they should try and progress into more selective or genres of D&B. Or once somebody said to me about 3 months ago "If it isn't pendulum its not drum & bass" [actual quote i swear] they should be told whats going on. But if they said "Hold your colour is a tune" i'd completely agree and try and show them that theres more than pendulum knocking about.
Basically, whether you like it or not, there is going to be that "Higher-archy" if you will in music, and its probably deserved, if somebody who listened to D&B for the past 10 years advised me a track, I'd be far more inclined to buy it than if I was advised by somebody who listened to jump-up for the past year. Doesn't that mean you value there opinion more?

NOTE: I DO LIKE JUMP UP, AND IM CERTAINLY NOT CALLING MYSELF PART OF A HIGHER-ARCHY
 
ali^ said:
right... I'm going to get gunned for this.
I completely agree with the fact that elitism in D&B is a bad thing first off.
BUT, is it not fair to say, those who only delve in jump-up or "pendulum heads" as were mentioned earlier are actually less involved with the scene? I mean, I've got a shite load of jump up and Hold Your Colour on vinyl, but i still think to be kept to your catchy basic listening of say jump up or "cheesy" pendulum [although i think there works like Still Grey and Girl in the fire were incredible] is a very lame thing to do. So when i hear somebody say "Little hud-rats just love their wobble" it is kind of true, and maybe they should try and progress into more selective or genres of D&B. Or once somebody said to me about 3 months ago "If it isn't pendulum its not drum & bass" [actual quote i swear] they should be told whats going on. But if they said "Hold your colour is a tune" i'd completely agree and try and show them that theres more than pendulum knocking about.
Basically, whether you like it or not, there is going to be that "Higher-archy" if you will in music, and its probably deserved, if somebody who listened to D&B for the past 10 years advised me a track, I'd be far more inclined to buy it than if I was advised by somebody who listened to jump-up for the past year. Doesn't that mean you value there opinion more?

NOTE: I DO LIKE JUMP UP, AND IM CERTAINLY NOT CALLING MYSELF PART OF A HIGHER-ARCHY
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I agree with what you say. Having a hierarchy is part of human nature and it will be found in every part of human life. Accept it. Move on.
 
ali^ said:
But if they said "Hold your colour is a tune" i'd completely agree and try and show them that theres more than pendulum knocking about.
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i agreed with everything but this, because hold your colour is, in my opinion, a pretty crappy tune, and that tune is what seemed to have started pendulum on that downward spiral into stadium dnb or whatever it is.

now girl in the fire is great on the other hand, and uses samples like dance music has traditionally done for years...
 
riisu said:
sucks being 16.
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i dunno man, you get to really come into dnb at a great time with so much going on.

i bloody wish i was 16 again, especially now as i would have much more time to spend on dnb without the hassle of work and a g/f who eats up my weekends!

you may not get to go to bashments, but time for that will come and you will go in knowing so much more then the little knobs i see running around.
 
riisu said:
sucks being 16.
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Is that aimed at me?
I'm seventeen and I've been to every event near by and listened to D&B for the past 5 years, so I think it's unfair to somehow use that against my point [im not saying that like i've been in D&B for a long time, but just as im 17 doesn't make me "new to the scene"
 
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Well, Pendulum did kind of get me into the scene with the publicity they began to get with their newer stuff. I realised that people were calling this drum & bass, so I investigated and spent alot of time listening to different stuff and finding out what I liked. Came on here, realised there was so much better music than Pendulum and that they weren't really DnB any more. Got some recommendations from you guys and now I'm into all kinds of shit. (Noisia, Spor, Ewun, Upbeats, Hospital stuff, Break, Dirtyphonics, etc)

Only a few people who I know are into DnB, we all have different tastes - it's all good and we share music (not the bad kind) with each other. Other people who have no interest in DnB I slag off for their shitty taste in music and blast some Noisia in their face :p

Not sure what my point is anymore :rinsed: ....but yeah, DnB is badass!
 
Not True, you get elitism in all forms of music- Rock/Metal music is a good exmaple- You'll always have your old skool rockers who Love Led Zeppelin, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Anthrax etc who always take the piss out of the new generation bands.

The Only major difference between Drum and Bass and Rock/Metal is that because Rock and metal are alot older (In terms of how long the genre has been around for) the 'Social Groups' who listen to whatever (Emo's, Metalheads whatever) are alot more apparent because of how Broad the genre is now.

Wheras with Drum and Bass any listener is lumped into the same catergory- and that is that you listen to Drum and Bass, I mean, so it just seems as if everyone is just bickering about the same genre, even though they're not.

Something like that anyway.
 
ZackMRG said:
Not True, you get elitism in all forms of music- Rock/Metal music is a good exmaple- You'll always have your old skool rockers who Love Led Zeppelin, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Anthrax etc who always take the piss out of the new generation bands.

The Only major difference between Drum and Bass and Rock/Metal is that because Rock and metal are alot older (In terms of how long the genre has been around for) the 'Social Groups' who listen to whatever (Emo's, Metalheads whatever) are alot more apparent because of how Broad the genre is now.

Wheras with Drum and Bass any listener is lumped into the same catergory- and that is that you listen to Drum and Bass, I mean, so it just seems as if everyone is just bickering about the same genre, even though they're not.

Something like that anyway.
Click to expand...

In the hxc/punk scene it's pretty bad too. Kids who think they're are punk rock gods because they happened to grow a mohawk and where the pins/patches, etc..Can't get away from it no matter what. Someone out there always wants to feel they're better than others.
As for the bold pointed out quote..don't forget there are "junglist" as well in the drum n' bass genre, not to nit pick, but it's there. pz
 

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