Melodic Dubstep Is Losing Creativity | Rant

Melodic Dubstep Is Losing Creativity

Melodic dubstep was my prime and it was my soul during 2019, 2020, 2021 namely. Highlighted by Virtual Riot, Teminite, Au5, Seven Lions, Trivecta, and also Crystal Skies, Derpcat among others, this genre was truly incredible. It's made up of powerful, uplifting, and heavenly chords with beautiful melodies. The drops are so dynamic within itself and it paints a soundscape that no other genre or subgenre achieves. And then you fill the gaps with the dubstep components which bring so much flow, strength, contrast, and fire. Melodic dubstep was my core where I branched into similar genres like future bass, electro house, and riddim. It was my obsession then, so look where we are now. Melodic dubstep is now being represented by the likes of Illenium, Dabin, ARMNHMR, Said the Sky, Kaskade, William Black, and these songs that I listen to don't get me wrong are fine tracks, but they are so incredibly bland and formulaic. Evertime I listen to the new Dabin collab with Said the Sky or some random collab from these artists it just sounds like I'm relistening to the same song for the 500th time. And this same song is not enjoyable whatsoever. 

The structure is basically 140 bpm then formed from generic vocal lines where they layer on a drop and then at that point they use the vocals to fill the drops. And most annoyingly for whatever reason these tracks consistently don't have a bridge or midsection, so it's just like, what am I listening to here? The track in its core is not bad, it's just how commercial and generic it is that makes it horrible. Legit nearly all these tracks have the most underwhelming fakeouts on the 2nd drop, the fakeouts are so bad too it pisses me off. Nowadays the only redeeming factor is if the vocals are special or they have a nice progression in the second verse. But I have little hope since these vocalists sound blander than the drops anyway. It's always some white lady they found off fiver that sounds like an exact carbon copy of salem ilese, idk why they do this but man outside of vocals it still just kills me that so many artists these days are just skipping a bridge. Anyway here's some similar perspectives from other people off Bowtied media comments:


That take just sums everything up. "Pleasant sounding chords and [generic, uninteresting] vocal styles" is really what pops out to me as the core components that makes these tracks so repetitive and subsequently awful. However, this structure does put more of an emphasis on the songwriting and vocals of a track, but the songwriting always ends up being built so commercially anyway. 

Now with that said, it's just the representation that is stimulating this rant. Illenium's tracks all sound the same if we're being honest ever since I started listening to him but now it's just so annoying because he's doing melodic dubstep drops and it just does this genre so bad, it takes away all the heart from it. And Illenium wouldn't pretty much be the face of melodic dubstep or now-called 'melodic bass' if so many people didn't like it, but to me I truly don't get what's so enticing about Illenium. The vocals are almost objectively commercial and the drops lack so much innovation and depth. Maybe they just haven't heard actual melodic dubstep yet. 

These days, you can still find great innovative melodic dubstep tracks, for example Au5's Bridges Between album in 2023 is a phenomenal example of this. The tracks in there are just so insane man just the progression and sound design in this melodic dubstep album is amazing. Other than that there's niches within melodic dubstep, like skybreak, chime, KERO, Aiobahn, and a lot of monstercat or rushdown artists. However as a whole the genre has been taking a hit, and for me it's because Virtual Riot and Teminite haven't released an album since 2019. Those two artists have been so dead, especially Virtual Riot. I'm just waiting for them to cook up man. VR's remix album Simulation DLC was a nice wake up but not an actual album. 

Lyric(s) of the Post:
To leave your past away
You'll feel inside decay
Like fading roses, falling over
A seal on a lonely day

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