During the last years, I've been steadily listening to current trends in various different electronic genres and I've noticed a certain shift in many of them, what I like to call the anticlimax.
An anticlimax is a part of the song which is preceded by a nice fill, a progressive 'rise' in the song which is made to get people ready for the climax. But instead of the climax, we get to hear this huge anticlimax which then leads to the rise some time after, facing another anticlimax. After the tune ends I'm left with this "Okay, that was nice but didn't reach the full potential"-feeling.
I've really noticed this mostly in dubstep and trance songs during the last years, and here are a few examples:
Notice at 2:45 how it starts to build up (read this while you listen) - The melody starts to arise from the cutoff and everything is feeling great and you're waiting for the big climax. I could imagine myself at a big trance event, everyone holding their hands up in the air, waiting for the climax to happen
3:42 "I'm getting ready! Let's go! This is the best part before the climax, oh yeaaaaaaaaaah"
4:09 Uh.... "Wait, what? What is this? Uhm, okay..."
You get the idea.
The next one is another known dubstep tune, and I should not probably blame dubstep for it's anticlimaxes because they have been there for a long time and are now an integral part of the genre - But man, I can't sometimes NOT be disappointed:
0:01 - "Oh man, this melody is sick, I love it! I would like to hear a whole dubstep song based on this melody!"
0:13 - "Old school jungle style! This is nuts, I'm waiting for the main part with a genius fusion of this oldskool melody and dubstep rhythm!
0:27 - "HHHHHHNNNNNGGGGGGGGG Okay that's it I'll put it on mute."
I'm sorry if anyone is offended by this but the above truly describes how I feel, I feel like a lot of potential wasted from omitting such original and unique melodies, and that's why I'm making a thread for it. I'm curious to know if anyone else has noticed this trend and how they feel about it.
I actually burst out laughing at 4:09 on the first tune you posted. Totally agree there.
The second video, I don't know if I'd call it "anticlimax" but more "ruining a great tune with way too hardcore dupstep stuff". It sucks when they don't fuse the themes together and the song is basically polar. Here's another example of it:
Now I still like the song, but wish the drops were less rough. I dunno, it might just mean we don't like dubstep
On May 09 2011 17:18 JediGamer wrote: It is a shame that dubstep and electronic are in the same category.
By electronic music I mean all the sub-genres below it, like trance, house, drum & bass, hardcore and so on. Dubstep IS a sub-genre of electronic music.
Agh I know what you mean, I recently got a huge compilation of some electronic music and the majority of them have a 'build up' which leads to disappointment. Some of them are still ok to listen to, but it just bugs me how often I run into them, I thought I was the only one annoyed by this.
I know exactly what you mean. I listened to your examples and I heard exactly what you heard, a ton of wasted potential. That dubstep song has a really cool, flowing opening and it just goes into the most generic and uninspired dubstep I've ever heard.
The genre for me is very love or hate. I find a lot of it to be very bland, or never reaching it's full potential. For the songs that do catch me, however, there is nothing else like it musically.
On May 09 2011 17:29 TerrorBird wrote: I know exactly what you mean. I listened to your examples and I heard exactly what you heard, a ton of wasted potential. That dubstep song has a really cool, flowing opening and it just goes into the most generic and uninspired dubstep I've ever heard.
The genre for me is very love or hate. I find a lot of it to be very bland, or never reaching it's full potential. For the songs that do catch me, however, there is nothing else like it musically.
That's been bothering me for the longest time! Dubstep has so much potential, and yet there's so much crap being blown up to be something amazing because the bass sounds "dirty." It's even more frustrating when you hear these incredibly well produced buildups, only to fall into the shittiest dubstep bass part you'll ever hear.
Makes me sad.
However, with bands like Pendulum, I think there's two reasons to their popularity. First off, catchy tunes and secondly, they actually pull off the climax. The build up and climax in The Island Part 2 is just out of this world.
On May 09 2011 17:49 Diglett wrote: I thought it's common knowledge that it's an established element of lots of progressive electronic musics. It's been like that for ages.
I only listen to electronic music for like 3 years now ... was it as prevalent before that as it is now? Because i feel it's overused. It certainly has it's applications but more often than not i am, like the OP, left disappointed.
You're a bit vague with this argument -- what should a proper climax sound like? Give an example; don't give me a bunch of songs and say they're all lacking in an arbritrary element. Is it quantifiable? I'm gonna need some more specifics on what this crescendo is, because I have a mental image of the banal cliche used in older electronic music where the drums would double in speed every two measures until it reached some ridiculous speed a la Sandstorn.
Like what a lot of other users have probably already pointed out, progressive music doesn't focus on resolving an element fully, but rather progressing from aspect to aspect -- almost like a seamless transition; nothing like the jarring machine-like resolutions in old dance music.
On May 09 2011 17:56 DERPDERP wrote: This anticlimax is called being not skilled enough to make a good track, just pick the cherries from the top and leave shit tunes to rot P:<
lol yeah....maybe its just the producer/artist/whatever you wanna call it's style
If you want songs with good drops, just listen to songs with good drops....imo you are just analyzing why the songs you listened to are bad. It is not a "symptom" of the electronic music industry.
On May 09 2011 17:49 Diglett wrote: I thought it's common knowledge that it's an established element of lots of progressive electronic musics. It's been like that for ages.
I only listen to electronic music for like 3 years now ... was it as prevalent before that as it is now? Because i feel it's overused. It certainly has it's applications but more often than not i am, like the OP, left disappointed.
TBH, I am a youngun as well and have only been listening to electronic music since late 90s.
This thing is pretty common in progressive, like progressive trance and house. It's like a tease. For example, many ppls know the build up and breakdown of progressive house. You got the generic 32 bar stuff with 8th note chords. Then the cutoff increases, kicks may stop and bam! cutoff super low again.
I know the feeling though. You want richer chords, more melodies more timbres more dis more dat. I feel it too LOL. Just the nature of that style of music. Part of it is the intended effect when played live by a DJ. Part of it is giving that teasy feeling where you expect more but don't get it.
Do note, I don't really have lots of knowledge, I'm just a happy progressive listener with half a year experience signed to a label (did not work outs!!).
i dont seem to understand your point. i think the intuitive response is that not all songs in the genre have to obey the same structure. You say you like big climax's and huge drops with about 10,000 layers of synths and percussion, great. some people don't. I find myself somewhere in the middle, it's great to hear people being experimental with drops and song structures, i think if every song built up and dropped in the same way then it would be a lot lot lot less of a genre. As for dubstep, it just sounds like you're saying that you don't like dubstep. the track you posted is telling of the recent mainstream / brostep developments in dubstep where you have a short intro and then a drop made up of a collection of unconnected extreme mid range noises. dubstep in its original (and true ) form wasn't like that and was much more intelligent, melodical etc.
but yeah, i wouldn't say it was 'wasted potential', that's just how some tracks are. it might be more of a modern change if thats what you were getting at, but thats just because people tend to get more experimental the longer they have to play around with something.
P.S heres one of my fav d&b tunes which completely works up purposely to the 'anti-climax' as you would describe. for me its absolute genius and in no way a dissapointment.
(build up at 0:40ish, drop at 1:30ish)
note: if you don't have a sub it will be nothing more than a snare for you.
To try to explain what a "climax" is, and add a bit of thought to what OP said, I would say that a "climax" in a song is the moment when the listener reaches an emotional liberation after a period of tension built up by an intricacy of different loops of sound. A perfect illustration for me would be "Let's Buy Happiness" from the german artist Boys Noize :
Launch the song and listen as you read the different part of what is written below.
The song starts with a repetitive and satured beat, and as the song goes on more sound loops are added to this beat to form a more and more complex tune.
Then at 2:47 comes the "pre-climatic" phase, where the main beat is cut and only the electronic synthe loops remains, making the listener eager for the return of the beat.
And then at 3:28... Eargasm, the main beat comes back with even more hypnotic and catchy loops.
I love this song for this reason. It is not specifically built around the idea of a climax, but there is such kind of climax in the middle of the song.
EPT
E: really eargasm worthy DnB. I personally hate Dubstep though
