2005.10.25.1651 :: some of your friends are probably already this fucked

it's interesting to read all the grime/dubstep interviews, blogs and forums and see the outlook that everybody has on the scene. it's almost like nobody paid any attention to anything that happened before them (which i guess fits in with the whole "plastikman"/"plasticman" debacle). essentially, it seems that everybody in grime is determined to relive the same mistakes that hip hop made in its early stages and dubstep is determined to follow the exact path of jungle.

did the 90s not happen? don't we remember anything about major labels? it seems like everybody in the grime scene is living under a few bad assumptions. the biggest is that they seem to think they're bigger than they actually are. i've tried to book a few grime shows and had to back off because they wanted a lot more money than they could've ever generated, wanted flights + hotels for them and their entourage, etc.

the other big problem is that they seem to think that all they should want is to sign with a major label ASAP. i mean, you don't need to look any further than lethal b/more fire to realize how bad that is. "oi!" charted at #8 in the uk (highest of any "grime" tune) and more fire still ended up getting dropped from their deal.

it's obvious that majors don't really understand "underground electronic music" of any form and especially not grime and definitely don't know how to properly promote it. more importantly, what's the rush to get signed to a major label? doesn't anybody remember how hard they've screwed over artists in the past? what happened to diy?

dubstep, on the other hand, seems to be going the other way and fighting exposure as much as they can. they're basically following the jungle model of controlling the scene through dubplate culture so that only a few DJs can get big and the sound can be somewhat shaped by the top producers, and we all remember how well that worked for jungle, quickly driving everybody but the diehard internet nerds away from it. music shouldn't be a "my dubplate collection is more upfront than yours" pissing contest.

isn't there some sort of happy medium where people can just focus on making music they like and playing shows, building up their fanbase and making a decent living while doing it? does it really have to be one of the extremes of blinged-out videos on MTV or dubplate/white label only/tracks never seeing the light of day?

anyway, i don't know the point of my rant on this except that it's frustrating to watch good music being limited by what i perceive as bad management. i guess it just reminds me a lot of this steve albini article that's stuck with me ever since i read it.