PBS Idea Channel

Is Dubstep Avant Garde Musical Genius? (1x15)

Air date: Aug 01, 2012

Dubstep. Is. Awesome. While some people may hear noise, we hear amazing musical genius. The aural creativity of Dubstep, and its embrace of inharmonic sounds, makes it the most recent member of the long-established Avant Garde community. There is a long history of avant garde musicians and thinkers promoting the concept of noise and non-instrumental sounds as MUSIC, much to the horror of their audience. But over the past century, changes in technology and music genres have primed listeners, allowing mainstream audiences to enjoy the beautiful noise of Skrillex, Bassnectar & the whole Dubstep movement.