Representation of artists Jusice: SBTRKT within electronic music
Electronic music is differentiated from other genres by how the sound is generated, electronic is formed with types of equipment which allows sound to be made artificially, this equipment is usually used alongside a computer with various software but can also be created with the use of drum machines, and midi samplers and other production equipment.
Electronic music rose in popularity in the 1960s era, popular bands such as The Beach Boys and The Beatles used electronic equipment to enhance their pop sounds, Duran Duran also used synths in their production in the 1980s, they pioneered the synth pop scene and influenced many electro-pop artists today.
In the 1990s Daft Punk reached a significant amount of popularity, a song on their second album ‘One More Time’ became a major club and mainstream hit, and introduced electronic music all around the world, Daft Punk didn’t disappoint with their live shows either, although they don’t play their music live, the visual elements included in their show emphasize their sounds, the robot costumes today are now synonymous with electronic music and have been featured in movies such as Tron.
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The artists who I will be writing about are Justice and SBTRKT. Justice, whom consists of French duo, Gaspard Augi?? and Xavier de Rosnay produce dauntless house music with heavy rock and metal influences. Since their formation in 2003, they have received 13 nominations and have won 5 awards including Best Video for D. A. N. C. E. , this song was included on their album ‘i?? ‘, an album which propelled them in popularity. They have remixed many popular artists such as Britney’s Spears ; Daft Punk and their remix of MGMT won a Grammy award.
Their singles were involved in popular dance-off video games on the Wii, and their recent release ‘Audio, Video, Disco’ was released in September and received a 4-Star rating from The Guardian. Justice is known to incorporate a strong rock and metal influence in their image ; musical style, in their production that includes cut-up basslines, and distorted synth sounds, have created a huge hype for the live shows, which are known to be extremely powerful and ear splitting.
SBTRKT, whom is a relatively new artist, music is what you would call ‘post-dubstep’ in other words the more soulful sound of electronic music, full of subs, crisp drumlins, sparse instrumentation and darker vibes, his music has been placed in steady rotation by Radio One, and his tracks range from minimalistic dubstep to electro house with heavy disco influences.
SBTRKT is an alias used to support the concept of anonymity, he explained in an interview that he’d rather not talk about himself as a person, and let the music speak for itself, he portrayed this through his name SBTRKT which is pronounced ‘subtract’ the name allows him express his music separate from any single person or image, this is unlike the Justice duo as they seem to thrive off the rockstar lifestyle outside of their music, in their documentary ‘A Cross The Universe’ clips were comprised of the Justice member gesturing women in their shows to bare breasts, pouring alcohol over cuts, and taking various drugs, This represents SBTRKT as a more down to earth individual, who lives for the music, rather than the lifestyle that successful music exposes, whereas Justice is represented as a duo who approach life in a James dean-esque live fast, die young philosophy, this exhibits at their live shows where they perform in a larger than life manner, and is also evident in their music videos.
In the music video for ‘Stress’, Justice caused uproar as the pounding Daft Punk-esque beat was accompanied by intense and aggressive visual which resulted in much controversy from the public, the director, Romain Gavras is recognised for his provocative videos, and has directed others such as M. I. A’s ‘Born Free’.
Stress’ visuals follow a gang of thugs sporting Justice bomber jackets as they terrorise a city, and it’s residents, the result is a brutal 6-minute video, which is disturbing and stunning to watch at the same time, I believe Justice purposefully chose such a controversial director to create a music video to accompany Stress, the video raises albums eyebrows, which is key for an artist to be remembered in the music industry, Madonna is another artist who constantly released controversial music videos and successfully maintained her pop career flame, her videos ‘Like A Prayer’ and ‘Justify My Love’ both included hugely sexual themes and provocative imagery, and artists such as Lady Gaga, whom persistently pushes the limits, holds the most amount of twitter followers in the world, this seems to conclude that the key to remembrance and success is controversy and thinking outside the box, and although I praise innovativeness in the music industry, I believe some artists hold a constant need to outdo everyone and themselves, and this has the opportunity to create ridiculous results, for example, Lady Gaga seems to have an endless rabbit hat of ridiculous ideas that she puts into motion, such as her man alter-ego, I believe if this is continued it could result into spiralling out of control, similar to Britney in her shaved head period.
I believe Justice releasing Strees was a fantastic move to introduce Justice to a mainstream audience, but I believe they shouldn’t carry on a controversial approach to music, as they may start producing music and developing an image to fit the agenda of being scandalous and provocative rather than being their own person and producing the music they want to.
SBTRKT approaches the music industry perfectly, he has assigned an innovative image to himself, and now wears a mask, and allows his the mask to be the face of his music, like Justice he has approached electronic music in a unique way, and mixed popular genres RnB, soul and dubstep to create his own unique blend, I believe he will only continue to impress in the future, his debut SBTRKT received a 8. 1 rating off pitchfork and his live shows have been described as being faultless, their live shows consist of SBTRKT utilizing electronic and acoustic drums, alongside triggering samples, Sampha, a frequent collaborator plays alongside him with keyboards and adds vocals to him tracks.
The song Pharaohs features popular soul singer Rose Gabour, the video directed by Tim Brown whom also directed Tinie Tempah’s Pass Out offers a radio-friendly video for a radio-friendly song, I believe the video could have pushed more limits, but being the way it is now – simple but memorable, the video allows it to be more accessible to the audience, Rose Gabour seems to be the front of the video, this pushes SBTRKTs ideology to let the music to the talking rather than him, as he would have produced the instrumental and wrote the lyrics, bu appears to be in the background of the music video, occasionally dj’ing in his trademark mask whilst Rose Gabour dances, this represents SBTRKT to be subtle, but powerful.
To conclude, I believe both artists excel in the type of electronic music produce, Justice, write addictive melodies in their production and avoid the frat-boy market many electronic producers similar to Justice seem to follow, where there is a huge element of macho-ism being reflected, for example artists such as Skrillex who also include metal influences has seemed to have wandered away from the ethos of electronic music, where he and other electronic producers alike have developed a new ethos where it’s constantly a struggle to create to most filthiest bass sound, but in effect, the sound they produce occurs so often in modern electronic music that It almost appears to be bland and repetitive, Justice has maintained a unique element in their music, and produced a diverse musical style, the duo constantly keep up with the ever-changing electronic genre, but also add their own flair to it, as with SBTRKT who has developed a hugely unique musical style which I predict will take the UK music scene by storm very shortly.
