Burial

[kid cue]

Originally Posted by BrotherLovesDub

Various are less dubstep to you than Burial? I completely disagree. alright, Various obv. do many diff. genres but they've also done tunes that are much closer to the sound of dubstep than Burial. guess what? Dubstep dj's vibe off/play Various cuts!

that's fine, i don't really listen to Various and i've never heard them played out, so it's my personal dubstep mind that doesn't care. they may have made tracks that have archetypal dubstep qualities, but they don't have the same social-cultural-musical resonance that Burial has (not just for me but for everyone), even if none of his songs resemble the "standard dubstep template" as much as 1 or 2 Various songs. as far as "dubstep" goes, Various mean about as much to me as Squarepusher appeals to my junglist side (ie 0.1%).

i guess i would be OK with defining some songs of Burial's as dubstep but mostly his albums sound like Ambient albums that are influenced by 2step, dub and dnb.

i don't see what the point of making this distinction is. you say you aren't preoccupied with genre labels but you clearly are, insofar as they help you find the "truth" about what an artist's genre DNA is. fine if Burial sounds like ambient that has dnb in it, but RIGHT NOW he is also a dubstep artist making dubstep records that emerge from the dubstep scene. Mala draws from house and makes dubstep. ditto Loefah for hip-hop. what's the point? everything has the potential of sounding like such-and-such album that is influenced by such-and-such genres.