How Did Skrillex Become So Popular?

Is this a corporate thing, because this came out of nowhere. I knew of him a few years ago, but nothing has happened that should be getting him this amount of coverage all of a sudden. He has a new album coming out, but it's not like he's had a whole load of success beforehand, not enough to get every magazine running after him. He's known in indie circles. I'm very aware of what he's doing at present. It just reeks of the industry deciding to push somebody, or "make" somebody. People like Skrillex usually get little coverage. What gives? He has talent, don't get me wrong, but that means nothing to the music industry. Rolling Stone has him on their main page, and are giving celebs makeovers with his signature hairstyle. His career basically consists of EPs. Is he sucking someone's dick?

• What the hell, OP?! Get it together, son, or don't come back.

• He's on heavy rotation on Sirius-XM. Payola is alive and well, folks.

• OP sounds old!

• r1 = hipster

• His mom went to high school with Paris Hilton's mom.

• He's not on a major, ladies. Stupid kids like him, that's why everyone's covering him now.

• He makes music that kids who grew up playing video games dance poorly to. It's like Tekken meets electro. Utter crap.

• It sounds like the soulless corporate shills who run the music industry in this country have finally caught on that dubstep is a very "in" thing among young people and aren't going to miss their opportunity to shamelessly make millions off this trend any longer. Actually, dubstep purists (fans of the original, UK-origin dubstep artists) consider Skrillex and his ilk something of an abomination and hate that their style of dubstep - which is basically centered around an elongated build up to a few ear shattering "drops" - is becoming the "face" of dubstep these days.

• I'm so out of touch when I saw the title of this thread I thought Skrillex must be some sort of kitchen cleaning product. Never heard of this dude.

  old

• I am in my 30s but I have a theory about how electronic dance music has become so popular - i think it's video games. The background music is often electronic and can be kind of addicting.

• I disagree, R10. I'm in my 20s, don't play video games, never have, and I fell in love with electronic music right away (all kinds, not just dubstep - and I find Skrillex's brand of dubstep okay at best for the most part). Some of the really good stuff is so much more nuanced than the repetitive background noise type of stuff that a lot of people generally associate electronic music with.

• It's awful music to have seizures to. Soundtracks for douchebags.

• [quote]It sounds like the soulless corporate shills What part of "He's not on a major, ladies." do you not understand? Not a fan, I just hate idiots.

• "Is he sucking someone's dick?" No, but he just might be fucking Lana Del Ray AKA Lizzy Grant.

• Dubstep? Skrillex? Can someone translate this into eldergay?

  The Voice of the Night

• I hate his music and he's fug on top of it.

• Dubstep = prog/hard rock drum patterns + psychotic synths instead of screaming guitars. Relax. It will pass.

  15%20minutes%20and%20counting

• [quote]Dubstep = prog/hard rock drum patterns + psychotic synths instead of screaming guitars. You've taken one word I don't know and defined it by using a bunch of words that I know, but the order in which they are assembled is strange.

  The Voice of the Night

• I play electronic music, like Aphex Twin and caribou, at work a lot to help me concentrate while writing. I don't like lyrics when i am trying to read / write.

• Well, imagine the drum pattern (and sound) of Led Zeppelin's 'When The Levee Breaks' with headache-inducing synths. I don't mind Dubstep but, like everything, it's been beaten to death very quickly. I also think it's hilarious that all those rock-phobic techno lovers think they're onto something new!

  Four%20on%20the%20floor%20%28R17%29

• Okay, I've got twenty minutes to kill before class. Let's see what this is about.

  The Voice of the Night

• Okay, how is that different from any other trance? I don't know, I was expecting something that didn't sound like I heard it at a gay bar in '97.

  The Voice of the Night

• I had never heard of him either OP, and I'm obsessed with dance, indie & underground music & net sites. The Grammies could have had Grimes on & Claire would have been significantly better...

• When's someone going to link to a sample of this crap so we can hear it and judge for ourselves?

• Imagine having parents so dumb they named you Skrillex! Were they going for "Skillet" perhaps, but were too drugged up?

  Rosannadanna

• [quote]Imagine having parents so dumb they named you Skrillex! Yeah, but they didn't. It's his stage name. I liked when they used his video on a recent video of "Beavis and Butt-head". He used the audio from a clip on Youtube of some fat crazy woman screaming, "CALL 911 NOW!!!"

• I had to google a picture of him--THAT'S what got nominated for a Grammy?? What an ugly fuck.

• [quote]When's someone going to link to a sample of this crap so we can hear it and judge for ourselves? Here's one. I like some of his songs but I'm in no way a fan of Dubstep.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U3ylKvkfTg

• Skrillex and Ellie Goulding who he is supposedly fucking

  http://cdn.idolator.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/skrillex-ellie-goulding.jpg

• I work in an office with one other coworker who is big into dubstep and Skrillex. In fact, his cell phone ringtone is "CALL 911 N0W!", which blasts from his phone whenever he gets a call which is several times a day. What a dick.

• The media types who announce what is the latest craze, learned about dubstep. They needed a person to be "dubstep". They picked Skrillex. The end. I'm just thankful that this means dubstep is on minute 11 of its 15. That crap has torpedoed the mood of more than one predominantly-straight party I've been to in the past couple of years. Dubstep is basically the aural landscape of a fat angry dude vomiting.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DDRdMHbzjrlU

• It's painful to listen to, but it makes a good soundtrack to "let's get the cat stoned" videos.

  http://vimeo.com/36820781

• Dance music for hipsters.

  Hipsters who cannot dance

• What R8 said. One of my young friends in her 20s isn't a Skrillex fan. She's been into dubstep and "drum and bass" for a few years.

• Dubstep means salvaging terrible pop songs with a slice and dice from computer samples, bass/beat line, then DJ gaining fame for salvaging the lame song. Ironic that Lady Gaga has chosen a Dubstep DJ to "open" (read salvage) her current tour.

• Some of his youtubes have 78 million hits. And I, like another poster, thought Skrillex was some new cleaning product. Ah, to be old.

• One of these days, Yamaha/Korg or Roland are going to come up with Dance Track Generator software and all the DJs will be out of work.

• You people sound old.

• [quote]Some of the really good stuff is so much more nuanced than the repetitive background noise type of stuff that a lot of people generally associate electronic music with. I know this is a post from February but maybe the poster is still hanging around? What is the good stuff? I'm honestly interested.

• The "old" meme always cracks me up, because people don't enjoy computer generated music, that makes them "old"? You sound young, easily led and clueless. The most current generation of young people seem to buy into ANY hype flung at them and it's not just about music. They are a generation of sheep and most of their music is not original, it's all been done before and when you try to explain this to them, you will be dubbed "old". Hipsters, for instance, are utterly pathetic, talk about a bunch of sheep. They are always claiming they are totally orginal in their style of dressing, the artisinal food they eat (ie: fresh food my Italian grandmother made!), their music and everything else. Their entire persona had been mined from so many different generations, it's a joke, which most of them still don't get! The hipsters' dress sense is 1950s/60s Beatnik, their are into Mid Century furniture, well, you get the idea, it's ALL been done before. Ye they think they discovered the wheel. The biggest job is these trustafarians moving into ghettos like Bushwick, Greenpoint etc, calling themselves 'pioneers' on their wealthy parents dime. Get your facts straight before you call others "old". The fact is thee is very little new in music, that's how someone like Madonna got so popular when she hit the scene. Bringing such extreme theatrics to music was a first, yet the young people buying into it seemed unaware that she was basically a Las Vegas revue set to dance/pop music! Madonna was lucky enough to hit upon a formula so many people enjoyed, her fame had very little to do with her actual music. There was very little in her actual music which could have been called 'new', it was basically rehashed dance beats mixed with pop music. A dark haired Lady Gaga was pounding her piano in downtown NYC clubs, until she transformed herself into an aloof blond alien with a penchant for smoking weed, then instant fame. Skrillex' popularity will pass just like any other 'next big thing' in music.

• Isn't it just Dance/House music from 90s dressed up like something new and exiting for consumers to spend their money on to look 'hip'?

• Dubstep is trend music like disco. It's barely remixed house music from the 90s. Nice try, though.

• 1. Some wannabe female singer has her boyfriend come up with words like, "Oh baby your so fine I want to dine with your fine wine". 2. Female gets her boyfriend and/or parents to dole out the cash to bring it into a recording studio. 3. Girl makes up the tune from her musical plethora of five known notes. Girls parents declare her a living Mozart. 4. Song ends up on the desk of Interscope, offering it for free, to any DJ who can turn it into a hit. 5. Still nobody wants the song. Girl and Boyfriend get parents to offer to pay Interscope money to "promote the song" 6. Interscope gives the song to one of its large and frequently changing pool of DJs. 7. DJs speeds up a stock Disco beat and lays it underneath the song. Adds some Analog Synth rifs and chops up the bass line: the part which makes it Dubstep. 8. Songs gets played at 10 x ear damage volume to a room of 10,000 teens against a huge wall of synced random and colorful images, while DJ waves his arms in the air. 9. Song makes the EDM charts, titled: DJ GOD featuring Nameless Bimbo Chick singing lame song - because nothing else is in current release. (Interscope paces/holds back the releases strategically). 10. This cycle repeats, with different Bimbo Girls, many times throughout the year. Interscope pockets 99% of the profit from the live shows. The DJ gets free drugs for him and his boyfriend, who may also be a DJ. Nameless Bimbo Chick gets bragging rights to her friends, but her parents are paying off the cost of her "Music Career" for years. Welcome to todays world of EDM!!!!!!

• When I hear Skrillex I know what my parents must have heard when I listened to punk rock.

  L.%20der%20Gaie

• EDM DJs have been around a very long time. Go back to La Style era 1992, Scooter, DJ Rankin, Chemical Brothers etc. etc. They never last.

• Skrillex for some reason, got the promoters on his side. I think they are looking for an American star only (aka no Deadmau5 or Zedd). I would have picked Portor Robinson as having more potential, but obviously the EDM world is rife with internal politics, so better talent often loses out.

• Bingo, r46. They wanted an American. He also looks more 'edgy', like an EDM Marilyn Manson. I'm sure that played into the hype.

• a bunch of you posters are being dicks. there has always been bad mainstream music around. the captain and tennile anyone? anyways, here's some better uk-ish dubstep, jamie xx + gil scott-heron - new york is killing me

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DW7c3wRzUUjs

• r48, I don't think people upthread are talking about the real (UK) dubstep. You're right though, there is shitty music in every genre.

• They like him because he's American. Promoters have become surprisingly xenophobic. They wanted an American star.

• Doesn't Skrillex have a cousin who's also a dub step artiste who goes by the name "Pyrex"?

• r19 has never heard of Classical music.

• EDM is becoming the next Boy Band territory. The Record companies have started signing Justin Beiber look-a-likes and targeting EDM to 12 year old girls, in daylight shows, under tents sponsored by Phone Companies. Expect the music to get even worse as beat generating software gets used to "enhance" bad pop songs.

• I'm amazed that there are DJs who become famous. Surely I can plug an iPod into a speaker and press shuffle and be popular too.

  EVERYONE%20is%20a%20DJ%20today.

• [quote] Yeah, but they didn't. It's his stage name. Wow, aren't you the smart one! So glad you put that Roseanne Rosannadanna poster in her place. What is she, stupid or something?

  Jane%20Curtin

• [quote] Surely I can plug an iPod into a speaker and press shuffle and be popular too. Not unless your brother is Mark Ronston

• Hah, Skrillex=Sonny Moore from FFTL? That child didn't get famous overnight. He's been on the road since he was too young for pubes. Cut him a break. Good for him if he's finally getting some recognition.

• I expect Skrillex to start publicly attaching himself to more famous celebrities as his career starts to slide. It seems to be the EDM industries way to promote these days (as apposed to the old school way of promotion, actually coming up with good original product)

• Skrillex bearded up, so he is the new "in guy". Deadmau5 got engaged, so he is again, a risk to Skrillex. Welcome to the Heterosexuals Only need apply world of EDM or as many people like to call it, bad dance music for straight teens. Time for a picture of a cat addicted to drugs.

  http://www.fugly.com/media/IMAGES/Random/drug-addict-cat.jpg

• Take away the hair and piercings, and he looks a lot like a teenaged Corey Feldman. Which, as you know, isn't a good thing ...

  http://t3.gstatic.com/images%3Fq%3Dtbn:ANd9GcRv0Wq_V3eFv23WSjcayJTqiZxoGEP6OAv-DekUUGV5I1HNtq3eIA

• Skrillex appears to be a homosexual. Discuss.

  Mrs%20Patrick%20Campbell

• [quote]Skrillex appears to be a homosexual That's like crack cocaine to female teenagers.

  I%20could%20change%20him%21

• I was just going to say that about it, R60. It looks like a Corey Feldman.

• you are so wrong, r62, actually fish have no interest in the homosexual for the simple reason that they have no power over the homosexual, like they do with str8 guys.

• Waiting for Skrillex and Taylor Swift to do a duo together. You know it is coming. The Teenage girls must be appeased.

• His nails-on-blackboard music is popular with the meth users I know. So I'm guessing chemical intervention is the only way ot can be tolerated.

• Sonny Moore (Skrillex) is the leader of EDMs closeted homosexuals. The Queen Bee of the homo nest.

  https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/2456040826/6w7afnxczc2lzquzdx2c.jpeg

• It's so cute watching you eldergays pretend to know what you are talking about. Like this guy: [quote]Not unless your brother is Mark Ronston

• [quote]Payola is alive and well, folks. And it's amazing to me that weirdo internet music fanatics will "LMAO" about the "payola conspiracies." Those dimwits can't seriously think that 99% of bands, musicians, and skill-less sex symbols with horrible attitudes aren't entirely replaceable. Um, rather, the payment of money (or other stuff) in exchange for airplay is HOW IT WORKS. It's like pharmaceutical companies and doctors, but more sex and rock 'n' roll. And sometimes more drugs.

• Pay to keep away the gay. Sort of like the mafia does.

• Just pay off RUKES, Beatport and EDMsnob and you will be EDM star! In case anyone is interested in being the next Skrillex.

• Did Skrillex even know he and Elle were dating or did his agency just publish it?

• I love the Key and Peele skit on Dubstep:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D5Kod1q39ddE

• Dubstep = Dance Music for heterosexual males. Because it is OK to dance as long as you are bleeding out of your nose during the dancing, because then you are not a homo.