written by a docter:
If 2009 and 2010 were the years for dubstep to finally crawl out of the gutter and begin to make its way into the limelight with Britney-sprinkled Rusko tracks, 2011 appears to be the year for long-term underground music aficionados to point their fingers at its success, and protest hysterically that they want no part of the sell-out. Unsurprisingly, NPR recently confirmed my theory by proclaiming that dubstep has entered an “identity crisis”:

“A strict definition of the music continues to elude taxonomists,” they write, “in part because the genre has broken down into two broad categories, with dark, melancholy, low-energy beats on one side and aggressive, bass-friendly dance music on the other.”

Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of genre-splitting; I consider it a nit-picky hipster practice that tends to box artists into obscure categories and prevents talented producers from working together. But, since whatever NPR tells me must be true, I suspect that an up-and-coming storm of music elitists is about to start telling me that audience-friendly dubstep isn’t “real” dubstep, that “bro-step” is an over-produced sound, and that nobody appreciates “good” music anymore.

And so -- before all of this nonsense begins to unfold -- I’d like to say a couple of things about one of my favorite local “brostep” producer: DJ Emer.

Emer is a Philadelphia-based DJ and producer with over 10 years of experience behind decks and a well-balanced background in hip-hop, dnb, 2-step and UK Garage. Most recently, this underground jack-of-all-trades has focused his efforts on dancefloor-compatible bangers characterized by big drops, simplistic structre, and (*gasp*) even pop samples.

There are many reasons to respect DJ Emer, but what impresses me most about this down-to-earth “brostep” producer is his ability to relate to his audience. In spite of his extensive knowledge base, this is a man who chooses to throw in the towel when it comes to the high-brow connoisseurship attitude that defines most producers of bastard electronic music genres. Simply put, Emer Brostep is what happens when a dubstep DJ pulls the pseudo-intellectual stick out of his ass and fully embraces his role as an accessible, crowd-friendly entertainer.

It takes many cars to fill the highway, and let’s face it: one of those cars absolutely has to be unabashedly weaving through traffic with smoke pouring out of its windows while the rest of us shake our heads from the leather-clad seats of our miatas. I, for one, am down with the brostep-mobile. Why? Because, at the end of a long day, I don’t want to spend another second of my time taking myself seriously, and because what I ultimately want out of life is to have a good time. Maybe the next time I see Emer play live, I’ll start a moshpit just to prove my point.