All About That Bass in 2014

The ironic thing about Meghan Trainor’s smash hit “All About That Bass” is that there’s really not much bass in it. Not the low-end frequency, teeth-rattling, window-shattering, air-grating 808 basslines many of us have come to crave in our dance tracks. For us, it is all about the bass—at least it has been in 2014. And it’ll get even bigger next year.

Whether it’s the reinvention of trip-hop, the rise of trap, or the back-end of that moment we had with dubstep a couple years back, the result has been more emphasis across the board on basslines and beats than ever before, even with house. In the wake of this shift, we have what many old-school listeners have been waiting for since the heyday of the rave scene: Music that drops. Music with soul. Music with attitude. Music that is truly… all about that bass.

And it’s not so much at the clubs but at the festivals where this is so evident. The new wave of bass music is rising from the ranks of side-tent slots to headlining spots on main stages. Part of that has been not only a willingness by bass music’s leading artists to stray into various other influences and genres, but an insistence on progression, innovation, and adding a certain sophistication that, let’s be real here, bass music lacked back in its past incarnations.

Today’s bass music is less the Atari video game-style electro beats and bleeps meant to b-boy to, and more on the haunting, desolate, circling spiral of emotion side of the sound. It’s not all just trappy, booty-shaking party music; it can be heavy as shit. Check out the artists who make up Los Angeles’ WeDidIt Collective, and you’ll see what I mean.

So who’s pushed the envelope the furthest this past year? Not to leave anyone out, but here are 10 acts who are currently on top of their game and no doubt have a hardy hand on the control stick of where bass music is headed.

What’s most glaring about this list is the predominance of West Coast artists. While electro-bass had a huge following on the East Coast back in the day, particularly in New York and Miami, leave it to the mellow, easy-going West Coast artists and fans to turn up the levels on the low-end.

Shlohmo

Flume

Bassnectar

Amon Tobin

TOKiMONSTA

Gladiator

RL Grime

Trippy Turtle

Otto Von Schirach

Flosstradamus

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