This began as a response on Facebook to a friend of mine and I felt like more people should know my thoughts on why UK Garage is more respected now as a genre than it ever was before. I'm not an expert on UKG, but I've been listening to it for the past 3-4 years (and before that even, I just didn't know it yet..) and been noticing some exciting changes in its projected legitimacy and adoption.
We hear a lot of talk by musicians and other "insiders" (who are mostly either aficionados or amateur musicians who aren't doing this kind of thing full-time. I would be included in this list) about entropy in our musical lexicon. We hear talk about DJs not spinning vinyl anymore, thereby making DJing even easier than it once was (and more reliable). We hear about DJs not constructing their set in the same way as they used to, with less variation and care taken to the actual sound levels. The fact that there are people who are paid more money in an hour than most of us are paid in a day, and they aren't even really making sure they don't redline the mixer (which actually can cause damage, I've seen it in real life!) or take care to not ruin their fans' ears, is both sad and hilarious at the same time. After all, your fans aren't going to buy your music anymore if they can't hear it...