Awesome Article on mnml ssgs about "EDM" and how it's actually hurting the scene

[SherpaPsy]

Blame Skrillex...no wait, blame DeadMau5, he's Canadian

[photojojo]

Seems like I read similar article in 1990.

[Fyoog]

Seems like I read similar article in 1990.

Lolz!

I think this guy has gone a bit over the top here but you can see in his ramblings a theme which does has some basis.

I genuinely think he is over analysing though, comparing Steve Aoki to say...(insert cutting edge, underground DJ of your choice here) is like comparing Scary Movie to Psycho or The Shinning in the film world. People don't go for the atmosphere building or the parts of the imagination it triggers, they go because they know it will be a big, bright, colourful show that delivers some laughs and entertainment.

That's not to say you can't enjoy the people not doing this but stuff like that appeals to a wider market. It's a fact of life.

Plus having a market budget and agent to power a small country doesn't hurt!

[synthet1c]

I think the question about whether something is mainstream in a positive way is boiled down to...

• do you listen to this music because you want to mosh, flex your muscles, get messy on too many drugs, and bang sluts...
  
• or do you listen to it because you love hearing it and it gives you a freedom while listening to it that nothing else can give you, you can meet cool relaxed people that you could have a conversation with (not a drug fueled d&m)

if you fall into the first catagory you are a douchebag, you like aggressive adhd music... it doesn't have to be commercial as in you hear it on the radio, but it must have commercial elements to attract girls... the sounds may change but the formula never will, so it's fair to say that popular music sucks for some people, you don't have to hear the new flavor to know that...

[photojojo]

He has some valid points, but most of those points have been brought up before on insert something popular here. My point was there is a cycle of popularity. The rave scene and EDM grew to be popular from the 80's, peaked in the 90's and then went away. Towards the end of the 00's it started to grow again and I believe it's in its peak right now. That should last, at most, another couple of years and then it will fade away...again.

Even after it fades away to memory I'll still be listening to good techno and house I'll still want whatever new piece of equipment just came out and in 2025, when it's all popular again, I'll be this guy.

[Jack Bastard]

wearing vacuum cleaners on their backs (why the eff would you do that?)

In homage to the sound of the hoover.

(An old Roland Juno preset rinsed out on a huge number of hard house tracks)

[Jack Bastard]

Why thank you.

[ellgieff]

if you fall into the first catagory you are a douchebag, you like aggressive adhd music... it doesn't have to be commercial as in you hear it on the radio, but it must have commercial elements to attract girls... the sounds may change but the formula never will, so it's fair to say that popular music sucks for some people, you don't have to hear the new flavor to know that...

Dude, that's not fair or true either. If one falls into the first category, one has different priorities and preferences to someone who falls into the second category. This is not the same thing as being a douchebag.

As a personal opinion, it's pretty douchy to consider someone a douchebag just because they like moshing, flexing, drugging and banging. As a further personal opinion, I think someone who likes those things is more likely to be way younger than me - but being young doesn't make someone a douche. It just makes them young.

wrt the original article, a few people have alread raised the points I'd like to cover:

EDM has always been a catch-all term for the kinds of electronic music that gets played at raves/clubs/bush-doofs. It's a way to give people a term other than "techno" to refer to the overall style. It lessens the nerd-rage that people like me (and I'd expect a few other on this forum) get when someone says "I don't like techno" - and means they prefer guitar-based rock to electronic music.

(No, we can't call it all "Dance Music". Most of the relatively modern forms of music that have become popular are _for_ dancing. Some of the non-electronic forms even have styles of Dance named after them)

The arguments in the piece aren't new. In fact, they're so "not new" that it refers to another piece that raised the same issue (the cartoons) something like 10 years ago. People then were concerned that Tiesto / Oakenfold / Tong were destroying the rave, because it was becoming popular.

Did the rave die then? No. And just in case you were wondering, home taping didn't kill music either.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Deadmau5, Skrillex, SHM. These people are utterly irrelevant to what I do. It isn't important to me whether they tear the roof off playing dubplates they've just cut in the green room on their portable lathe, or Milli Vanilli the fsck out of it with a pre-recorded CD that someone else cut for them in ProTools. It has no impact on me whether they play to 100,000 people, or 10. They don't play what I play, they don't play what I like - and I'm pretty sure they'd feel the same way about me.

This is all easy for me to say because I like (and play) a genre that doesn't even feature on the radar of most people who are into underground EDM. And I'll keep liking (and playing) it until they bury me. Hopefully with my 1200's ...

[MisterMoleyMole]

I've not read the full article as I got bored especially after seeing him using that David guetta video for his argument. Now I don't like David guettas music, but that video isn't real is it? Is he really using it as a basis for his argument or is it some form of joke?

MMM.

[DigitalDevil]

I pretty much felt the same way as altf4 while reading this... His points are that clubs are being shut down somehow as a result of EDM's growth, which probably isn't true, and that underground music is somehow inherently more valuable and acceptable to public officials than mainstream music and the associated antics, which also probably isn't true. If anything, all this growth has just made the whole "scene" more acceptable - anyone remember "Deadly illegal techno parties might claim your children!" kind of headlines going on 15 years ago? This article is just one more person getting upset because they have to watch something they love get dragged through the mud.