Good article.
He didn’t. You’re conflating his complaint about DJ worship and his complaint about the music sucking.
If you’re not going to take 10 minutes to read something a thread is based on, just close the window instead of participating.
Or don’t and wind up on people’s ignore lists. Whatever.
I personally felt the author was conveying it in a matter of them being one in the same. Its a bit difficult to take him seriously when he feels the need to constantly reference how shitty the music is in reference to how many views it has. It doesn’t help that the entire basis of the article views this “Mainstream EDM” as an issue for the “real” electronic music that exists beneath it.
Sure, the guy has some decent arguments about how festivals effect clubs or whatever, but the entire elitist attitude throughout kind of makes me not care what he has to say.
Plus he starts the article off saying how he just discovered all this stuff, so I’m not quite sure where he comes off analyzing it.
There’s an interesting point that stated right at the first of the argument, that I haven’t seen anyone mention. “Maybe Japan is just insulated from this.”. There’s a lot of truth to that… or was. I don’t know about now that most people buy their tracks online instead of the very, very few record shops that are still around. I remember way back when, never hearing shit that was popular in the US, and to some extent Europe, but was huge here. And I’m sure vice versa. I never knew who Britany Spears was until like 4 years into her stardom. You can live in a bubble in Japan if you want to.
I’ve held a theory for everything for a long time and nothing has really ever broken it: When something enters the mainstream, it turns to absolute shit. The problem is, money comes in to play, and money stifles creativity. Look at the games industry for a perfect example. We used to get nothing but fresh, creative ideas for a fraction of the budget in the 80’s, and even up through the 90’s to an extent. Now we get the same thing done over and over again for $50 million dollars a shot. One can argue that they’re just following the movie industry.
While the author makes very valid claims (I agree whole-heartedly) it should not be a surprise. The Tokyo scene has changed vastly in the last decade. There are some clubs that will only open on Saturday night if they have foreign talent booked – that very often includes big-name, but awful DJs. Police are enforcing cabaret-laws (this is really fucking stupid), and even medium-sized parties are seeing corporate sponsorship. In the late 90’s even the cheesy clubs weren’t sponsored. Now, even the good ones are most of the time.
EDM, just like is going to follow that trend just like music in general has done. The trick will be, as if it isn’t hard as shit already, to sift through the turds and find the good stuff. I spend ages on Beatport to find 5 suitable tracks. Fucking painful, and it’s getting worse. However, it exists. Shit, there’s even good rock music out there if you’re good at finding needles in haystacks.
I only watched one of the videos, and it was David Guetta tran-wrecking in front of about 10,000 people. He should have iterated another point that has damaged the DJ scene. There is a LOT of weight on looks. Heaps of girl DJs that are fucking awful but they get gigs b/c they have tits.
Long story short, DJing is like 80% popularity these days. I know I’m on my whole “get off my lawn” rant, but I can’t remember the last artist that really wooed me. That’s not to say they don’t exist… they do… and it happens… it’s just a lot more rare these days, and shit-but-popular djs exist at every pay grade.
Imo “EDM” is going a similar route to what Hip-hop/Rap did. It was a unique thing, soulful, about music, and peoples lives, good and bad. People listened to hip-hop and rap because it connected with them and both musically, for the scene, and because it was the guy next door spit out over beats.
Now hip-hop/rap is your lil waynes, and dres, and holograms of dead rappers. You get asshats who think they are god and do whatever they want aka Kanye west.
Eventually EDM will go that way. Totally MTVed out people will get tired of it like Eminem and it will begin crawling back underground.
Wow a bit harsh I would say.
What exactly did I do to deserve that response?
I read the article as far as that video and just thought it looked a bit fake but was being used in the article as though it was real. I asked a question about the video, and you say because of this i will end up on peoples ignore list? “Whatever”
WTF!?
Thanks.
Enh…I think this discussion could be interesting, but not if people are going to ignore the article it’s based on.
Agreed, if you don’t read the article then you’re commenting on someone else’s interpretation of that article. Unless you know that person very well you have no idea if their interpretation will be the same as yours.
I’m even more confused now… is that video a joke is all I was asking. Am I right in thinking someone has made that to take the piss out of David Guetta? It’s not real is it? He isn’t really that bad is he?
Its getting hard work on this forum nowadays. Everybody jumping all over people all the time! I will participate in whatever forum topic I please, and for whatever reason (on topic) I please. I do not need your permission to speak.
In this case I started to read an article and found the David Guetta video worthy of asking the question.
So … Is the Video a fake that someone has made to make Guetta look bad, or is he really that bad? Is it that I need to start a new topic to ask this question?
Thanks for your helpful responses so far guys, you make me feel really welcome. 
yeah that videos fake haha.
[quote=“MisterMoleyMole, post:28, topic:40911, username:MisterMoleyMole”]
I’m even more confused now… is that video a joke is all I was asking. Am I right in thinking someone has made that to take the piss out of David Guetta? It’s not real is it? He isn’t really that bad is he?
[/quote]Forgive me. I thought you were saying the article was a joke because he was making fun of Guetta (whether the video was real or not) not that the video was a joke.
Sorry.
I didn’t watch it. Must be pretty bad.
He is shaking his head… Real or not???
Some of that shits ture, I was at the bar the other day and was talking to someone about music i told him i like and play electronic music he says yeah i like skrillex too! but i guess if your not into the music like that you only know " The popular guys "
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the Guetta video’s fake. That said, he’s never been a particularly good DJ. He, like Skrillex, is famous based on his production, not his DJing. He’s not underground, nor does he claim to be. Guess that makes him less “authentic” but I don’t hate on the guy simply because his music’s too poppy for my tastes. I’ve seen plenty of youtube vids that have just about convinced me he sucks as a DJ; that said, I don’t care because his only impact in my life is with his production since I’m sure as hell not going to go see him live any time soon.
Agreed with altf4.
EDM becoming mainstream means more venues playing EDM, not fewer. Even if the main nights at a club are too mainstream for your tastes, the success of EDM makes the venue more willing to run EDM nights on their other nights instead of only allowing hip-hop because it’s more popular/commercially viable. More business for clubs means more venues and it means that venues actually have a chance of sticking around.
Aoki, like Guetta, is known for his production and his performance, not as much for his DJing. He gets crowds hyped. He’s not there to allow you to indulge your inner musical connoisseur, he’s there to make you and everyone around you go nuts. And that’s a job he does well.
Underground is underground, by definition, because it’s not popular. It’s only in recent years that electro and dubstep have taken off - they too were underground at one point. People like the author are never going to be satisfied with popular music for the simple fact that it’s popular. I liked electro quite a bit before it took off. It’s popular now - this actually makes me happy. I’m glad that I can go to a fair selection of clubs and hear music that I really enjoy. I like techno, tech house, deep house, etc. as well, but I acknowledge that not everyone is into that kind of music. Still, I go to a weekly event that has electro, hardstyle, DnB, dubstep - high energy stuff - on one floor, and techno, deep house, etc. on the other floor in the lounge. I get to enjoy both styles of music, and the deeper stuff gets a chance to be heard downstairs because the electro upstairs is bringing people in the door.
Laidback Luke should not be lumped in with the other guys the author mentions in his article. Laidback Luke is actually a quite talented DJ. He doesn’t spin the author’s preferred genres, but the guy is an absolute magician behind the decks. I just went to a ~2,000 person venue that he packed out last night and it was the best performance I’ve been to. I felt like I ran a marathon afterward and I can tell you that I’d gladly go again tonight given the option. The author picked at some low-hanging fruit with Aoki and Guetta, but he doesn’t have a damn clue what he’s talking about by lumping LL in there.
Turbulence. Apparently the author doesn’t have a sense of humor. I don’t know if he was joking or not, but that music video is obviously not meant to be taken seriously. Aoki and Laidback Luke both have a tendency to joke around. Even Lil’ John doesn’t take himself seriously (at least I think/hope - he’s too much of a caricature for that to not be the case). Additionally, while that song’s not up the author’s alley, there are a ton of people out there who enjoy it for what it is. It’s not highbrow art. It’s not put out there to make you think. It’s out there to get you pumped, to get you excited, to get your blood pumping. It wasn’t a failed attempt at making minimal house, it was a different genre. Apparently it was a genre that the author doesn’t care for, but that doesn’t give him the right to categorically deny everyone’s right to enjoy that kind of music.
I’m glad EDM is getting such huge exposure. Sure, not everything that gets put out there is to my liking. Dubstep, for one, is something I can only listen to about 30 minutes of without needing something else immediately. Same with Moombahton. That said, it’s great that I can go out to a club and listen to EDM instead of hip-hop. You’ve got to take the good with the bad, and desperately clinging to nostalgia is not going to get the scene anywhere. Yeah, I don’t like a lot of Tiesto’s productions. However, I’m glad that because other people like him, the music that I enjoy has a chance to flourish instead of getting brushed aside because it won’t bring enough people into a club. And because those people are going to the club, they have a chance to discover some underground music as well - just possibly not of the specific genres the author wants. Change is scary, but most of the time it’s also good.
Nope. It makes it more likely for venue managers to tell dance DJs “No, we won’t let you spin your crap…top40 is the same thing…the billboard charts are filled with Guetta, Skrillex, Akon, and all the popular dance artists. Spin them.”
[quote=“keeb, post:33, topic:40911, username:keeb”]
4) Aoki, like Guetta, is known for his production and his performance, not as much for his DJing. He gets crowds hyped. He’s not there to allow you to indulge your inner musical connoisseur, he’s there to make you and everyone around you go nuts. And that’s a job he does well.
[/quote]Aoki doesn’t do anything well. He owns a label that occasionally signs interesting artists (like Felix Cartal and for electro, Bart B Moore). He’s known because his dad started benihanna and he road that all the way to mixmag’s charts.
[quote=“keeb, post:33, topic:40911, username:keeb”]
I get to enjoy both styles of music, and the deeper stuff gets a chance to be heard downstairs because the electro upstairs is bringing people in the door.
[/quote]I haven’t seen this happen too much in Atlanta. The venues that can run multiple rooms either play top40 in one, hip hop in the other or hip hop in one electro in the other. And, uhh, I liked electro in 2005 too. Then they jumped the shark and it got boring. How many people honestly liked trance in 1994 before that got stupid too?
It’s not a mainstream vs. underground thing…it’s the failure of taking tropes too far.
I’d rather listen to hip hop than modern electro/prog or dubstep. Hip hop has musical merit.
And maybe Boston is some weird bastion of “yeah, we’re already making money so play whatever” promoters…but in Atlanta…unless the club/night are supposed to be underground…at best you have a choice between two breeds of mainstream…and maybe one of them is actually electro/dubstep instead of funkymix remixes of top40.
The thing is that I don’t even hate that music. I don’t listen to it, but I’m glad it exists. It keeps the fucking amateurs away from the clubs I like. Even if things were like you describe (electro in one room, house/techno/whatever in another) all that would do is mix people I’d want to party with in with people I never want to think about existing. I’ve seen that happen twice: the first time, some hipster moron spinning top40 remixes and general crap opened up for Calvin Harris…I stopped to fights and CH got off 90 minutes into his 4-hour set with no explanation; the second time, I left after seeing basically the same crowd.
I really want to agree with you that mainstream adoption of dance grooves is good for dance music, but considering that house beats and hip hop grooves have been a part of pop since the 80s and we’re still talking about it like it’s a new thing……I don’t think it’ll ever make a difference.
And because I know someone’s going to think it: yes, electro and dubstep being mainstream is part of the reason I don’t buy it anymore…but it’s not the reason you think. I hate fucking disrespectful, self-entitled, drunk, amateur clubbers. And they just don’t go to underground nights.
Mostapha just dropped the hammer
shit just got real.
So, it has come to this.
Word (80’s style – when that shit meant something).
Re: Laidback Luke’s skill. Never seen him so I can’t comment, but the last time I was floored was seeing Marco Carola in 2002 or so. 3 decks… no bullshit. Holy shit. That was something.