Electronic music in the USA: popular but tasteless?
From the editorial of the latest issue of German dance music and clubbing magazine Groove:
Thoughts?
Mainstream pop has co-opted a narrow style of edm that has been popular in recent years to the extent that most edm heard in the states doesn’t resemble its earliest ancestors in the least bit.
That seems straightforward enough and I don’t think most people would disagree.
Slightly OT, but I had a fucking idiot asking me to play some ‘proper white people’s music’ last night. My jaw hit the floor and I asked exactly what kind of music he meant, to which he replied ‘proper oldskool house’…
I tried to succinctly tell him that house was started by a mainly black crowd and that I didnt see what the relevance was anyhow before doing my best to ignore him and get back to the mix without losing my cool.
It’s a bit arse about tit to be honest.
Popular (EDM) music is tasteless (in the USA)
…would be more like it. Nothing new here. You can change the genres and countries in the parentheses to anything you like.
Examples of this tasteless EDM music? Skrillex?
This hits the nail on the head, imho. To me, electro house and dubstep have far more in common with rock than with techno.
Edit: Oh, and there’s a new issue of Groove out? Nice, gotta get that. Always enjoy reading it…
fair enough. what i find curious, though, is the following.
in europe, a variety of genres of EDM are big. in many cities (and i’m not just talking about a metropolis such as london), the crowds are there to get all kinds of parties running, whether you play dub techno, deep house, drum n bass, tech house, disco, indie dance, or …
it seems that in the US, EDM is getting more popular. however, it seems this trend is largely driven by big-room progressive house with a pinch of trance and dubstep here and there. (this genre is sometimes called “electro” or “electro house” which i find a misnomer.) it is still very hard to find good techno or deep house or dubstep or … parties in many major US cities (including detroit, btw).
at the same time, european producers and DJs alike still look towards the US a lot (Detroit, Chicago, and New York in particular). and it’s not just the classics which we love. there is plenty of good stuff coming out from the US today as well, from newcomers and veterans alike.
now, you could answer “but where’s your point, the US is known for its freedom of speech and its diversity.” but idk. many of those talented US producers don’t have a home base, they don’t have the big infrastructure of (non-mainstream) clubs, record stores, etc. which we have in europe.
and now that EDM is getting bigger in the US, it’s not the domestic stuff that’s getting big. instead, the big stars come from the netherlands :eek: idk, i find it curious…
…maybe not from a historical perspective, but yeah can certainly headbang to some electro house and dubstep. Mainly shit electro house and dubstep.
Maybe people will start being more discerning in the US when they stop describing all danceable music as EDM.
“What night is it tonight?”
“EDM”
“Cool, so what type of music are they going to play?”
“?”
true
I been a music head since I was a kid and heard so many craptacular songs in which the artists are now taking elements from the more popular genres worldwide
Like Skrillex teaming up with Korn for the song ‘Get Up!’
There are more artists but Im too lazy to list them all
Uh Detroit included? Do you know what you’re talking about? I live in Detroit and Detroit has proper techno parties pretty well every week and even holds underground raves that’s practically unheard of in the US.
Detroit, whilst economically disabled, still has a kicking techno scene as what else is there to do in this city besides music and gatherings?
From US to Germany concerning “rocking over raving”:
But, seriously. The music I listen to is the music I listen to, why should it matter to anyone else? I guess other countries forget that we were (somewhat) raised on rock. >.>
I was watching a video of some big name performer the other day and the entire crowed was jumping up and down, not dancing. I don’t think that’s confined to the US though. 20 years ago kids were jumping up and down to the chosen genre music that genre just happens to be a form of EDM this generation.
I think a bigger factor in the reason EDM isn’t as popular in the US is its sheer size. Underground stuff really struggles to not be underground here even when it’s good underground.
I’m not sure how accurate that map is, but I think it’s close enough to get the point across. If you take our population numbers and compare them to the population numbers of Europe what’s the percentage of people that are into proper techno or house?
All that aside American kids are in general tasteless and crass so that could possibly have something to do with it.
i agree with the original post…
i disagree with most of this…i am getting ready for a wedding or i would pull it apart…starting with you not knowing what “progressive” house is/was…
and that Los Angeles has a ton of different nights and styles going on…San Francisco is the deep house capitol…Miguel Migs, Naked Music etc…
you can’t make an ignorant statement like that if you don’t party and live in the area…
I’m sorry, but Denmark and Amsterdam seem to be the source of the most tasteless music around. At the heart of all of this is a pissing match fueled by opinion. We seem tasteless here. You seem tasteless there. I seem tasteless because I listen to Robag. Different strokes for different folks.
Detroit has a banging techno scene btw. DEMF is a fantastic showcase of that.
The U.S., just like any other country in the world, has it tasteless and has its good music.
Living in Colorado I see my fair share of FUCKING TASTELESS dubstep and drumstep just being thrown around like people would like it. Perfect example, I was djiing a show a few weeks at a show, and I was the only person to play House/Tech-House/Minimal, everybody else was playing Dubstep or Drumstep. It was the fact that the whole time the other 4 dj’s were on no one was dancing it looked like zombies on the dance floor. I got on and rocked the floor and at more times than one through my hour set everybody was dancing and rocking out.
I believe that people like to follow trends waaaay to much here in the U.S. and then they realize how stupid that trend is and go back to the whats good, but I’m sure its like that in more countries than 1.
I love the Co music scene!
I go to boulder sometimes for some amazing parties.
I would recommend Communikey in the spring if you haven’t gone before you really should
Interesting topic. Around here in the Caribbean next week we have a party with this guy Sluggo:
I think is shit and a lot of other people do.
If it is not danceable like we expect like other music like salsa, merengue and reggaeton people will definitively not dance and look like they are not having fun and they dont. Just like dancing to EDM is fun because you sort of know the beat and can dance “accordingly” or if not jumping up and down suffice, people here expect that a EDM party have something to dance at.
In other words, why it is tasteless? IMO because it is not danceable and people look like they are not having fun. Well then, why they brought in that dubstep guy in the first place? Not for the average people but for the Cool McCool kids that waste all day talking about the technicities of dubstep and why it is so cool not realizing is just another trend. The sort of kids that post 1000 videos on how to dance dubstep followed by 1,000,000 reactions on how retarded that looks and how many zero fucks people actually give about learning to “properly” dance to some trendy music.
It will not disappear and any music, once created, will have a niche forever. It is just that, at least around here, people like to dance wildly and jump rather than look like some bboy on heroin. But hey, the price some will pay to appear cool to themselves. 
warning sorry about all the cussing
One night I was playing a new club the owner (who was kind of a drunk) talked to me beforehand to break down the kind of music he wanted. He basically had no idea about music but he was all like “lots of dance music, Brazilian would be good,” etc., and then he said “play hip hop too, people love hip hop,” and then here he got really angry and almost shouted, “but none of that fucking n*gger music! I hate that shit!”
I was like, ummmm… Had no idea what to say; I just figured I’d do the gig and get the hell out of there. This was not the time to lecture this drunk about how basically all popular dance music was black music. Well later in the night someone asked for a birthday song; popular at the time of course was 50 cent “in da club” so I just played it; I wasn’t really thinking about what he said earlier. Suddenly I see him running across the bar straight for me and I remembered and I was thinking, oh shit, I’m going down, but fuck this racist asshole, I don’t need this job if he’s going to say shit about it. Well he comes up to me, I shit you not, and says “could you turn it up, it’s not loud enough in here.”
the USA has plenty of underground edm artists who make tasteful music, just as europe or any other country has plenty of popular edm artists who make shitty music.
what a stupid generalization to make.