I’ve noticed in my own home town that the club scene has exploded with the EDM culture. Rare is it to find a club/venue that plays pure House and Techno.
We used to have a decent venue that hosted underground nights on a bi-weekly or at the very least, monthly basis. However, Tiesto happened to come along and destroy our sacred establishment. Tiesto demanded that the club be opened up (the club has an upstairs and downstairs) so as to accommodate a larger amount of people. The stage was moved to the 2nd floor balcony which over looked the main room, and the upstairs wall which separated the two rooms was removed so people could view Tiesto from directly across.
In the process of doing this, the club owners managed to ruin the sound system and acoustics of the secondary room. Any time there’s an underground night, there’s conflicting sound from the downstairs mainroom which plays pop/rap/EDM so it throws the dancers off and requires you to awkwardly beatmatch to dance.
They put up another wall since then but the sound has never recovered. The owners saw more money in the mainstream EDM movement and focused their resources towards the growth of that scene instead. So now we’re left with a venue that has flat sound and poor service. It’s obvious that the owners don’t put their all into developing or promoting the second room of the club and it shows in the atmosphere. Now I’ve heard that they want to shut down the second room and revamp it, which I only hope can be for the better and not the worse. The second room has slowly started to loose money and it’s customer basis, with fewer regulars showing up each event.
We’ve been trying to ferment an underground scene but it seems that some people are too occupied with their own business at the moment (we had one successful underground night at an undisclosed venue put on by ourselves with no outside promoter).
I really want to see the underground thrive but I’m not quite sure how to go about it, and I fear that Techno/Underground is fading away. Do people just not like Techno/House? I know there’s a small group of dedicated fans here but no one to coalesce them.
How is the underground scene in your area, is it a loss cause trying to support Techno? Is the future EDM/Pop? What are your thoughts on this matter?
EDM to me (electronic dance music) is and has always been the all encompassing term for all music created electronically…i.e. house (and all its sub genres), techno, drum & bass, electro…etc…
But in the meantime he completely destroyed our scene… Wouldn’t you feel displaced after something like that?? He doesn’t even pay DJs to spin and expects them to do all the promoting.
I am referring to the recent explosion of EDM in North America (the past 3 years). Before then it was more Techno and House, now it’s EDM. I use EDM to refer to this brostep/dubstep/electro/progressive/brocore/house that has infused the scene. I don’t like categorizing Techno and House under the same umbrella due to people misinterpreting House as Progressive electro/brostep. Get my drift?
Next person to use the term “EDM” when having a conversation about music, will get a punch in the throat. Its a term that only the musically moronic use and has no place in a knowledgeable, informed discussion of electronic music, regardless of genre.
By the way this isn’t happening in Detroit, but across the river in Windsor, Canada. Detroit’s scene is thriving, not like it was back in the hay day, but still alive and kicking.
That’s actually the exact reason why I used the term “EDM”, because it describes the distaste I have for this newly infused “EDM” genre that masquerades as Techno and House. Look past the terminology and reply to what I am speaking about. I use the term EDM to differentiate between classic electronic music and this new breed, feel me?
I can’t speak for where you live but overall it hasn’t killed anything. To me EDM is an overarching term for popular house music such as Guetta, LMFAO, Swedish House Mafia, Afrojack and all that kind of electro/dirty dutch ‘pop’ type sound. If anything it’s united real house/techno lovers, partly in their hatred
To me house music is stronger than ever if you know where to look.
It’s very much separate to the EDM ‘scene’ though. Unfortunately for you the promoter/club owner sounds like he’s in it for the money rather than the music. They aren’t all like that (not that bad anyway).
As a positive it might end up bringing new people into the real scene eventually which will only make house stronger.
Sounds like you need to find a new venue for your underground night. If the town is big enough for Diplo then surely there’s somewhere else to play the music you love.
I think the big pop electro thing has been good for the scene here in Sydney. Lots of people are growing out of it and searching for underground stuff.
I feel like I agree with this post. I find it that House is the original genre to start it all, and that includes all of the modern styles of electronic music. However EDM I feel is made specifically to be played at a party or rave or dance setting. I’m the only DJ I know personally who still listens to actual house rather than just electro or glitch hop or progressive house. I’m not saying they’re bad genres, but whatever happened to listening to house as just music. Like the good ol’ days of Daft Punk and Justice?
Yes Windsor had a scene, don’t forget Richie Hawtin started off in Windsor and Detroit, he created a small scene before taking off to greater lands. Our scene has gone through it’s ups and downs with different clubs and promoters, but it seems to have really stagnated in the past two years. I’ve noticed a switch towards more Pop/Electrouse which has overshadowed Techno and House. I’m curious to see if similar has happened elsewhere.
Find a new club, throw an event, turn it into a weekly night. Takes a lot of work, but you said you’ve thrown a successful event before so you should know how it is for the most part.
This is the outlook I’ve taken as well. If I’m playing at a more mainstream bar, I mix in some Tech House flavor for transitional-type mixes. People are much more receptive than they’ve been in the past. It’s pretty fun.
“Scenes” don’t last forever. You think people are still bitching about how their favorite Disco club got bumped by some Punk Rock scene?
