Editorial: Dance music has gone mainstream, but it doesn’t have to sell out
Dance music has gone mainstream. There. I said it. Afrojack and David Guetta are all over the radio. Avicii “Levels” is in too many commercials to count. Flo Rida is rapping over “In My Mind.” I could go on and on, but there’s no denying that the influx of attention, money, and new fans has thrust a once “underground” genre into the national (and global) consciousness.
Here’s the thing though: This isn’t bad — it’s natural. It’s survival of the fittest. In the same way that people were clamoring for Lil Wayne and Kanye West tickets just a few years ago, now it’s all about snagging passes to Sensation, or EDC, or Electric Zoo, or any of the other hundred EDM events slated to go down in the next few months.
There is a bad thing happening now that EDM is so popular however: We’ve allowed the talent to get complacent. And that’s not cool.
The always outspoken Deadmau5 recently published a post to his Tumblr entitled “we all hit play.” If you read the entire piece (which you should if you care enough to read this one), you will appreciate his honesty and level-headedness about the realities of being a musician in 2012. He draws a fine line between the skills required for a live show and the skills required to be an actual producer, saying that “my ‘skills’ and other PRODUCERS skills shine where it needs to shine… in the goddamned studio, and on the fucking releases.” That’s the exact distinction that has needed to be made for some time now. It’s not a DJs job to make new tracks in front of a crowd — that’s borderline impossible — but it is a DJ’s job to take a crowd “on a roller coaster… and connect with them.”
”A DJ is a guy that comes into a room… scans it in… is like: ‘Okay. What do I need to do to get these people to go bananas?” – Sebastian Ingrosso
What worries me is not that DJs are simply “pressing play,” but that they’re pressing play on the same tracks in the same order night after night after night. There’s new music being released at a breakneck pace, but many of the big name DJs are still spinning the same freaking sets every time. They are playing the same bootlegs, making the same transitions, and delivering the same exact shtick every day of the week.
You would think that the DJs themselves would get bored of it, yet they continue to drop predictable, staid combinations like “Coming Home” vs “Quasar” in nearly every set they play. Maybe it’s because we’re still jumping around as ferociously as we did the first time or maybe it’s because they still get paid regardless of what they play. I’m not saying that these sets are bad, because they’re not. I am saying that they’re getting old.
“because this whole big “edm” is taking over fad, im not going to let it go thinking that people assume theres a guy on a laptop up there producing new original tracks on the fly. becausje none of the “top dj’s in the world” to my knowledge have. myself included.” – Deadmau5
The draw to see any DJ live usually stems from an affinity for their original productions, so their skills in the studio should be able to make up for the fact that they are going to just “hit play.” These guys get more music submissions than anyone on the planet; is it really that hard to find new material to play out? They spend countless hours on planes with their laptops and production tools at the ready; is it really that hard to put together a new mashup or bootleg before a set? I miss the days where I would say “Whoa, what is this?!” instead of “Ugh, this bootleg again?” As much as it sucks when Shazam can’t ID a track, it sucks even more when you know every single song being played.
If the current trajectory of DJ sets continues, it won’t be long before everyone catches on to what’s really going on here. In the same way that mainstream radio stations have killed songs by playing them far too often, DJs are quickly doing the same.
Luckily, this problem is easily rectified. Now is the time to capitalize on the momentum of the industry, to embrace the sudden infatuation with our music as opposed to shying away from it. People want to be surprised. They want to be blown away. They want a reason to keep liking it.
“you know what makes the EDM show the crazy amazing show that it is? you guys do, the fans, the people who came to appreciate the music” – Deadmau5
Playing the same stuff over and over is not the way to make that happen. That’s the way to turn people off. That’s the way to repeat history from the rap game — and dance music is so much better than rap.
So this is a message to all the DJs out there who read Dancing Astronaut (and to the ones who don’t too): Don’t be afraid to take risks. Don’t be afraid to play a song that you released in 2011, 2010, or 1995 for that matter. Don’t be afraid to play a new song from an up-and-comer that has the potential to make people “go bananas.” Don’t be afraid to omit your latest single for once. Don’t be afraid to leave us wanting more.
If you do, we’ll keep coming back for it.
Not exclusively tech/deep house, but it covers them in depth: http://www.residentadvisor.net/
Something that people need to understand, is there is a remarkably small amount of money in dance music for how much work goes into it. There will always be Afrojack or Deadmau5 making millions of dollars, but for every one of those guys, there’s hundreds of Felix Cartal/Clockwork/Nick Thayer/etc.-level producers who make relatively a lot less money, but are expected/required to be on tour EVERY FUCKIN DAY of the year. Imagine never coming home, never having a minute of rest, being on airplanes constantly and in and out of hotels and taxis on 3-5 hours of sleep. I’m sure that sounds like an enchanted fantasy for most of you, but the reality is it gets old fast, and you often get floored by a cold or the flu because your under-nourished and under-slept body starts giving out on you. It takes a lot of work to put together a great DJ set (many, many hours if you’re doing something besides the Steve Aoki play-songs-front-to-back and hit people with cakes) … You can’t expect producer/DJs/performers/whatever to come up with new, spanking original DJ sets constantly for shows and simultaneously expect them to put out piles of quality music at a breakneck pace for FREE dollars, that you will also expect to never pay a cent for.
Here’s an example:
After playing a show and schmoozing with people until 3am in Vancouver, you have to get on a flight to Miami that boards at 7:20. You’re at the airport/going to the airport for 2+ hours starting at 5am, the whole time in the car/waiting at the airport you are curating (responding to tweets, tweeting) your Twitter account so that hyper active fans can get a piece of you every second of the day, answering emails from your probably-partially-incompetent management team and lazy-booking agents about interviews, the show you have that night in Miami, etc. Then you’re on a plane for many hours. During this time, you are not sleeping, you are probably having to spend this time working on a new remix, since every modern music consumer will forget about you unless you put out a new, spot-on, hyped out track at least once per month (the exception to this is people like Tiesto, Steve Aoki, etc., who to varying degrees have haven’t written an original note of their own music in years [if ever], but have farm production studios writing their jams for them to keep up with the times – they don’t have to worry about creating anything on airplanes [or anywhere else]). You get to Miami, and maybe you have a second for dinner or to eat somewhere, but of course you didn’t get lunch except for airplane food (which always sucks) and if you got breakfast it was probably just coffee to keep your brain going. You’re not going to show up to the club and find a spread of sandwiches on your rider because that is truly only for a very small minority of live performers, of which you are probably not a member. After playing another high-energy set (that may or may not have had some sort of stressful technical problem, the sound guy was an ass, your computer is crashing in one way or another, the bootleg you printed didn’t print right so you have to last-minute adjust something in the setlist to replace it) and hyping up the crowd as much as possible, you’ll probably be drunk and/or drinking more to keep up with the promoters and the 10-15 people backstage who think you’re a hero and want to give you free alcohol (again, while you may think this sounds great, after the 50th time it doesn’t hold the same allure when you’ve done the same thing for the last 3 weeks and would rather have a nice meal and a second to rest your ears than dealing with DJ LocalguyhippoXX trying to become friends with you and shoving Smirnoff down your throat), so your body will again be slammed when you wake up in the morning, after 3 more hours of sleep, and get on another airplane to Austin, TX to do the same thing all over again.
I love music and always will, but I’m sick of hearing anybody say anything about music that doesn’t pay respect to the fact that all of us in this industry are working very hard (even Skrillex and Avicii, who have buckets of money now, are two of the hardest working guys in this industry [and on the topic, continue to write their own music despite pressures in the industry to do otherwise]) to create an excellent music experience for you all while trying to stay relatively healthy and make enough money to have an apartment and eat decent food – which is very, very difficult when the amount of money we make from the sale of the actual music we work so hard to create is basically $0 so we have to live in airports and vans and taxis and (if you’re lucky/rich) tour buses on tour to pay the bills.
Either start paying for music so that musicians in general can live a normal life, or don’t bitch about what the musicians today are doing.
This couldn’t be more true. Thank you! (++ for the last paragraph)
Hallelujah……
Had that experience with the Twelves. They were my favorite live DJs, but after I’d seen them play three times I realized that the set was going to be pretty much the same every time…so what’s the point in going back?
worst example ever
I love how people get so wound up by this. Who actually cares? Go and see the people you like and rave your ass off and forget about everyone! As long as they are dropping tunes you like and it’s not exactly the same as you’ve seen before what’s the problem? I went to see SHM last weekend at Milton Keyens and it was sick! Throwing down some great tunes and mixes. If you want to see a show with great tunes go see someone like this, and if you don’t then see someone else and quit your whining! Noone forced you to listen to them or go see them. That gig was as good as when I seen Rage Against the Machine, and the reason they were so good was down to pure talent on their instruments. No lights, no smoke, no lasers. All bands/DJs have their own way of making you enjoy the gig, be that a “show” or raw talent and performance. So make sure you actually get out there and enjoy some eclectic material, and quit hating on people just because they aren’t your thing.
PS loved the artical!
At DEMF (Movement) this year I heard Rage Valley being played on 2 stages at the same time and 5 more times throughout the weekend u cant tell me no one plays it. That was right around the time the ep dropped tho so im hoping i dont have to hear it until i see Knife Party at northcoast
i feel you thats one of the reasons i feel that artist place the same songs.
I remember when i was new to the scene and Id see an artist and I would already have a set list in my head that i want to hear. It almost was disappointing when an artist didnt play a particular track you were hoping for.
Its sad but now that edm is getting so popular so quickly mainly i feel that artist are catering to the new fans more than the veteran edm lover.
I think they feel they need to play their classics to keep these new fans satisfied. While veteran edm fans suffer the same set they have heard for the past 5 years of seeing them
reading Deadmau5 it seems he does not know what a live is, a real live:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaMkbcD58Uo
and with this think don’t need to say a word….
resident advisor is the best place for “real” electronic music.
simple and perfect solution
I concur hahaha. Turbulence is shit. Laidback Luke however is very talented.