The producing, instrumental, and DJing aspects of electronic dance music often seem so separate, so disparate that they might as well be different genres. Certain artists have tried to blend at least two of the three, like Avicii including musicians on last year’s True or acts like Second Sun adding [...]
“It can’t be a concert setting – it seems too much like rock music. And at a club? Make sure it’s one without bottle service, so you know it’s a ‘real’ venue. And the DJ isn’t supposed to be visible. In fact, you don’t even want to know who the [...]
Dance music has long been its worst enemy, with European vs. American, Hi-NRG vs. down-tempo, instrumental vs. production vs. DJing, and underground vs. mainstream scenes always being embroiled in smack-talking battles about how one style is better than another, one way of doing things is superior, or certain artists have [...]
Last year, electronic dance music, as a global industry, was worth $4.5 billion. Now a follow-up report from the International Music Summit in Ibiza reveals that figure grew nearly 50 percent over the past year, now bringing the total to $6.2 billion. With figures coming from the Association for Electronic [...]
Last year, promotion for the Moonrise Festival began with high hopes. The successor to Baltimore’s long-running Starscape event, which the city banned after the 2012 show resulted overcrowding and multiple drug arrests, appeared to be better organized, but was canceled three days before it was about to start. With EDM [...]
Mixmag recently put out a list of four “big room house” albums that are expected to be huge hits this summer. Although the list excluded Deadmau5’s While (1<2) and Calvin Harris’ follow-up to 18 Months, the dance music publication coined one term: “EDM Blockbuster.” Just days after Mixmag’s article, La [...]
All mainstream trends go through a familiar cycle: A buildup, in certain cases from the “underground” to a place more visible; popularity for any given period of time; backlash from the “real” fans, who often claim they liked this trend before everyone else did; and finally being something that’s “cool” [...]
If you had already thought EDM got as corporate as it could possibly get, from festival sponsors to Live Nation buying up Insomniac, guess again. Early in March, Forbes writer Jesse Lawrence recommended investing in EDM stock, specifically SFX Entertainment, which went public last year. Lawrence lists multiple reasons investors [...]
Digital music’s takeover resulted in the record store’s demise – a downside on the hand for DJs, as it takes away the experience for finding a new record, but puts thousands of new tracks at his fingertips. But digital files didn’t just obliterate this once-keystone aspect of listening to music [...]
Arguing over whether top EDM producers are true DJs has become a cliché at this point; at large scale events slanted toward “mainstream” audiences, producers and their labels expect exposure, festival promoters want money-making performers, and audience members respond better to familiarity. Still this overall amalgamation has spread across top-tier [...]