If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate position of being immersed in a mainstream dance music festival crowd, there’s no doubt you’ll be surrounded by rabid fans dripped in jerseys touting their favorite artists. One might think that means they’re passionate about the music they listen to, but the deeper you dive into the EDM scene, the further that seems from the truth.
Last year, Daily Bread — a producer who’s grown to become one of EDM’s biggest acts — invited DJ Shadow as support for his Red Rocks show. As a longtime Daily Bread fan, DJ Shadow’s soulful sample-based blend of hip-hop beats is an undeniable influence on his sound… Or at least the sound he was making before he pivoted to follow the ear-splitting dubstep formula that have similarly taken artists like Griz and Big Gigantic hostage. But fans weren’t fond of DJ Shadow. And it was crazy to me how people who love Daily Bread couldn’t appreciate the chance to see one of hip-hop’s most influential innovators.
The disconnect between loving an artist and hating their predecessor is more common than you think in EDM. I can’t imagine the average person at a John Summit concert knows who Frankie Knuckles is, and I’d be surprised if most die-hard Fred again.. fans have even heard of Todd Edwards. The lack of care for dance music’s origins is one of the many things that pushed me away from the scene in the first place. My problem with EDM is it doesn’t care where it came from, and it has no desire to honor its history.
As DMVU puts it: “[Some of them] just want entertainment.” And while there’s nothing wrong with having fun, this community’s slogan is “Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect” for a reason. Dance music’s Black, queer roots are a response to the alienation, oppression, and harassment people were facing. It’s a place of escapism, yes, but not without the acknowledgement of what was going on everywhere else.
One could argue that EDM is meant to be the commercialized side of dance music anyway, so it’s doing exactly what it’s meant to do: make money. What gets me vexed about it all is the facade of being more accepting, more tasteful, and more intelligent than other music scenes (If I had a dollar for every tweet from an EDM festivalgoer shitting on Rolling Loud, I’d be out of debt). They pretend to be all about the music, but can’t even tell me who Jesse Saunders is. Spell Drexciya.
Why do I care about any of this when I’m far removed from the scene now? Because the greater music industry, and anyone who listens to music at all, lumps us all together. To the casual music enjoyer, all electronic music is EDM. And it wouldn’t be wrong to think that these people are representative of the scene in which I dedicate my whole life to, because EDM does make up the majority of dance music.
I mean, came from EDM, too. I just want better for us.