I am not a religious man by any means. By that I mean, not at all. I think the 21st century is pretty valid proof that religion is ridiculous. That’s not to say that there is not a great deal of wisdom that is contained within religious writings. One need look no further than The Bible. On top of being a thing that people believe on it is an important literary work in it’s own right that has shaped much of the mentality of Western culture. I would venture that half of the expressions and figures of speech that people use on a day to day basis can be traced back to the The Bible. It’s a fascinating thing to study and if you have any interest in the history of language and literature it is worth your while. It’s very much akin to studying Shakespeare.
I bring this up because I am reminded of a passage from The Bible as I survey the current state of the electronic dance music scene also known as (shudder) EDM. I’ve already expressed my thoughts on that stupid fucking name. Right now I want to turn my gaze to the state of the industry. The passage that comes to mind is from the book of Daniel where one character has a vision of a colossal statue with a head of gold, upper middle of silver, lower middle of brass, legs of iron and feet made of iron mixed with clay. You therefore have this statue that at first looks magnificent but as one examines it more closely is afflicted with a significant weakness that could easily cause the whole thing to collapse.
I’m obviously leading towards something here. The EDM industry is on the verge of collapse. The bubble is bursting. The clay feet can no longer support the rest of the structure above them. The causes are waning interest from the taste-making demographics, a creative bankruptcy and an over-valuation of EDM acts.
Proof of waning interest? Check out the Alexa ratings of major “EDM” sites. They have all been trending significantly downwards or flat. A lack of internet interest means you are losing the most important demographic of all, savvy taste-makers. Who cares if all the noobs are going to major festivals? The people who decide the next trends tend to be the ones that are heavily on the internet and they seem to be giving less of a fuck everyday. Creative bankruptcy? It’s all about TMZ type stories these days. No one is actually talking about the music. The music is shit. I’ve talked about issues with some of the major acts but even what is considered underground is no longer creating musical innovations. In the past the underground would filter upwards until it became the sound of pop-music. These days, people who are purportedly at the vanguard of the underground are making bass music that copies Timbaland and 90’s r&b. Or look at trap music which took over the mainstream of dance during a recent period. It was copying musical tropes from what was in many ways the pre-eminent form of rap of the mid to late 2000’s. The biggest house music acts today are cribbing off early 1990’s underground music. Innovation in many ways has ceased. Over-valuation? Well look at the pay levels of DJs that do nothing to actually deserve the amount they receive. Look at how much people are being charged to get into places to them. This is unsustainable and is bound to end, sooner than you think.
As you no doubt have seen, we are very critical of this phenomenon. We are not decrying dance music as a genre. We love it and it is an essential tool in the arsenal of the DJ. This is a blog informed by DJing. This blog that embraces the challenge of DJing. The sport of it. As such we embrace all forms of music (though truth be told we have our clear preferences). To truly appreciate music you have to like all of it. We believe that from the coming collapse will come a new era. There will be a void that will need to be filled. It’s happened before and these periods have been among the most interesting in music. We plan to be at the centre of this new era.
Operations at this site will be expanding in the next few months. We thought though that we would make clear what we are first. We also like to make a lot of jokes and reject the straight-forward boring style of blogging that is so prevalent.
Walmer Convenience 