If EDM is actually dying, perhaps the crowds are finally sobering up and/or the drugs aren't working as good as they used to.

 

Modern music goes in cycles. Clubs and venues have swapped live and canned music for decades.

Here's an interesting tidbit. Years ago I did live sound for a local walk for cancer event that featured live bands and
a dj. The DJ showed up with stacks up gear playing songs from a iPod through a DJ mixer.

I had a CD player going for intermission/changeovers going through the front of house and everyone preferred
that sound to the DJ. The next day, the DJ was not there.

The feedback I heard was that the participants preffered the sound of the live band and the music
choices for the breaks. Go Figure.

The problem I see with EDM is that is being co-opted by and used where it should not be. This happened to Disco,
Ska, Reggae and etc...

 

I live in floorida and ultra is sold out again with 3 day tickets running 800 for general admission, and A LOT more for VIP! Alive and well here

 

Maybe rave will back I saw in last Future Music magazine section about creating rave stabs, bass ... OMG! Not again

 

LuckySevens. Wow that’s pompous. Just cause you’re a music theory boff now the world must burn? Goodness me. Because you hate a genre you don’t have to wish death upon it and the amazing tools used to create it. It’s true then that change is met with tons of resistance☺. The proof is right here in this forum. Also, what genre do you do? I’m curious as those bashing so called EDM are not actually creating it generally.

 

There is talent in all genres if you listen for it. I happen to be a BIG fan of talent

 

1. Finger drumming for a human (or finger whatever Madeon does) takes years to develop - probably a decade for a monkey. So even assuming that someone is "composing" his chops and his show, I still consider him a good artist. And when a single drummer is able to put an entire show, that is something.

2. I have no idea who you are, what tracks you do or what following you have. I only react to what you write. On topic: For instance TOP 100 DJ Mag with very few exception is a popularity ranking rather than a talent ranking. So as I've said, do crap but have a proper social media presence and you're in the biz. Don't forget, we are talking about music industry as we want to make a living out of it.

3.A Generally, the reach are not stealing anyone's songs, they rather buy them. There are producers willing to sell their productions (for a very good reason) and other DJ/producers willing to buy them. Great Unknown - Love Me Harder will probably never reach top 100 Beatport. David Guetta - Love Me Harder will stay Beatport number one for a week. At the end of the day Great Unknown will be happy with selling his track to Guetta, trust me.
3.B Also, being a sell out (aka making/buying/promoting music slightly more accessible to the large public, but without alienating your entire existing fan base, in order to become even more famous) is harder than you think. Not wanting to sell out is like declaring you don't want to climb the Everest because is the easy path (without actually trying to climb it for a first time). Try to make a pop track like Guetta, change your name for that track and see how far can you go with it in the charts.

 

Well said, indeed!

 

I am fortunate to be in the top tier of festival dj's (soundcloud.com/flosstradamus). And not one of my piers looks at EDM or music with the negative view I see on this thread. You guys gotta switch up the negative perspective and push things forward with your own music. No need to whine about where music is or where its going. Close down your browser and open up your daw.

 

I rarely post here, but as one with a bit of a business and finance background, who has been following this topic for several months, I wanted to respond.

From a genre level, EDM as club/dance music won't go away completely. So if people think it will vanish the way disco took a hard fall (for a while anyway), and was replaced with other music of a different genre to dance, and listen, to (New Wave for the most part), I don't see, that. I see EDM evolving, and many artists will vanish, and others will remain strong. If something else really new is on the horizon, I don't see it, or don't have a clue what it is. Everything is too fractured with a hundred sub genres, and the net acting as an equalizer of sorts, even though it in some ways prohibits financial payout to artists who may have talent in music, but not marketing operations. But when something does start to pick up, rest assured market capitalization will take effect and it will grow and fill any void.

On a business level, EDM as a profit making type of music may indeed be about to take a hard fall, and this is no hunch or crystal ball. SFX Entertainment just recently went bankrupt after being worth around $12b. Their stock went from being worth $13 a share, down to less than $.1 a share. That's one cent per share. An enormous collapse. SFX Entertainment owns Beatport, among many others. While they are in restructuring, there is no indication they will come back in any way they once were. No one is envisioning this.

Maybe the lack of musicianship, market over-saturation, and mimicking one another to find a formula of success is part of the fall. I think so. And there are plenty of people in the annuls of music who have little talent, but made it big anyway. But people are still going to go go events, clubs, still going to dance, and still going to go to shows and have fun. And they're still going to listen to up music with a good beat and neat sounds. Maybe not as many to EDM specific events like it's still 2005 or so, but the idea of electronic dance music will survive, and evolve. And if the profits for some dry up, and nothing replaces SFX, I still don't see that wiping out the genre as a whole. At least not the way I define EDM.

 

Either you like certain music, or you don't. Just like much of Picasso's paintings, you find it appealing to your tastes or you don't. From a personal perspective, I try to be open-minded about music. As a Jazz pianist, I am fully aware that the music I play is not attractive to many people, but that does not stop me from playing it. Music, like any other art form is visceral. You cannot compel yourself to like sounds that do not appeal to you; that simply will not happen. I'll leave it there.

 

EDM has never been something because house music has always been arround it's just that the Americans, diden't like the house music in Europe so they changed the sound and make it more commercial and changed it to EDM.

But in a way, EDM is dying yes, but house music is still hot and is going more to deep house.
The next few things are deephouse, hardstyle, hardcore/rawstyle end the new kind of reggea/moombahton (Diplo/Major Lazer) sound is coming up.

 

Last edited: Mar 20, 2016

Who said anything about the "world must burn". I don't hate ANY genre... just the "posers riding the wagon" within them.

It's not pompous as much as it's the truth... and the truth hurts. I expected all the young "DJ's" to respond emphatically but surprisingly, there was minimal backlash. I wasn't trying to incite any anger and I'm not self-righteous as much, as I tell it how I see it. My views are just that... my own opinions, but if someone is going to stand on a soapbox and proclaim they are just as talented as I am... well, let's see how you do without an electrical outlet.

I write in multiple genres from jazz to metal, from orchestral to electronica and everything in between for film, tv, video games and advertising. I have been in the music industry since 1983 and have been around the world, guitar-in-hand as a sideman for recording artists then, producing records in Los Angeles until the 1994 Northridge earthquake destroyed my studio. Then I had to start all over again. But that's all I do... compose music for a living now. So I know what I'm talking about, having been raised in the music industry from the day I was born (my mother was a recording artist as was her father/my grandfather).

It just sort of chaps my hide to see that bedroom producers think so highly of their work because they can upload garbage put together on a laptop(!) in a day or two, to a website without any type of recourse. That's what has led to this dilution of talent and the potential demise of fly-by-night genres. You used to have to perfect your craft before having enough nerve to let anyone hear your music. But again... when you can hide behind the internet and a fake moniker ("DJ Darkness")... then everyone feels entitled to pump an endless stream of useless, meaningless and worthless garbage that has no value or musical merit, much less form... that could stand the test of time (or at least a week).

I know I'm jaded... but at the same time, I hope I make sense... to even one person. That's all that has to happen. One person, one day at a time... that's how progress is achieved.

(I know, I know... my moniker is "Lucky Sevens" [here] but I have to use that to protect my privacy at AudioSex only. My professional, musical work is represented by my REAL name... no made-up stage name)

 

Easy to say when you have about 100,000.00 of advertising $$$ you spend a year. There's no way someone actually likes that music. You and your advertising agents just shove it down these morons throats and it's better than the alternative for them which is staying inside all weekend. I will pimp slap you and your music.

 

Music is dying? What's the next?
Single Click Composition?

 

Joe Walsh, An absolute legend, They'll never be another Joe Walsh, They just do not/can not make them like that these days

 

Oh no you figured out our secret!!! We spend so much money on advertising I have to go to (sister site) for plugins.

I also paid all of these people to like our music too....

 

LuckySevens. That is an unbelievable career you have. Hats off to all that you’ve achieved. There are very few of us on this forum who can say we’ve had such a prolific career. I guess like any genre, or anything in life really, there will always be posers, those who are simply there to ride the wave.

I can’t imagine the pain of losing all your hard earned equipment and even worse, all the work you’ve poured your heart and soul into! And obviously in those days backup mediums were a lot less accessible then they are now.

I think one should only think highly of ones work if you have the credibility to back it up. A fly by night success, as some have put it, shouldn’t compel one to blow ones trumpet so to speak. Anonymity has unfortunately lead to a lot of dehumanization, but I’m preaching to the choir hear of course.

LuckySevens, I Myself wasn’t trying to incite any unnecessary conflict, also just airing my views. However, after reading your post I understand where you’re coming from.

Thanks for that insightful post.

 

You are a LEGEND my friend! A HUGE fan, love how you keep it GANGSTA! Your music and sets are EPIC!

Uh advertising & promotions? I discovered his music on TPB, lol. From DJ mebbi packs
--
subGENRE aka Mikey Thai

 

Last edited: Mar 21, 2016

The next evolution of EDM is future bass/RnB and liquid trap, HELLO? Which is actually very intelligent and deep. I even heard a "curtified"-flosstradamus step in this direction. A lot different than his usual gangsta style. It was pleasantly refreshing.