Electronic dance music
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The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (October 2015) |
Electronic dance music (also known as
EDM,
dance music,
[1] club music, or simply
dance) is a broad range of percussive
electronic music genres produced largely for
nightclubs,
raves, and
festivals.
Produced for
playback by
disc jockeys (DJs), EDM is generally used in the context of a live
mix, where a
DJ creates a seamless selection of tracks by
segueing from one recording to the next.
[2]
By the early 2010s the term "electronic
dance music" and the
initialism "EDM" was being
pushed by the U.S.
music industry and
music press in what was largely an effort to
re-brand U.S.
rave culture.
[3] In the UK, "dance music" or "dance" are more common terms for EDM.
[4]
In this context, EDM does not refer to a specific genre, but serves as
an umbrella term for several commercially-popular genres, including
techno,
house,
trance,
hardstyle,
drum and bass,
dubstep,
trap,
Jersey club and their respective
subgenres.
[5][6][7][8]
History
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This section requires expansion. (January 2016) |
Early examples of electronic dance music include the disco music of Giorgio Moroder and the electronic music of
Kraftwerk and
Yellow Magic Orchestra.
[9]
Disco
Main articles:
Disco and
Euro disco
During the late 1970s, the popularity of
disco music
sharply declined in the United States, abandoned by major U.S. record
labels and producers. European disco continued evolving within the broad
mainstream pop music scene.
[10] European acts
Silver Convention,
Love and Kisses, Munich Machine, and American acts
Donna Summer and the
Village People, were acts that defined the late 1970s Euro disco sound. In 1977,
Giorgio Moroder and
Pete Bellotte produced "
I Feel Love"
for Donna Summer. It became the first well-known disco hit to have a
completely synthesised backing track. Other disco producers, most
famously American producer
Tom Moulton, grabbed ideas and techniques from
dub music (which came with the increased
Jamaican migration to New York City in the seventies) to provide alternatives to the four on the floor style that dominated.
[11][12]
Post-disco
During the post-disco era that followed the backlash against disco
music at the end of the 1970s, which in the United States lead to civil
unrest and a riot in
Chicago known as the
Disco Demolition Night,
[13] an underground movement of "stripped-down" disco inspired music featuring "radically different sounds"
[14] started to emerge on the
East Coast[15][Note 1] This new scene catered primarily to the New York metropolitan area and was initially led by
urban contemporary
artists that were responding to the over-commercialization and
subsequent demise of disco culture. The sound that emerged borrowed from
P-Funk [18] the electronic side of
disco,
dub music, and other genres. Much of the music produced during this time was, like disco, catering to a
singles-driven market.
[14] At this time creative control starting shifting to independent record companies, less established producers, and club DJs.
[14] Other dance styles that came to prominence during the post-disco era include
dance-pop,
[19][20] boogie,
[14] electro,
Italo disco,
house,
[19][21][22][23] and
techno.
[22][24][25][26][27]
Electro
In the early 1980s electro emerged as a fusion of
funk and New York
boogie. Also called electro-boogie, but later shortened to electro, cited pioneers include
Zapp,
[28] D.Train,
[29] Sinnamon.
[29] Early hip hop and rap combined with German and Japanese
electropop influences such as
Kraftwerk and
Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) inspired the birth of electro.
[30] As the electronic sound developed, instruments such as the
bass guitar and
drums were replaced by
synthesizers and most notably by iconic
drum machines such as the
Roland TR-808 and
LinnDrum. Early uses of the TR-808 include several
Yellow Magic Orchestra tracks in 1980-1981, the 1982 track "
Planet Rock" by
Afrikaa Bambaataa, and the 1982 song "
Sexual Healing" by
Marvin Gaye.
[31] In 1982, producer
Arthur Baker with
Afrika Bambaataa released the seminal "
Planet Rock"
which was influenced by the Yellow Magic Orchestra using Kraftwerk
samples and drum beats supplied by the TR-808. Planet Rock was followed
later that year by another breakthrough electro record,
Nunk by
Warp 9. In 1983,
Hashim created an electro funk sound which influenced
Herbie Hancock, resulting in his hit single "
Rockit". The early 1980s were electro's mainstream peak.
House music
Main article:
House music
In the early 1980s, Chicago radio jocks The Hot Mix 5, and club DJs
Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles played various styles of dance music,
including older
disco records (mostly
Philly disco and
Salsoul[32] tracks),
electro funk tracks by artists such as
Afrika Bambaataa,
[33] newer
Italo disco,
B-Boy hip hop music by
Man Parrish,
Jellybean Benitez,
Arthur Baker, and
John Robie, and
electronic pop music by
Kraftwerk and
Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Some made and played their own edits of their favorite songs on
reel-to-reel tape, and sometimes mixed in effects, drum machines, and
other rhythmic electronic instrumentation. The hypnotic electronic dance
song "On and On", produced in 1984 by Chicago DJ
Jesse Saunders and co-written by
Vince Lawrence, had elements that became staples of the early house sound, such as the
Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer and minimal vocals as well as a
Roland (specifically
TR-808)
drum machine and
Korg (specifically
Poly-61)
synthesizer. It also utilized the bassline from Player One's disco record "
Space Invaders" (1979).
[34][35]
"On and On" is sometimes cited as the 'first house record',
[36][37] though other examples from around that time, such as
J.M. Silk's "
Music is the Key" (1985), have also been cited.
[38]
House music quickly spread to other American cities such as Detroit,
New York City, and Newark – all of which developed their own regional
scenes. In the mid-to-late 1980s, house music became popular in Europe
as well as major cities in South America, and Australia.
[39]
Chicago House experienced some commercial success in Europe with
releases such as "House Nation" by House Master Boyz and the Rude Boy of
House (1987). Following this, a number House inspired UK releases such
as "
Pump Up The Volume" by
MARRS (1987), "
Theme from S'Express" by
S'Express (1988) and "
Doctorin' the House" by
Coldcut (1988) entered the pop charts.
Acid house, techno, rave
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"Techno Music" by Juan Atkins was the title track of Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit (1988).
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By 1988, house music had become the most popular form of club music in Europe, with
acid house developing as a notable trend in the UK and Germany in the same year.
[41] In the UK an established warehouse party
subculture, centered on the
British African-Caribbean sound system scene fueled underground after-parties that featured dance music exclusively. Also in 1988, the
Balearic party vibe associated with
Ibiza-based DJ
Alfredo Fiorito was transported to London, when
Danny Rampling and
Paul Oakenfold
opened the clubs Shoom and Spectrum, respectively. Both places became
synonymous with acid house, and it was during this period that
MDMA gained prominence as a party drug. Other important UK clubs included Back to Basics in
Leeds, Sheffield's Leadmill and Music Factory, and
The Haçienda in Manchester, where Mike Pickering and Graeme Park's spot, Nude, was an important proving ground for American
underground dance music.
[Note 2] [42] The success of house and acid house paved the way for
Detroit Techno,
a style that was initially supported by a handful of house music clubs
in Chicago, New York, and Northern England, with Detroit clubs catching
up later.
[43]
One of the first Detroit productions to receive wider attention was Derrick May's "
Strings of Life"
(1987), which, together with May's previous release, "Nude Photo"
(1987), helped raise techno's profile in Europe, especially the UK and
Germany, during the 1987-1988
house music boom (see
Second Summer of Love).
[44]
It became May's best known track, which, according to Frankie Knuckles,
"just exploded. It was like something you can't imagine, the kind of
power and energy people got off that record when it was first heard.
Mike Dunn says he has no idea how people can accept a record that
doesn't have a bassline."
[45] According to British DJ
Mark Moore,
"Strings of Life" led London clubgoers to accept house: "because most
people hated house music and it was all rare groove and hip hop...I'd
play 'Strings of Life' at the
Mudd Club and clear the floor".
[46][Note 3]
By the late 1980s interest in House, Acid house and techno escalated in
the club scene and MDMA-fueled clubgoers, who were faced with a 2 a.m.
closing time in the UK, started to seek after-hours refuge at all-night
warehouse parties. Within a year, in summer 1989, up to 10,000 people at
a time were attending commercially organized underground parties called
raves.
[1]
Breakbeat hardcore, jungle, drum & bass
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2 minute sample. This
clip contains 4 tracks ranging from proto-jungle "Tribal Bass" (1991)
to jungle track "Here I Come" (1995) to an ominous early drum and bass
remix (1995) to Aphrodites modern drum and bass remix (in a jump-up style), "Tribal Natty" (2005), all of which contain the same vocals from Barrington Levy (originally contained in the title song of his album Here I Come). Listen and compare the sounds.
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By the early 1990s, a style of music developed within the rave scene
that had an identity distinct from American house and techno. This
music, much like
hip-hop before it, combined sampled
syncopated
beats or breakbeats, other samples from a wide range of different
musical genres and, occasionally, samples of music, dialogue and effects
from films and television programmes. Relative to earlier styles of
dance music such as house and techno so called 'rave music' tended to
emphasise bass sounds and use faster tempos, or
beats per minute
(BPM). This subgenre was known as "hardcore" rave but from as early as
1991, some musical tracks made up of these high-tempo break beats, with
heavy basslines and samples of older Jamaican music, were referred to as
"jungle
techno", a genre influenced by
Jack Smooth and Basement Records, and later just "jungle", which became recognized as a separate musical genre popular at raves and on
pirate radio in
Britain.
It is important to note when discussing the history of Drum n Bass that
prior to Jungle, rave music was getting faster and more experimental.
By 1994 jungle had begun to gain mainstream popularity and fans of the music (often referred to as
junglists)
became a more recognizable part of youth subculture. The genre further
developed, incorporating and fusing elements from a wide range of
existing musical genres, including the
raggamuffin sound,
dancehall,
MC
chants, dub basslines, and increasingly complex, heavily edited
breakbeat percussion. Despite the affiliation with the ecstasy-fuelled
rave scene, Jungle also inherited some associations with violence and
criminal activity, both from the gang culture that had affected the UK's
hip-hop scene and as a consequence of jungle's often aggressive or
menacing sound and themes of violence (usually reflected in the choice
of samples). However, this developed in tandem with the often positive
reputation of the music as part of the wider rave scene and
dancehall-based Jamaican music culture prevalent in London. By 1995,
whether as a reaction to, or independently of this cultural schism, some
jungle producers began to move away from the ragga-influenced style and
create what would become collectively labelled, for convenience, as
drum and bass.
[48]
Popularization in the United States
Initially, electronic dance music associated with European rave and
club culture achieved limited popular exposure in America but by the
mid-to-late 1990s efforts were underway to market a range of dance
genres using the label "
electronica."
[49] At the time, a wave of electronic music bands from the UK, including
The Prodigy,
The Chemical Brothers,
Fatboy Slim and
Underworld, had been prematurely associated with an "American electronica revolution".
[50][51] But rather than finding mainstream success, many established EDM acts were relegated to the margins of the US
industry.
[50] In 1998
Madonna's
Ray of Light brought the genre to the attention of popular music listeners.
[52][53]
Despite US media interest in electronica in the late 1990s, American
house and techno producers continued to travel abroad to establish their
careers as DJs and producers.
[50] Other new names began to gain prominence at the turn of the century, such as Dutch producer
Tiësto, who received worldwide attention after providing a soundtrack to the entry of athletes during the opening ceremony of the
2004 Summer Olympics—which
The Guardian newspaper deemed one of the 50 most important events in dance music.
[54]
By the mid-2000s, the prominence of dance music in North American popular culture had markedly increased. According to
Spin,
Daft Punk's performance at
Coachella in 2006 was the "tipping point" for EDM—it introduced the duo to a new generation of "rock kids".
[50] In 2009,
French house musician
David Guetta began to gain prominence in mainstream
pop music thanks to several
crossover hits on
Top 40 charts such as "
When Love Takes Over", as well as his collaborations with U.S. pop and
hip-hop acts such as
Akon ("
Sexy Bitch") and
The Black Eyed Peas ("
I Gotta Feeling").
[55] YouTube and
SoundCloud helped fuel interest in EDM, as well as
electro house and
dubstep.
Skrillex popularized a harsher sound nicknamed "
brostep".
[3][56]
The increased popularity of EDM was also influenced by live events.
Promoters and venues realized that DJs could generate larger profits than traditional musicians;
Diplo
explained that "a band plays [for] 45 minutes; DJs can play for four
hours. Rock bands—there's a few headliner dudes that can play
3,000-4,000-capacity venues, but DJs play the same venues, they turn the
crowd over two times, people buy drinks all night long at higher
prices—it's a win-win."
[50] Electronic music festivals like the
Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) and
Ultra Music Festival
(UMF) also grew in size, placing an increased emphasis on visual
experiences, and the DJs themselves, who began to attain a celebrity
status.
[3][56] Other major acts that gained prominence like
Avicii and
Swedish House Mafia held concert tours at major music venues like
arenas rather than nightclubs; in December 2011, Swedish House Mafia became the first electronic music act to sell out
New York City's
Madison Square Garden.
[56]
In 2011
Spin declared a "new rave generation" led by acts like
David Guetta,
Deadmau5, and
Skrillex.
[50] In January 2013,
Billboard introduced a new EDM-focused
Dance/Electronic Songs chart, tracking the top 50 electronic songs based on sales, radio airplay, club play, and online
streaming.
[57]
According to Eventbrite, EDM fans are more likely to use social media
to discover and share events or gigs. They also discovered that 78% of
fans say they are more likely to attend an event if their peers do,
compared to 43% of fans in general. EDM has many young and social fans.
[58][58] By late 2011,
Music Trades was describing electronic dance music as the fastest-growing genre in the world.
[59] Elements of electronic music also became increasingly prominent in
pop music.
[50] Radio and television also contributed to dance music's mainstream acceptance.
[60]
US Corporate interest
Corporate
consolidation in the EDM industry began in 2012—especially in terms of live events. In June 2012, media executive
Robert F. X. Sillerman—founder of what is now
Live Nation—re-launched
SFX Entertainment
as an EDM conglomerate, and announced his plan to invest $1 billion to
acquire EDM businesses. His acquisitions included regional promoters and
festivals (including
ID&T, which organizes
Tomorrowland), two nightclub operators in
Miami, and
Beatport, an
online music store which focuses on electronic music.
[61][62] Live Nation also acquired
Cream Holdings and
Hard Events, and announced a "creative partnership" with EDC organizers
Insomniac Events in 2013 that would allow it to access its resources whilst remaining an independent company;
[63] Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino described EDM as the "[new]
rock 'n' roll".
[49][64][65]
U.S.
radio conglomerate
iHeartMedia, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Media and Entertainment) has also made efforts to align itself with EDM. It hired noted British DJ and
BBC Radio 1 personality
Pete Tong to produce programming for its "Evolution"
dance radio brand,
[66] and announced a partnership with SFX in January 2014 to co-produce live concerts and EDM-oriented original programming for its
top 40
radio stations. iHeartMedia president John Sykes explained that he
wanted his company's properties to be the "best destination [for EDM]".
[67][68]
Major brands have also used the EDM phenomena as a means of targeting
millennials [69][70] and EDM songs and artists have increasingly been featured in television commercials and programs.
[71] Avicii's manager Ash Pournouri compared these practices to the commercialization of
hip-hop in the early 2000s.
[71] Heineken has a marketing relationship with the
Ultra Music Festival, and has incorporated Dutch producers
Armin van Buuren and Tiësto into its ad campaigns.
Anheuser-Busch has a similar relationship as beer sponsor of
SFX Entertainment events.
[71] In 2014,
7 Up
launched "7x7Up"—a multi-platform campaign centered around EDM that
includes digital content, advertising featuring producers, and branded
stages at both Ultra and
Electric Daisy Carnival.
[69][72][73] Wireless carrier
T-Mobile US entered into an agreement with SFX to become the official wireless sponsor of its events, and partnered with
Above & Beyond to sponsor its 2015 tour.
[70]
In August 2015, SFX began to experience declines in its value,
[74]
and a failed bid by CEO Sillerman to take the company private. The
company began looking into strategic alternatives that could have
resulted in the sale of the company.
[75][76] In October 2015,
Forbes declared the possibility of an EDM "
bubble",
in the wake of the declines at SFX Entertainment, slowing growth in
revenue, the increasing costs of organizing festivals and booking
talent, as well as an oversaturation of festivals in the eastern and
western United States. Insomniac CEO Pasquale Rotella felt that the
industry would weather the financial uncertainty of the overall market
by focusing on "innovation" and entering into new markets.
[77]
International popularization
In May 2015, the
International Music Summit's
Business Report estimated that the global electronic music industry had
reached nearly $6.9 billion in value; the count included music sales,
events revenue (including nightclubs and festivals), the sale of DJ
equipment and software, and other sources of revenue. The report also
identified several emerging markets for electronic dance music,
including
East Asia,
India, and
South Africa,
credited primarily to investment by domestic, as well as American and
European interests. A number of major festivals also began expanding
into
Latin America.
[78]
China
is a market where EDM had initially made relatively few inroads;
although promoters believed that the mostly-instrumental music would
remove a metaphorical
language barrier,
the growth of EDM in China was hampered by the lack of a prominent rave
culture in the country as in other regions, as well as the popularity
of domestic
Chinese pop
over foreign artists. Former Universal Music executive Eric Zho,
inspired by the U.S. growth, made the first significant investments in
electronic music in China, including the organization of
Shanghai's inaugural Storm festival in 2013, the reaching of a
title sponsorship
deal for the festival with Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser brand, a local
talent search, and organizing collaborations between EDM producers and
Chinese singers, such as
Avicii and
Wang Leehom's
"Lose Myself". In the years following, a larger number of EDM events
began to appear in China, and Storm itself was also preceded by a larger
number of pre-parties in 2014 than its inaugural year. A new report
released during the inaugural International Music Summit China in
October 2015 revealed that the Chinese EDM industry was experiencing
modest gains, citing the larger number of events (including new major
festival brands such as Modern Sky and YinYang), a 6% increase in the
sales of electronic music in the country, and the significant size of
the overall market. Zho also believed that the country's "hands-on"
political climate, as well as investments by China into cultural events,
helped in "encouraging" the growth of EDM in the country.
[79][80]
Criticism
Despite the growing mainstream acceptance of EDM, a number of producers and DJs, including
Carl Cox,
Steve Lawler, and
Markus Schulz,
have raised concerns that the perceived over-commercialization of dance
music has impacted the "art" of DJing. Cox saw the "press-play"
approach of EDM DJs as unrepresentative of what he called "DJ ethos".
[56] Writing in
Mixmag,
DJ Tim Sheridan argued that "push-button DJs" who use auto-sync and
play pre-recorded sets of "obvious hits" has resulted in a situation
overtaken by "the spectacle, money and the showbiz".
[81]
Some house producers openly admitted that "commercial" EDM needed
further differentiation and creativity. Avicii, whose 2013 album
True featured songs incorporating elements of
bluegrass, such as lead single "
Wake Me Up", stated that most EDM lacked "longevity".
[82] Deadmau5 has criticized the
homogenization
of EDM, stating that the music he hears "all sounds the same",
underlining his diversification into other genres like techno. During
the 2014
Ultra Music Festival, Deadmau5 made critical comments about up-and-coming EDM artist
Martin Garrix and later played an edited version of Garrix's "
Animals" remixed to the melody of "
Old McDonald Had a Farm". Afterwards,
Tiësto criticized Deadmau5 on
Twitter for "sarcastically" mixing Avicii's "
Levels" with his own "
Ghosts 'n' Stuff".
[83][84][85][86]
In May 2014, the
NBC comedy series
Saturday Night Live parodied the stereotypes of EDM culture and push-button DJs in a
Digital Short
entitled "When Will the Bass Drop?". It featured a DJ named "Davvincii"
who goes about performing everyday activities—playing a
computer game, frying eggs, collecting money—who then presses a giant "BASS" button, which explodes the heads of concertgoers.
[87][88][89]
Terminology
The term "electronic dance music" was used in the United States as
early as 1985, although the term "dance music" did not catch on as a
blanket term until the late 1990s, when the U.S. music industry created
music charts for "dance".
[90] In July 1995,
Nervous Records and
Project X Magazine hosted the first awards ceremony, calling it the "Electronic Dance Music Awards".
[Note 4][92] Writing in
The Guardian, journalist
Simon Reynolds noted that the American music industry's adoption of the term EDM in the late 2000s was an attempt
re-brand U.S. "rave culture" and differentiate it from the 1990s rave scene.
[3] In the UK, "dance music" or "dance" are more common terms for EDM.
[4]
What is widely perceived to be "club music" has changed over time; it
now includes different genres and may not always encompass EDM.
Similarly,
electronic dance music can mean different things to
different people. Both "club music" and EDM seem vague, but the terms
are sometimes used to refer to distinct and unrelated genres (club music
is defined by what is popular, whereas EDM is distinguished by musical
attributes).
[93]
Genres
Like other music genres, EDM has various subgenres that evolved over the past 30 years that are often defined by their varying
tempo (
BPM),
rhythm, instrumentation, and time period. For example; hardstyle,
dubstep, trance, electro, hardcore, trap, chillstep, chillout, drum and
bass, house, and some other genres which came from combinations from the
genre above.
Production
Typical tools for EDM production: computer, MIDI keyboard and mixer/sound recorder.
In a 2014 interview with Tony Andrew, the owner and founder of the
Funktion-One sound system—considered a foremost model of audio technology and installed in famous venues including
Berghain, Output, and Trouw—Andrew explained the critical importance of
bass to dance music:
Dance music would not be so successful without bass. If you think
about it, we've really only had amplified bass for around 50 years. Big
bass is only a couple of generations old. Before the invention of
speakers that could project true bass frequencies, humans really only
came across bass in hazardous situations—for example, when thunder
struck, or an earthquake shook, or from explosions caused by dynamite or
gunpowder. That is probably why it is by far the most adrenaline-inducing
frequency that we have. Bass gets humans excited basically. Below 90 or
100 Hz, bass becomes more of a physical thing. It vibrates specific
organs. It vibrates our bones. It causes minor molecular rearrangement,
and that is what makes it so potent as a force in dance music. The molecular vibration
caused by bass is what gives dance music its power. It is what makes
dance music so pleasurable to hear through a proper sound system.[94]
Andrew warned that too much bass—and too much sound in general—can be harmful, stating that a "good
sound engineer will understand that there is a window between enough sound to give excitement and so much that it is damaging".
[94]
Festivals
An EDM festival in 2013 with over 100,000 attendees,
[95] exhibiting the large crowds and dramatic lighting common at such events since the early 2000s.
[3]
Electronic dance music was often played at illegal underground rave
parties. These were held in secret locations, for example, warehouses,
abandoned bridges, fields and any other large, open areas. In the 1990s
and 2000s, aspects of the underground
rave culture of the 1980s and early 1990s began to evolve into legitimate EDM concerts and
festivals.
Major festivals often feature a large number of acts representing
various EDM genres spread across multiple stages. Festivals have placed a
larger emphasis on visual
spectacles as part of their overall experiences, including elaborate stage designs with underlying thematics, complex lighting systems,
laser shows, and
pyrotechnics. The concepts of
rave fashion among attendees also evolved, which
The Guardian
described as an evolution from the 1990s "kandi raver" into "[a] slick
and sexified yet also kitschy-surreal image midway between Venice Beach
and Cirque Du Soleil, Willy Wonka and a
Gay Pride parade"
[3][56][72]
These events differed from underground raves by their organized nature,
often taking place at major venues, and measures to ensure the health
and safety of attendees.
[96] MTV's Rawley Bornstein described electronic music as "the new rock and roll",
[97] as has Lollapalooza organizer Perry Ferrell.
[98]
Ray Waddell of
Billboard noted that festival promoters have done an excellent job at
branding.
[97] Larger festivals have been shown to have positive
economic impacts on their host citiesl
[96] the 2014 Ultra Music Festival brought 165,000 attendees—and over $223 million—to the
Miami/
South Florida region's economy.
[73] The inaugural edition of
TomorrowWorld—an U.S.-based version of Belgium's
Tomorrowland festival, brought $85.1 million to the
Atlanta area—as much revenue as its hosting of the
NCAA Final Four earlier in the year.
[99] The increasing mainstream prominence of electronic music has also led major U.S. multi-genre festivals, such as
Lollapalooza and
Coachella,
to add more electronic and dance acts to their lineups, along with
dedicated, EDM-oriented stages. Even with these accommodations, some
major electronic acts, such as
Deadmau5 and
Calvin Harris
respectively, have made appearances on main stages during the final
nights of Lollapalooza and Coachella, respectively—spots traditionally
reserved for prominent non-electronic genres, such as
rock and
alternative.
[100][101]
Russell Smith of
The Globe and Mail
felt that the commercial festival industry was an antithesis to the
original concepts of the rave subculture, citing "the expensive tickets,
the giant corporate sponsors, the crass
bro culture—shirtless
muscle boys who cruise the stadiums, tiny popular girls in bikinis who
ride on their shoulders – not to mention the sappy music itself."
[102]
Drug-related incidents, as well as other complaints surrounding the
behaviour of their attendees, have contributed to negative perceptions
and opposition to electronic music events by local authorities;
[102][103]
After Ultra Music Festival 2014, where a crowd of gatecrashers trampled
a security guard on its first day, Miami's city commissioners
considered banning the festival from being held in the city, citing the
trampling incident,
lewd
behavior, and complaints by downtown residents of being harassed by
attendees. The commissioners voted in favor of allowing UMF to be held
in Miami due to its positive economic effects, under the condition that
organizers address security, drug usage and lewd behavior by attendees
[104][105][106]
Association with recreational drug use
Dance music has a long association with
recreational drug use.
[107]
Russell Smith noted that the association of drugs and music was by no
means exclusive to electronic music, citing previous examples such as
Psychedelic rock and
LSD,
disco music and
cocaine, and
punk music and
heroin.
[102]
Ecstasy is commonly consumed at raves. Above, a rave in Austria in 2005.
MDMA is often considered the drug of choice within the rave culture and is also used at clubs, festivals and
house parties.
[108]
In the rave environment, the sensory effects from the music and
lighting are often highly synergistic with the drug. The psychedelic
amphetamine quality of MDMA offers multiple reasons for its appeals to
users in the "rave" setting. Some users enjoy the feeling of mass
communion from the inhibition-reducing effects of the drug, while others
use it as party fuel because of the drug's stimulatory effects.
[109]
MDMA is occasionally known for being taken in conjunction with
psychedelic drugs. The more common combinations include MDMA combined
with
LSD, MDMA with
psilocybin mushrooms, and MDMA with
ketamine. Many users use
mentholated
products while taking MDMA for its cooling sensation while experiencing
the drug's effects. Examples include menthol cigarettes,
Vicks VapoRub,
NyQuil,
[110] and
lozenges.
The incidence of nonmedical ketamine has increased in the context of
raves and other parties.
[111] However, its emergence as a
club drug differs from other club drugs (e.g.
MDMA) due to its
anesthetic properties (
e.g., slurred speech, immobilization) at higher doses;
[112] in addition, there are reports of ketamine being sold as "ecstasy".
[113] The use of ketamine as part of a "postclubbing experience" has also been documented.
[114] Ketamine's rise in the dance culture was rapid in
Hong Kong by the end of the 1990s.
[112]
Before becoming a federally controlled substance in the United States
in 1999, ketamine was available as diverted pharmaceutical preparations
and as a pure powder sold in bulk quantities from domestic chemical
supply companies.
[115] Much of the current ketamine diverted for nonmedical use originates in China and India.
[115]
Reports of alleged drug related deaths
A number of deaths related to alleged drug use have occurred at major festivals in recent years, involving such drugs as
MDMA and
meth.
Electric Daisy Carnival was forced to move to
Las Vegas in 2011, when the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum refused to host any it or any other
Insomniac-organized electronic music events after an underaged attendee died from an MDMA overdose at the 2010 edition.
[96][116][117][118] Drug-related deaths during
Electric Zoo 2013 in
New York City,
United States, and
Future Music Festival Asia 2014 in
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, prompted the final day of both events to be outright cancelled,
[117][119] while
Life in Color
cancelled a planned event in Malaysia out of concern for the incident
at Future Music Festival Asia and other drug-related deaths that
occurred at the
A State of Trance 650 concerts in
Jakarta,
Indonesia.
[120][121][122]
Industry awards
| Organization |
Award |
Years |
Notes |
| BRIT Awards |
British Dance Act |
1994–2004 |
The BRIT awards in the UK introduced a "British Dance Act" category in 1994, first won by M People.
Although dance acts had featured in the awards in previous years, this
was the first year dance music was given its own category. More recently
the award was removed as was "Urban" and "Rock" and other genres as the
awards removed Genre-based awards and moved to more generalised
artist-focused awards. |
| Grammy Award |
Best Dance Recording |
1998–present |
Most recently won (2015) by "Rather Be", Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne |
| Grammy Award |
Best Dance/Electronica Album |
2005–present |
Most recently won (2015) by Syro, Aphex Twin |
| DJ Mag |
Top 100 DJs poll |
1991–present |
The British dance music magazine DJ Mag publishes a yearly
listing of the top 100 DJs in the world; from 1991 to 1996 the Top 100
poll were ranked by the magazine's journalists; in 1997 the poll became a
public vote; The last poll in 2015 named Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike as No1. |
| DJ Awards |
Best DJ Award |
1998–present |
The only global DJ awards event that nominates and awards international DJ's in 11 categories held annually in Ibiza, Spain, winners selected by a public vote[123] and one of the most important[124] |
| Winter Music Conference (WMC) |
IDMA: International Dance Music Awards |
1998–Present |
[125] |
| Project X Magazine |
Electronic Dance Music Awards |
1995 |
Readers of Project X magazine voted for the winners of the first (and only) "Electronic Dance Music Awards".[91] In a ceremony organized by the magazine and Nervous Records, award statues were given to Winx, The Future Sound of London, Moby, Junior Vasquez, Danny Tenaglia, DJ Keoki, TRIBAL America Records and Moonshine Records.[91] |
| American Music Awards |
Favorite Electronic Dance Music |
2012–present |
[126] |
| World Music Awards |
Best DJ and Best Dance Music Artist |
2006–present |
,[127][128] |
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