A Reflection on the State of Dance Music in America

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A little over a year ago I wrote a little piece titled “Daft Punk and the State of Dance Music in America.” A decent amount of it was homage to Daft Punk, legendary French house duo who are arguably the most important figures in electronic music of the past 20 years. The rest of the piece dealt with the state of dance music in America at the time (if you didn’t catch that from the title), considering all aspects of the “EDM invasion” on the western front of the Atlantic over the past five years.

In that piece I made a couple of predictions about what would happen to dance music in the United States depending on the continuation of certain trends within the industry, which grew from $5.5 to $6.7 billion in 2013 and is bound to become an even larger money-hungry monster this year. Primarily, I mentioned a division between mainstream dance music and underground dance music, which I hoped wouldn’t grow because of the likes of Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories,” among other excellent ground-breaking electronic releases from last year (Disclosure’s “Settle,” Chase & Status’ “Brand New Machine,” The Bloody Beetroots’ “HIDE” and Rudimental’s “Home,” to name a few).

My predictions weren’t necessarily wrong, nor were they completely right. What’s happened over the past year is phenomenally intriguing, though after some thought shouldn’t be all too surprising at all. Underground and mainstream dance music have merged to a large degree with the popularization of deep, tech and garage house genres among others, but underground dance music has gotten seemingly more rebellious (almost to the extent of unlistenability) while mainstream dance music has gotten even more boisterous and obnoxious (growing ever more unlistenable).

Starting with the mainstream dance music game, it’s not so much about the music (the lack of quality hardly justifies it being called music), it’s more about the perception the masses have of dance music. If you’ve been alive in the past couple of months, you’ve heard the song “#SELFIE” by The Chainsmokers, a DJ tandem that hit it big with a novelty song and recently got a  seven-figure deal with Sony. The Chainsmokers say they made the track as a joke, but it’s gotten over 100 million plays on YouTube and has been a part of everything they’ve done since its release. I’m not sure if it’s strictly management pushing the song so hard for them (Buy the ticket, take the ride, right?) or if they’ve just lost all credibility, but their recent appearance on American Idol to play the song might have been the most embarrassing piece of bullshit I’ve ever seen (Frankie Knuckles is probably rolling  in his grave right now; rest in peace).

The two pressed “play” on the song and ran around the stage taking pictures on their phones for two minutes. Now, this isn’t much different from what Steve Aoki does at all of his shows for an hour and a half, but it’s significant in establishing the perception mainstream America has of dance music. People think it’s a big fucking circus where guys with slick haircuts push “play” and jump around like buffoons. For mainstream dance music, that’s what it’s turned into. I’d like to think if something gets lampooned by Saturday Night Live, it’s finally seriously a part of culture in some way, and the recent short “When Will The Bass Drop?” hits everything spot on. Clowns are given Scrooge McDuck-caliber cash to make asses of themselves because when it comes to pop music, because fuck artistic credibility, right?

On the other extreme of things, some underground dance music in the states is trying way too hard to ignore pop sensibility. I love percussion about as much as anybody, but  four minute kick-snare-hat-different hat-crash compositions don’t necessarily do it for me.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s great stuff going on in the underground scene. Almost anybody Resident Advisor recommends me to see or listen to I can get into really seriously. But with the Internet’s wide scope of possibilities, there are plenty of artists who get big in underground scenes not so much because they make good music but because they make anti-pop music.

So where are we exactly? Somewhere in between both extremes I’d say. A place where the masses of people who are ignorant about dance music and really just into an excuse to do mountains of powdered drugs, and the people who just can’t stand anything that gets popular and dismiss artists after they reach 1,000 likes on Facebook. Seth Troxler, a hell of a talented DJ and a generally outspoken dude, recently gave an interview with Vice on the state of the scene and dance music festivals. In it, he said “We’re breeding a generation of impatient, annoying festival kids.” Although I agree with Troxler in many ways, I think the direction we’re really starting to see come to fruition is one of dance and pop music coming together seamlessly. I’m not talking about the watered-down bullshit electro house Pitbull, Flo Rida, Jennifer Lopez that’s been cranked all over the radio since David Guetta released “One Love” in 2009. I’m talking about music that keeps artistic integrity, pop sensibility and the subtleties of each influential genre intact.

My favorite observation of Disclosure’s debut “Settle” is that it’s not necessarily a dance music album, but a pop album laced in the intricacies of old school electronic roots. In fact, in many ways Disclosure is the archetypal electronic act right now. They’ve got a unique sound that doesn’t depend on preset sounds that thousands of artists are using at the moment, they promote killer new voices in the pop music scene (i.e. Sam Smith, AlunaGeorge, London Grammar) and perhaps most importantly, there is a distinct live element to the music they are playing.

And that’s what the future is for electronic music: a live human element. I’m not talking about the rigid and strict use of instruments, but more so a person in complete control of the music he or she is playing and able to manipulate it in any fashion (Carl Cox is a DJ, but the dude is like Jimi Hendrix on the decks). So in a year since its release, Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” was a complete success because the human element of dance music is alive once again. More and more people are seeking out legitimate musical talent rather than industry backed acts strictly looking to exploit stupid people to make a profit.

It’s not a perfect world yet. There are still idiots who watch American Idol and see The Chainsmokers performing “#SELFIE” and think to themselves, “Wow, that is awesome,” but the epic backlash that performance got from the dance music community means that we’re moving in the right direction.

Featured photo courtesy of: totallycoolpix.com