Why EDM Is Thriving While Other Genres Are Sinking

By Katie Bain Wed., Jan. 30 2013 at 6:03 AM

Categories: EDM

"The thing that will always prevail, especially in this scene," Goldman says, "is a DIY situation where someone is a breakout artist, makes a great tune, puts it on the Internet, people find it, and then people want to fuck with that person."

Of course, the game changes when your act blows up, and you're expected to have compelling visuals as well -- think Deadmau5's LED cube, and Skrillex's spaceship.

"When you're at the top of the DJ world, [much] of your guarantee is going towards massive, incredible productions," Goldman says "Skrillex is an example of that, Boys Noize, Swedish House Mafia, Avicii. All of the top guys have these huge productions they bring with them; that is becoming a big part of the game. "

As such, there is an increasing amount of overhead for top tier producers. This trend is also trickling down as smaller acts try and keep up. "It's funny, because of the stigma of the button pushing thing and because DJs are so ubiquitous now, smaller and smaller acts are working out deals to get productions going."

And while big touring DJs can still move units, record sales are more of a perk than a goal.

"The industry isn't about album sales anymore," Goldman says, "so revenues are not directly benefiting the record labels as much as they're benefiting everybody who's involved with the actual live shows themselves." This includes managers and crew members. Furthermore, many of the top DJs have started their own labels, like Deadmau5' Mau5trap, Fool's Gold, and Steve Aoki's Dim Mak.

"At a certain point," Goldman says, "you just become an industry."

Here's hoping it doesn't repeat the mistakes of the old music industry.

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Tags:

deadmau5, diplo, edm, electronic dance music, house mafia, skrillex

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YoungReezy

Let me clarify a little something. Artists like Deadmau5, Diplo, Skrillex, and the Bassnectar aren't technically DJs...they are full on producers. They actually create music from scratch, just like any other musician. They compose original songs. They have legitimate musical talent.

A pure DJ is just someone who plays other peoples music, but doesn't create anything original. The DJ is not an artist (especially when compared to actual producers). While a DJ can be creative, they definitely aren't creating original music.

When Skrillex and Diplo perform, they normally play DJ sets, which are composed of their own original songs, as well as other people's songs. The type of music in the DJ set is usually similar to the style of music that they produce. They do this because otherwise, it would be boring to watch them just press play on their laptop while they play their own music. That would be too predictable. The DJ set allows them to engage the crowd.

The DJ set is what allows the producer to "perform" live, so they become DJs when they are entertaining crowds. But the reason they are entertaining crowds is because they are producers first and foremost. If Skrillex didn't make his own music, no one would care about seeing him DJ.

So if you want to make the big money these days, you can't just be a DJ. You have to be a producer aka someone who actually composes original music. Once you get famous from doing this, then you can perform at shows, where you will be performing as a DJ.