In the past couple of years the electronic music scene has exploded back into life and into the popular culture landscape. For many, the music that has been a mainstay in their record collection for years is just now gaining the recognition by way of popularity that it has always deserved. Is this a good thing? There isn't one simple answer to this question as there are several different points of view to consider; none more so than the artists themselves.
From my point of view, I find it difficult to knock its presence in the charts; at least if you go to your average club there will be the odd house track that splices up the rest of the nonsense. However I also have an innate hatred for seeing songs I enjoy becoming overplayed and forgotten in a few weeks.
People on social networking sights posting links to a song that is “such a summer tune”, or “one of my faves” which has been doing the rounds on the internet for several months before they had any idea that that artist existed just makes my skin crawl. Then again, at least this popularity has helped to surface much more underground artists and genres and given rise to careers that would likely have been unsuccessful otherwise.
The supply and demand nature of the music industry has created opportunities for many people to make music professionally and make a lot of money doing so. This also gives rise to a much wider array of diversity within different genres and even the emergence of new ones; these days the vast spectrum of electronic music is too big for one person to keep up with and the seemingly endless amount of sub-genres makes it difficult to even recognise what you’re listening to.
It's possible that if you go and see your favourite “house” DJ play a 2 hour set, half of it may not even be house music in any way, shape or form. As well as creating more options of what to listen to, it has also created much more opportunity to go and see a top quality DJ almost any weekend in a city, anywhere in the country. Not only are they frequent but they aren't overly expensive when you compare them to other types of gigs you could attend.
When I first started going to see live DJ sets I found that there were three or four different types of people who also attended. You had the inevitable congregation of hipsters wearing impossibly bright colours and clothes that don’t quite fit properly. At the other end of the spectrum there were people who genuinely couldn't give a toss what the look like and are just there for the music and the good times.
There are usually a few nerdy, would-be DJ who stand right next to the booth examining the pro’s every move and then just your everyday normal people who wouldn't seem out of place on any sort of night out. All of these people tend to be harmonious within the packed out, sweaty and loud setting (which could quite possibly have something to do with the surplus of white powder circling their nostrils).
Recently however, the amount of hipsters and idiotic wasters clogging up the dance floors with their rolled up jeans and terrible dancing (my hatred of the “shuffling” craze knows no bounds) can only be described as a nuisance. Far be it from me to attempt to say who can and can’t enjoy the same things, my point purely was that there is a direct correlation between popularity and arseholes.
There are plenty of pros and cons when considering the increased popularity of electronic music and its presence in the charts and to say it’s not a good thing based on my own selfish reasoning would be wrong but it is possible to say the following. For people who are new to the world of electronic music there has never been a better time to become acquainted with such a wide variety of easily accessible music and live events.
And no one can complain about that.
It's possible that if you go and see your favourite “house” DJ play a 2 hour set, half of it may not even be house music in any way, shape or form. As well as creating more options of what to listen to, it has also created much more opportunity to go and see a top quality DJ almost any weekend in a city, anywhere in the country. Not only are they frequent but they aren't overly expensive when you compare them to other types of gigs you could attend.
When I first started going to see live DJ sets I found that there were three or four different types of people who also attended. You had the inevitable congregation of hipsters wearing impossibly bright colours and clothes that don’t quite fit properly. At the other end of the spectrum there were people who genuinely couldn't give a toss what the look like and are just there for the music and the good times.
There are usually a few nerdy, would-be DJ who stand right next to the booth examining the pro’s every move and then just your everyday normal people who wouldn't seem out of place on any sort of night out. All of these people tend to be harmonious within the packed out, sweaty and loud setting (which could quite possibly have something to do with the surplus of white powder circling their nostrils).
Recently however, the amount of hipsters and idiotic wasters clogging up the dance floors with their rolled up jeans and terrible dancing (my hatred of the “shuffling” craze knows no bounds) can only be described as a nuisance. Far be it from me to attempt to say who can and can’t enjoy the same things, my point purely was that there is a direct correlation between popularity and arseholes.
There are plenty of pros and cons when considering the increased popularity of electronic music and its presence in the charts and to say it’s not a good thing based on my own selfish reasoning would be wrong but it is possible to say the following. For people who are new to the world of electronic music there has never been a better time to become acquainted with such a wide variety of easily accessible music and live events.
And no one can complain about that.
