WHAT IS HAPPENING TO EDM?
I have already broken down why I believe the mix of genres we refer to as EDM are directly descended from Hip-Hop. While you do not have to agree with me, you should look around and look at the past and use the model of Hip-Hop to let you know where EDM is headed. Today the hype and hoopla associated with electronic music is overtaking everything and almost everyone in the business is jumping on the bandwagon. Many said it would be a fad just like they did with Hip-Hop, those that say that are completely ignorant about the origins of electronic music and how long it has been building in order to be at the forefront today.
From Barry Gray's 50-and 60's jazz and Electronica to George Clinton's experimentation with synths in Parliament Funkadelic, to The Velvet Revolver's use of distortion and effects and the ever influential and legendary Kraftwerk's innovation in the 70's and 80's leading to some of the basis of Electro, Hip-Hop and all popular dance music. It has been a very long time in the making. Now, everyone I mentioned is legendary and were innovators but fast forward to today where, everyone is trying to tap into the droves of EDM fans loving devotion by creating bastardized commercial versions of EDM, Dance House,Grime Dubstep, and Trance inspired Pop songs. Do we consider that EDM.Well, It is. It's just taboo, to be a bandwagon jumper.
Kind of like being a fan of the New England Patriots(American Football) all those years before 2000. Back when they didn't win squat and then watching everyone catch the vapors jump on the bandwagon just to jump off the bandwagon a few years later and put the home team down again because they never were real fans of the movement in the first place. This is what I see happening with EDM. Everyone will jump on the bandwagon and use and abuse it till there is a rejection of the derivative versions of the music and and a move towards pure versions of the music or all these derivatives will be embraced and will completely change into something else like Hip-Hop has.
When Hip-Hop began in the early seventies it was a mix of many different activities, dances, styles and derivations, one of the pieces of the puzzle was Rapping. As it evolved it merged with, DJing and Turntablism, Graffitti and B-boying (Breakdancing) merging R&B, Disco, Soul, Early Electronic Music and latin sounds to create Hip-Hop. It's lyrics were filled with positivity, braggadocios rhymes about having fun and songs about social commentary. As it became more and more economically viable to sell Rap or Hip-Hop records, Hip-hop began to change. It became negative, Misogynistic, filled with violence and aggression and materialism.What is considered Hip-Hop today is a far cry from what it originally was. I don't believe this metamorphosis is caused by the decline of the natural half life of a musical genre or art form or culture, I believe it is caused by commercial exploitation and it's blatant use of the lower impulses of human beings through Sex and Violence. Because sex,violence and drugs sell! Lets keep it real, the majority of us as Human beings can relate to all of the above!
There has been much debate about what Hip-Hop is, and if the present manifestation of it in Popular culture is really Hip-Hop or Rap or Just Pop. It is what the fans decide it is. The fans decide what is real Hip-Hop or Dance or Country music based on their money and who they choose to support, that is the only barometer we have in our Free Capitalist system and it's how we determine what flies and what doesn't. Some would question the commercialization of art in general but unless you have a solution or alternative it's pointless to do so.
There are so many Fake bandwagon jumpers trying to find a paycheck in EDM right now it's really wack and false hearted, from Paris Hilton trying to be a DJ to Waka Flocka Flame claiming he is going to drop an EDM album and that he is the king of "Rap EDM"(thats an ignorant excuse for defining a genre or sub genre) and if you support those people you will get the destruction of EDM, because they don't care about it, they are just band wagon hoppers that will abandon it at the first sign that the ship is sinking and the funny thing is that they don't even recognize that they are the sign that the ship is sinking! Last year, Deadmau5 declared that EDM was over . If EDM was over last year whatever this is, is still going strong and it will get a lot worse for any EDM "Purists" if fans just keep consuming whatever is put out by the label conglomerates and no one speaks with their wallets.
References for images and information read more:http://www.edmtunes.com/2013/06/waka-flocka-flame-to-work-with-diplo-skrillex-flosstradamus-in-an-upcoming-edm-album/
http://toomanysebastians.net/2012/12/10/edm/
http://www.spinner.com/2012/06/25/deadmau5-paris-hilton-edm/