music culture

Year In EDM: Kudos And Darts

Time named digital content creators Person of the Year for 2006 for their fantastic amount of community, collaboration and sharing through the web. The web has played a similar role in leveling the playing field for independent musicians and record labels against the big players.

The RIAA still seems pretty evil and doesn’t have the interests of musicians at heart, most of America still gets off on the triteness of such shows as American Idol and the top 40 has more cheese than a package of Velveeta, but I remain optimistic for the future. At least, when there are people like this guy.

I know you’re all tired of predictions for next year, as every pundit in essentially every industry is making them (as a communications professional by day, I’ve heard so many predictions for ‘07 it would make Nostradamus blush), so I’m not going to bore you with what I think is going to happen…instead I’m going to highlight a few things which deserve kudos, and a few which get darts from 2006.

First the kudos – whether you’d like to admit it or not, the electronic music scene is driven mostly by the unknown/obscure/bedroom artists, and these are which make up the bulk of those who are artists in the true sense of the word. They are the ones that buy the most music, make the most (and arguably the best) productions and mixes, support the most events and keep the music alive in the hearts of the die-hard fans and in their local scenes around the world. We pay $50.00 and more once in awhile to see the big names that comes to town, which is fine – but your local guys are working hard every weekend to keep the music scene you enjoy so much alive.

To most independent artists, electronic music costs them far, far more monetarily than it makes them, but again that isn’t why they do it. And the truly talented ones are probably better than most of the ‘names’ anyway. Yeah, you could say I’m a fan of the people who are playing purely for the love of music and not simply about hype and fame – and they do shine far above the rest.

Kudos to Sotek for running the best electronic music blog on the web, and to Resonant Vibes for running the most unique and highest quality digital music shop.

A dart to Beatport, for having zero quality control by releasing anything and everything sent to them and signing every digital label that even looks their direction. Do these guys even listen to half the tracks that make it on their site lately? They have some great music and artists on there undoubtedly – but there is something to be said for quality over quantity. I’ll give another dart to Beatport for raising prices for our friends across the pond.

A dart to every DJ who created a banner with their picture saying “Vote for me in the DJ list,” and spreading it across the web and MySpace. If this isn’t selling out, I don’t know what is – plus it makes them look shallow and truly exemplifies their level of artistic integrity. And I’ll give yet another dart for the DJ list for inspiring these banners, and for bringing our culture a step further into mediocrity.

A dart to Global Underground for giving Sharam from Deep Dish GU 29, but kudos to them for putting together (what looks like) another strong chill-out compilation – I guess they’re trying to do both ends the spectrum…fair play, I suppose – but hardly Underground.

Kudos to all the clubs and promoters that booked artists based on talent and love of music, not on a pitch from someone’s publicist.

A massive dart to all the aging, selfish DJs who think they can rest on their ‘name’ and have stopped pushing things, do nothing to contribute to our scene and don’t help open doors for emerging artists or make the future better.

Kudos to Proton Radio for still pushing things, bringing in unique artists and seeing success because they are true to quality music and their initial goals.

A dart to 99% of electro house for being unoriginal and emotionally unmoving.

A dart to all the PR people/publicists/promoters with electronic music clients who sent me press releases with blatant proofreading errors or simply poorly written documents – you’re all lucky for me not hanging you to shame publicly. I won’t be so nice this year. Just because you’re in a niche market doesn’t mean you can slack.

And a final dart to PR people/publicists/promoters spamming message-boards with your client’s news – those of you posting releases verbatim on public web-forums still don’t understand the Internet.

© 2005-2009 Adam Singer.