Dance Music: Where are things at?

Just seems to me that too many people are getting into music for the wrong reasons. People are seduced by the glory, the coke, the girls because they wanna be a rockstar right, but without the awkwardness of having to cut your teeth learning the art of craft/graft on the chicken/basket circuit on cold, unforgiving nights in Neath. When your only discernible talent is sliding a crossfader with varying degrees of finesse. I don't really blame the kids because they don't know any different. The industry and the greed around it has created a monster which at some point will eat itself. Yes I know I'm an old, irrelevant fcker but what I'm saying is kinda true... Am just glad I experienced the good times and have similar-minded folk with whom to age disgracefully
 
Springal said:
Turns out EDM DJs who have crossed over to house / tech house / whatever are bellends.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1571474458220834816

Waze from Waze & Odyssey was due to DJ after ‘Gordo SZN’ who is EDM Dj ‘Carnage’ - he refused to finish his set and played all night as ‘we know everyone is here to see me any way’ - the last DJ of the night had driven down from Liverpool with a bit of a following to make her main room debut at MoS as well. Both got paid but still….
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check out this whopper

https://twitter.com/x/status/1571758534735597568
 
It’s quite interesting now - the art of DJing is kind of dead. Most DJs that break through do so on the basis of producing and a track / edit / remix they’ve done. No one seems to have much of a history anymore or done the hard yards to get there.

I’ve be reading Carl Coxs autobiography recently and you realise how different the journey was back then compared to now. He was breaking genres not afraid to go against the grain (he has a story about being on a rave , listening to Fabio realising he was now bored of hardcore , so played Jungle at that gig for the first time when everyone said not to and went down well. ) Now it’s all to safe because it’s based on numbers.

Also no one admits a bad night, social media pictures etc are taken in a way to make something look busy. You can often tell the quiet gigs because DJs hammer there advertising leading up to a night and then nothing on the night.

All ties in to the YouTube / Spotify instant gratification society we have now. I used to DJ a bit early 2000s up to about 2015 , mix of warm ups are some house nights or commercial high street type gigs and there was definitely a more open mindedness to music generally early on, by 2015 you’d basically get abuse for not playing whatever was top 40 that week. DJs are afraid to be to risky for the wrath of social media.
 
Springal said:
It’s quite interesting now - the art of DJing is kind of dead. Most DJs that break through do so on the basis of producing and a track / edit / remix they’ve done. No one seems to have much of a history anymore or done the hard yards to get there.

I’ve be reading Carl Coxs autobiography recently and you realise how different the journey was back then compared to now. He was breaking genres not afraid to go against the grain (he has a story about being on a rave , listening to Fabio realising he was now bored of hardcore , so played Jungle at that gig for the first time when everyone said not to and went down well. ) Now it’s all to safe because it’s based on numbers.

Also no one admits a bad night, social media pictures etc are taken in a way to make something look busy. You can often tell the quiet gigs because DJs hammer there advertising leading up to a night and then nothing on the night.

All ties in to the YouTube / Spotify instant gratification society we have now. I used to DJ a bit early 2000s up to about 2015 , mix of warm ups are some house nights or commercial high street type gigs and there was definitely a more open mindedness to music generally early on, by 2015 you’d basically get abuse for not playing whatever was top 40 that week. DJs are afraid to be to risky for the wrath of social media.
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Another reason I gave up my short spell of bar DJing! The public staggering up demanding requests non-stop and literally only wanting Drake remixes and Tom bloody Zanetti, and of course if you upset the crowd the Bar owner/manager would be on your case.
 
Good post Springal. I think it's also that there are far fewer clubs now and the surviving ones are rats in a sack desperate to stay afloat. So everything dumbs down. Economics too. Kids from the 80s could still live cheaply, afford shitloads of wax (before brexit fcked the UK music industry). Just watch that Garnier intv on RBMA where he talks about the breaks he had, the second job in kitchens, taking any gig he could get. All driven by a mad passion for music with no idea where it was leading. Who does that now? Algorithms just direct you in certain directions. How would you even know where to look? Then there's the power of the 'drop'. If all crowds want is the drop, then djs have to follow suit or clear the floor. The newer crowds haven't grown up with patience either so it's just a vicious circle.
 
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BalearicSoul said:
The state of play...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1581916797250330624
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Made my first appearance in Vegas this weekend and saw Dillon Francis at XS and Steve Aoki at Hakassan.

Wont comment on the music as you know what you are getting with these two, it would be like seeing Adele and complaining she sang ballads :)

But the clubs were a worrying sign for the future if this VIP trend spreads further, no hope of getting anywhere near the action as everything was blocked off with VIP ropes.

The VIP's as is often the case mostly looked bored and stood videoing themselves. There were endless sparklers going off for birthday announcements...

Would have loved to have dropped a load of the crowd into a proper filthy warehouse rave and show em how it's done!
 
Digital2013 said:
Made my first appearance in Vegas this weekend and saw Dillon Francis at XS and Steve Aoki at Hakassan.

Wont comment on the music as you know what you are getting with these two, it would be like seeing Adele and complaining she sang ballads :)

But the clubs were a worrying sign for the future if this VIP trend spreads further, no hope of getting anywhere near the action as everything was blocked off with VIP ropes.

The VIP's as is often the case mostly looked bored and stood videoing themselves. There were endless sparklers going off for birthday announcements...

Would have loved to have dropped a load of the crowd into a proper filthy warehouse rave and show em how it's done!
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Send all influences/love islanders off to vegas:)
 
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