Debate..or debacle?

Everyone’s got an opinion and their all welcome to it. I've been privy to thousands of off-hand comments, online jabs and sarcastic remarks regarding my musical preferences for years now. It seems the more vocal I become about my musical choices the more vocal others have become too - both in agreement and in opposition. 

Firstly, I don't think its news to anyone I'm a huge fan of electronic music and am actively involved in 'the scene' (however, or whichever way you want to describe it). I'm a festival fanatic, an avid online supporter of musical programs, podcasts, twitter feeds and their supporting forums; I'm a Mixmag subscriber, a regular show attendee and whenever possible I even try and support my favourite producers with cash (call me old fashioned but buying Cycles 4 last week gave me a familiar feeling of satisfaction...the same one I'd get in middle school after I'd boughten my favorite bands latest CD). I get my kicks writing about music, reading about music and as I will now shamefully admit, showing off my musical knowledge whenever I can. 

Electronic music, both as a genre and a topic, seems to illicit an emotional response from just about everyone these days and it’s not hard to see why. Where there's smoke there's fire, and the proverbial turntables are huffing plumes of grey smoke faster than ever. I'm currently invited to 12, yes 12 different electronic performances in the next 3 weeks in my hometown alone (let alone performances in neighboring cities and events in the near future). I turn on my television and TSN's new commercial previews low-grade dubstep, I go to work and am inundated with old Deadmau5 tunes from the aged ipod's of our kitchen employees and turning the radio on only ups the anti, and in turn, the BPM. It's fairly obvious why we’re talking about it. It's everywhere.

Mixmag's feature last weekend 'The Great EDM Debate' struck a chord with me and for a number of different reasons. At a basic level, I think it’s a well written and heartfelt article on a subject I can only imagine is close to the author, Tommie Sunshine’s heart. I think it would do everyone - those both on the fringes of the EDM community and those within the culture itself - a lot of good to read it.

What I believe Sunshine to be saying - a point to which I am in full agreement with - is this: shitty music, shitty music makers and shitty music culture have always existed. It's existed in every genre and every style of music since the first-ever Neanderthal banged a small rock on a big rock and called it a tune. All Sunshine is saying is listen, why all the disgust for something that's happened and has been happening for years now?

The battle between young and old is a long standing archetype, one that's as familiar as good vs. evil and light vs. dark. The rock-n-roller's fought their parents’ generation, the grunge rockers and anarchists resisted everything  that wasn't their own, and now, aged electronic music producers are engaged in a heated battle with the EDM money machines of the NOW, and we act like it’s a battle that hasn't been fought before. 

The feeling endured by Simons of the Chemical Brothers (whose comment regarding the degradation of intellectual dance music, spurned the opening statement of Sunshine's article and set fire to an already smoldering debate) are well founded and neither historically or genre-specifically unique. Sunshine acknowledges that in today’s day and age, the balance between popularity and quality is one that's being found less and less. TV shows like the X Factor – a program which hunts for ratings under the guise of hunting for talent - and celebrity disasters who audaciously call themselves DJs, have made the culture and very business of electronic music a mockery to many. There’s simply no denying the fact that there are those who have and will almost assuredly continue to exploit EDM for everything its worth. 

What Sunshine so brilliant points out however is, so what? There’s bad, uncreative, unintelligent music out there, of that there is no question. Idiots and knob turners are masquerading as music producers and lately, every joe blow with a macbook is looking to ‘cash in’ on a dismal 15 minute time slot somewhere, in the hopes their fame and fortune lie right around the corner.

Half the EDM I’ve heard lately starts with the same build-up, filter, kick and bass drop. It’s become harder and harder to differentiate one song from the next. It's the tunes like this that give the nay-saying comments like "well, it all sounds the same to me" credibility. Their 100% right.

But who looks stupider here in this so-called “EDM Debate?” Is it the knob-turning, Skrillex CD-buying adolescents - the kids who really, are just trying to grip something tangible amidst the overwhelming whirlwind that is EDM? Or is it the aged and educated elders of our dance music community - the ones who have had the privilege of experiencing this particular brand of music in a less exploited, sensationalized environment and yet continue to whine? Who really looks silly here – the kids that don’t know any better, or the adults that are too self-important to help cultivate and support the good music that IS out there?

On one side stands the old culture, our "parental EDM generation" and our 90's clubbers...they all say what’s happened to their music is vile, it’s disgusting and worst of all, its unimaginative. On the other side stands our youth (of which myself is included) who are burning with passion for the music and the shows, and every lived outloud and hidden inside feeling that's been experienced thanks to this particular brand of music. 

The playing field stands divided and all Sunshine is saying is these feelings aren't new. The older generation has always fought the new generation, and the new generation has always carried with it an intensity and fervor that makes them an almost unstoppable force. What does matter is where we go from here.

Shitty producers and music makers, money moguls, radio stars, 'level' copycats, Swedish triplets and recycled computer sounds continue to run amok. But as Sunshine so eloquently put, “EDM is simply three letters that can mean whatever you want them to…the world is full of chaos and our time here is too short to warrant such banter.”

Personally, I try and spend most of my time sharing creative music and supporting the creative talent I do find, when I find it. It’s out there. 2012 was a great year for our music and 2013 will see things happen for EDM that I think even the biggest optimists aren’t fully prepared for.

It’s a sad truth that the new members of our community are growing up lacking the dance music fundamentals, like a copy of “Homework” or the Chemical Brothers’ ‘Come with Us’ on their iPods. But there is creative genius around us and perhaps what I understand less about this ‘great debate’, other than the fact it’s a timelessly redundant and circular argument, is the fact that if our forefather DJ’s and producers loved the music as much as they say they do, then why can’t they see its growth in popularity as the beautiful thing that it is? There’s bad EDM, but there’s also bad country, theirs terrible pop and there’s recycled rock music too. Dance music isn’t the only genre that has to deal with exploitation and crappy product.

The growth of dance music is not a bad thing. Maybe, instead of squabbling amongst themselves like children, the talents of our beloved music could get together and encourage the creative that DOES exists. Maybe, if they could realise the passion within themselves for dance music is the same, all-be-it uninformed passion in the hearts of our youth, the words ‘great debate’ would be transformed into ‘great reform.’



For those curious, heres a link to the article...

http://www.mixmag.net/words/features/the-great-edm-debate