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

goodbye 2012, hello 2013

I’ve been working through the piles of music I’ve been hoarding over this past December and even as January continues to roll on - with or without us - I keep finding more treasure, waiting for an attentive ear. MY attentive ear.

December was, as per usual, all about the end-of-the-year, greatest-of episodes. They were all over After Hours FM, DI Radio, they were in podcasts, they were broadcast live from New Year’s venues (Armin’s set is something else, FYI) – it’s safe to say that every DJ and their dog has their own podcast or radio show these days. So, as somewhat of an obligation to their audience of listeners, an end-of-the-year mix was at some point done by all.

It’s the best time of year! Tracks you can’t remember from January are suddenly reborn! Tunes you had on repeat in February that had since been forgotten are stirring up familiar emotions as if they’d never left your ears. I remember listening to Mat Zo’s ‘Ring on it’ in such an obsessively repetitive fashion that my phone would automatically start it when my music launched. Now there’s a phone that knows you. ‘In and Out Phase’? That song would make me physically clutch my heart on Saturday nights/early Sunday mornings, while I drove home from work. 

And slowly these songs were replaced with new favorites – Armin’s ‘I’ll Listen’ took over control of my iPod for what I’m sure were months. I discovered a love for Markus Schulz I never knew I had within me. Global DJ Broadcast became a weekly favorite in September, where in the beginning of 2012 I knew of no such thing.

The summer saw my lady Meg’s and I chart across Europe in search of music and adventure. Hardwell took us on an epic musical journey at the Amsterdam Arena for Sensation White. Dark, dirty, and smoky Berlin brought true progressive house to our eagerly awaiting ears. Ibiza introduced me to tech house – as well as reintroducing me to Group Therapy through the beautiful melodies of Above & Beyond.

I had the pleasure of experiencing Group Therapy three times in 2012, each time better than the last. I think a pivotal moment in each of those shows is when they played Andrew Bayer's 'From the Earth'. Edmonton, Calgary, Ibiza - each time I heard its familiar beginning ring out, my heart took a moment.

There was Mat Zo and Porter Robinson - that night was less about the music and me, and more about the music and US. Being able to stand beside your best friends hand-in-hand, in a room full of thousands of other people who are also hand-in-hand with their best friends...another moment I am so thankful 2012 blessed me with. 

There were nights (like Frequency) where I was reminded that its about the music and the emotion that's intertwined - nothing else. Sometimes we allow other things, other motives and other people to get in the way of why we all listen in the first place. I don't care what you listen to or who you are, you listen because music makes you feel something. When we lose sight of what brings us back to the artists, songs and sounds we love, we lose sight of the big picture. 

My understanding and appreciation of trance definitely developed in 2012. I took what was always a passion and fanned the flames - I learned, I researched and I took the music into my own hands. That's a powerful thing actually - I always use to rely on others for new music, for new ideas, for new influence. In 2012 I hunted and gathered and developed my own tastes. I developed a deeper love for Andrew Bayer, Maor Levi, Norin & Rad - the whole Anjuna family. I began to appreciate the reasons for why it is that I've seen Armin 8 times and why I've been buying his State of Trance CD's since 2009.

Songs like 'Epic', 'Bloom', 'Truffle Pig', 'Rebound', 'Without Me' - banger after banger Trance ANTHEM after anthem, too many songs to name or even try and remember. But then that's the great thing - you don't have to remember every magical moment experienced during everything magical song - the DJ'S and producers do it for you. That's what these year end mixes are all about. 

Leon Bolier's EOYC set drained me on both an emotional level as well as a physical one. It was however, draining in the best way. Hearing songs and feeling the matched intensity of those emotions, all the way from the beginning of the year to how I felt just a few weeks ago in a few short hours - the journey left me exhausted.

You're never going to be able to capture every moment you had with every song or every musical discovery you made over the course of a year. Consider it a journey - treasure was found and given - I discovered a love for progressive dubstep with the help of Seven Lions, I made Cycles Radio a regular listen in my weekly peruses and I saw DirtyLoud again, who made me swagger on the ground like a crazy bass junky (that's right, I said it). 

But I've finally listened, reflected, felt and remembered my musical 2012 in all its greatness. I have only bigger and better dreams for 2013 and I hope my appreciation for all kinds of music, sub genres and artists continues to grow. Below I've linked Leon Boliers EOYC set on AH.FM, because for me, from beginning to end it bangs without pause. I've also linked the second last episode of my favorite podcast to date Trance Around the World - its a 2 hour recap of a 9 year show, including tracks like 'Faxing Berlin', 'Breaking Ties', and my forever favorite 'To the Six'. And lastly, I've linked Armins NYE set which as I mentioned above, captures our year of trance pretty spot on.

Happy New Year everyone, whats you're first show going to be? I've signed up for a little Group Therapy ;)

https://soundcloud.com/leonbolier/leon-bolier-end-of-year

https://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/above-beyond-trance-around-the-world-449-retrospective-special-with-above-beyond

https://soundcloud.com/livesetsat/armin-van-buuren-live-pier-36