Dance Music's Creative Crisis

rjwhite41, post: 32265, member: 2565 wrote: It’s a good read and fairly accurate I feel.

^ This.

Hmmm, I’m glad Ruben brought this article to my attention, and it was an interesting read, but I think I think blaming touring schedules for a creative crisis is a stretch. I also wonder if touring demands were just as grueling back then as they were now. And they didn’t have laptops back then that allowed music producers especially EDM types to work on the road.

Why music scenes rise and fall creatively is a complete mystery. Seems like every 5-10 years, a small US town has a music scene that gets worldwide fame for completely unknown reasons: Athens Georgia (R.E.M., B-52’s) Seattle (Nirvana & Grunge). I lived in Minneapolis when it was a mecca for funk (Prince & Flyte Tyme productions), and this is remarkable because Minneapolis had a very small minority population. Nobody knows why they rose up and faded away.

I also feel like the author doesn’t really define what a creative crisis is and seems to be mixing it up with sales. He talks about a sales drop, but doesn’t give any timeframe, so its hard to know if he’s talking about the overall decline of the industry in the face of mp3s. Or does he just not seem to realize that the entertainment industry’s economics have always been massively unequal where celebrities make millions and others make next to nothing? He’s citing a lot of trends here without any context.

Personally, I’ve never lived in a better era for listening and finding all sorts of great EDM music. I can listen to great streaming music all day. If I like an obscure track, I can find it in moments. In a strange way I don’t have to worry about the music scene improving or not, because I always have access to great music.

Compared that to the pre-internet days where if a scene didn’t have enough momentum, you’d have a hard time finding good music in the stores and no chance of hearing it on the radio. (Yes, I’ve been around that long)

Yeah, it’s a well written article for sure that gives food for thought, but I don’t agree with most of its points.

Sure, Beatport charts etc are filled with a lot of rather generic tunes that seem to rehash some of the same popular “key recipes” again and again. But I dunno, lots of successful rock/alternative bands don’t reinvent the wheel which each (popular) song either.

With EDM as soon as you get digging, I don’t see a creative crisis, more on the contrary: There is so much creative, well-produced music available often times for FREE that it’s simply mind boggling and could easily be a fulltime job to keep on top of it all. New subgenres emerging all the time etc.

So to sum up: Hell no! 😀

rjwhite41, post: 32560, member: 2565 wrote: I think the point he is making in this article is that you can’t be a just a producer and make a living off it. You have to go out and do some sort of live show (djing or whatever) in order to make a living. Which means a great producer can’t focus on his productions because he is busy preparing for shows instead working in the studio where he is really talented. I also believe that you can’t become an international dj without being a producer (which wasn’t always the case) so mediocre productions are flooding the market in an attempt to promote oneself. I will agree that there is plenty of good music if you look in the right places.

Indeed I understand that however I would argue it is a recent phenomena which ties in with the explosion of dance music or ‘EDM’ in the US. I still firmly believe you can be exclusively a producer or a DJ and have success, certainly within the underground dance music scene. The boundaries have blurred there is no doubt however the distinct skills between making and playing tracks are still there. I’d much rather see a good DJ playing and educating me with an array of varying tracks than a ‘big EDM’ producer knocking out a pre mix of their album – equally I’d rather see a great dance music outfit (Orbital for example) recreating their music live on stage than Steve Aoki playing a pre planned set of his productions/remixes.

Maximlee, post: 32564, member: 2165 wrote: As a dj yes you can… as a producer only… no way… not any more. were is the money coming from? beatport… if you do well you might get 5000 sales and what percentage do you think you get from the 1.30 after you label and beatpot take there cut. I had a chat with BT before a gig in london .. and i ask him why do you just not spend all your time in studio and he said that he only makes money from touring… and this is BT.

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Yes that’s true, but this is down to the huge saturation of music now available online, either legit or pirated – which is the main reason producers/bands etc are not making money from sales, althoigh it could be argued that’s never been the case with labels/distributers taking the majoity of monetary share, this is the case for all genres of music, hence the need to do shows to make money. Being successful does not always equate to making money, so my point is still valid in that sense and most definitely in certain underground dance music scenes.

I felt the article was addressing monetary success more than forms of success.