EDM and newness.

I guess the record shop for me was mainly music. I never saw the ones in my area as ideal spots to network, simply because every DJ in there was in rough competition with one another.

I think when it became a big popularity contest, or I’d see the guy downloading loads of unreleased stuff off Kazaa and/or going out every night of the week to hang out at the smaller events…I lost touch with the idea of a record shop as a communal thing. I just went in, bought music, and went home.

If anything, I’ve seen more networking happen now at the weeknight smaller events…and more DJs get gigs who were willing to come out and support The Saturday promoter’s Wednesday night event. Now more than ever though it comes down to having a FB page with thousands of bonna-fide likes.

Bringing this around…I’m still happy there isn’t this push to get everything new every week. I hated having to find a way to get out of work on time every Thursday or Friday night in the hope of finding the new/cool stuff. Even when sites like Satellite Records (back in the day) or GEMM popped up, I loved how “limited” and “exclusive” stopped mattering in my shopping. I could simply buy said tune anywhere in the world.

The only caveat I’d add though with regard to playing older music is that while classics are good, you should avoid music that’s “played out”. You can get away with playing a so-so track more easily if it’s a NEW so-so track, not so much if everybody’s sick of it because it was hot for a short time but didn’t stand the test of time. Ideally, you crowd and music judging abilities should take care of this problem, but this is where it also helps to know what other DJs have been playing, or in this case, USED to be playing.

reason808, post: 28618, member: 831 wrote:

At the risk of contradicting my earlier post, I’ll say that EDM doesn’t age very well. When I listen to a 10-15yr old classic dance track I’d forgotten about, the dated production techniques really stand out. It’s the first thing I notice, and its not pretty. So if I have this reaction as a highly sympathetic DJ, the general public is probably much harsher. I suspect that’s where the OP’s friend is coming from, although I think he’s getting carried away about newness.

I don’t have this reaction with non-EDM genres: 70s funk still feels funky, James Brown still feels soulful. The older styles and techniques sound “classic” instead of “dated.” Why? IMHO, EDM is saying, through style: “This is the future of music.” EDM constantly introduces new soundscapes to the world, often in epic fashion. As soon as the style becomes dated, the “epic and futuristic” intro really seems really small and dated in a way that other genres don’t. But that’s also why EDM is also so fresh and innovative, and keeps me excited and interested.

Ah ok, I think my confusion is based around still not really understanding what ‘EDM’ is or isnt. Its just such a broad a term.

In any case, i agree with you and its how I feel about a lot of electronic music.

However, like you said, this music is trying to be the future of music, and sometime tracks get made that are too far ahead of their time, and they may not get appreciated at the by their contemporarys because of this. These tracks can sometimes be the best weapons for a set.

Thats why I always keep one foot in the past and one foot in the future with what I listen to and play, and probably why I get my back up when I see statements like “EDM [or house, or techno, or whatever] should always be…this, that or the other.”

There’s so much EDM material released today so good tracks might be forgotten just because they are older than a few months.