Your thoughts on modern dance music?

I love music in general and in my years as a DJ, but also as a consumer I have learned that in any genre, no matter which one, there are pearls to be found and then there are stinky beans to be found.
That is why I love to play such a wide range of music and not limit myself to a genre.

So the same goes for the many genres of dance music. I love to dance around and have a good mood up kinda beat music and so many EDM genres do that and have really good songs. Are those the top 100 of beatport for me? No, not really, but I say “whatever floats your boat”. If you are having fun with music, no shame there and many seem to like it, so they cannot do much wrong there.

Quite frankly, back in the 80’s there were genres with a very high me too ratio. And although I liked most music, I was no big fan of Italo for example. Result: I thought most Italo sounded the same. I had a friend who was heavily into Italo and he thought I was braindead because I said it was all the same 🙂 .

Music largely remains very personal and especially if you don’t like a particular genre, it’s very easy to get the “more of the same” feeling.

My 2 cents.

Greetinx.

I’ve been listening to dance music since I was 10…that’s the early 80s.

I hear complaints about audio quality and yet I think about how bad many Chicago Trax records sounded, or how many smaller labels put out music that wasn’t “professionally mastered” but seemingly did well.

I do understand when someone puts out a tune that just sounds horrible from an audio viewpoint, but for all the “get it professionally mastered” comments I see, not everyone can afford it. I make what I believe is a decent salary in web design/development, but even I can’t afford or justify spending money to master a tune or mix. To me, that expense is either for a label to pay or when you’re 100% serious about going into the “big leagues”.

PLUS…I think to bash on bedroom producers for not doing that is just bad. One of the greatest factors of this culture is on how much the DIY spirit dominates. It’s the big reason I’ve made that series on promotional materials, because I want to see you all go DIY in as much as you can. I want you all to never think “I’m not good enough to do that” and just try anyway. It explains many things in my life and while I didn’t “blow up” as a DJ, that same spirit fostered my lucrative career.

NOW…in terms of the usual complaint of “cookie cutter” crap EDM churning out and the supposed lack of quality music, I did address that in 2012. In my book, there will always be crappy poppy manufactured music that appeals to the masses and makes music enthusiasts cringe. I’ve watched this happen for decades.

My best advice is to shop smarter, support your musical love, grow with it, and build a scene…rather than beg/complain how your current scene won’t try anything “new”.

I still go on Beatport and Traxsource and find loads of great stuff to buy and play…so I can’t fathom that things went all downhill. It’s just the usual issue of the mainstream world loving more watered down sounds that might not turn you on. That’s the problem of living in the underground, and trying to grow from it.

I suppose you can do a rough mix, post it on Soundcloud, and hope some label picks it up for mastering and distribution. There should be something like a kickstarter for producers to raise funds for mastering, that be cool.

I agree with this. I think if one is signed to a label then the label should pay to get tunes mastered for release. However, I don’t see the need to get mastering (unless you have loads of money to toss around) when it’s just to put up on SC for exposure.

REGARDLESS…one should try to do the best they can in this. Don’t just hit “export”. Listen to it loads of times and pick apart the sounds so you can make the most of your setup.

In the end, I still want people to go DIY. To just try and do. DJing and production should never be an exclusive thing that only a few are “worthy” of doing. There should only just be the winners and losers via the market.

I agree with not bashing bedroom producers, moreover I don’t think getting your track professionally mastered is a must either.
Squarepusher sold 10,000 odd copies of his Hard Normal Daddy album and the whole thing was written, produced and mastered in his bedroom. His sampler had half meg of RAM for gods sake.
Point is that limitations can make you rethink your way round making sounds, and in my mind that is a metaphorical red flag to the bull of creativity. A semi decent set of speakers and an honest appraisal of what you have produced should get it sounding pretty damn good without chucking extra money at it.