Why Mainstream America Was Late to Dance Music

It's hard to not look back at the 1990s when thinking about today's EDM craze. The mainstream media/recording industry took the term "electronic dance

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Complex Original

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It's hard to not look back at the 1990s when thinking about today's EDM craze. The mainstream media/recording industry took the term "electronic dance music" (which had been in use since the 1980s) and, with the rise of (lucrative) acts like David Guetta, Skrillex, and deadmau5, forged ahead with "EDM," which practically discounted American dance music fans that have been here while mainstream America remained relatively silent to the electronic music phenomenon all of these years. We know what you're all saying: "the key word here is lucrative." We get it; if it don't make dollars then, as DJ Quik said, you know the rest.

DAD feels that its this factor that creates the stigma that America knows nothing about a scene that we helped create, and the 1990s "Electronica" phase was an awkward time for the scene. While we saw a number of great artists flourish (including Daft Punk, The Prodigy, and the Chemical Brothers just to name a few), it felt like America still hadn't latched on to the idea that this music, a sound that America had a huge part in creating, was as viable as its seen to be now. Maybe the 1990s were just a weird time to be a dance music artist trying to make ends meet in the recording industry. Let's look at some of the factors that made mainstream America so late on accepting dance music.

Major labels didn't get electronic music

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There weren't enough credible stars for the long haul

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A lack of real label funds

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The rise of boy bands

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There was no real market

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No one knew what "electronica" was

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A lack of major radio singles

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Too much money being made in other genres

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