The Revenge of the Rave: Why 2013 is the Year EDM Goes Mainstream

EDM: Electronic Dance Music. Surprisingly, the term is said to have been used as early as 1985, but really caught on as a way to describe the electronic sounds that have swept through America over the last few years. In the UK, it’s known as “dance music,” and if you ask any dance music fans about “EDM,” they will hit you with the puzzled face. With so many genres and sub-genres to remember, “EDM” seems to be the term that the American media have latched onto to properly explain the sounds that artists like David Guetta, Skrillex, Calvin Harris, and Afrojack provide to the multitude of fans out there.

What a difference a year makes. While 2012 wasn't the first year that EDM found its way into the mainstream, it's definitely the year that America realized how it could cash in dance music, which is already a global phenomenon. From the Billboard charts to the boardrooms, everyone was checking for EDM as the true "next big thing."

What exactly is EDM's place within the American mainstream, though? Where do the producers, DJs, and label heads see the genre going? What kind of impact will the commodification of dance music have on the music itself? Why are we asking so many questions?

It's hard NOT to ask questions. With the plays being made in Las Vegas, on terrestrial radio, and on the charts, 2013 is set to be a real make-or-break year for dance music on a commercial level in the U.S. We spoke with a number of key figures in the scene to get a grip on the state of EDM, who we should be keeping an ear out for, and, most importantly, where EDM will be going.

If 2011 was the year that people discovered that guys like Skrillex and Deadmau5 had thriving fanbases, 2012 was the year that the music industry started creating opportunities to cash in on EDM. You've got Evolution 101.7 bringing EDM to terrestrial radio in Boston, Live Nation buying HARD, and Ludacris calling on David Guetta to produce a track for his album. The sounds of dubstep have featured in commercials before, but there aren't too many precedents of guys like Skrillex making cameos in animated Disney movies, or DJs like Tiesto collaborating on clothing with GUESS. America is the land of opportunity, and you have to strike while the iron is hot, even with a supposedly “underground” genre. The question is: How much is too much?

Our short answer? Get used to it. This isn't the Electronica era of the mid-'90s. Back then, acts like Daft Punk, The Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers, and others began making waves in American mainstream culture, but the circumstances were quite different. Back then people actually bought albums, singles, and DVDs...and any and all merchandise they could find. Nowadays, while we don't want to say that album sales are unimportant (you can look at Zedd and Calvin Harris as current examples of people still buying music), heavy retail numbers aren’t as crucial to big time success. Skrillex won three Grammys in 2012, including a Best Dance/Electronic Album Grammy - and his Bangarang EP is currently nominated in that category again this year - and he's yet to put out his official debut album. Steve Aoki, among others, has gone on record as saying "the great thing about the dance/EDM world is it's not like you need an album every year. You just have to release a few songs that translate to a global audience. And that’s why some of the best, most popular DJs don’t even have an album out."

Fans these days want to buy into a movement. This is why a guy like Deadmau5, who actively engages his fanbase with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Ustream, is in a better position that some of the other producers out there. Even before the "EDM boom" of the past year, you could walk into Target and grab merchandise with his "mau5head" logo as easily as you could find Coca-Cola tees. Diplo's Mad Decent Block Party started out as a smaller event in Philadelphia that over four years time grew into a massive, five-city festival, with Heineken, Red Bull, and Puma signed on as sponsors. You should expect to see more popular DJs getting thrown into the mainstream mix, either by partnering with established brands or creating brands that speak directly to the youth in the culture.

What you know as EDM is considered by many as the “pop” version of dance music, so much so that legendary electronic artist Richie Hawtin has renamed it “EPM,” or “electronic pop music.” In a recent interview with DJ Pizzo, A-Trak speaks to the same point, effectively making the distinction between the EDM that has been all the rage on pop radio and the scene that thrives underground. It’s easy to see why with such a varied space of artists out there. Currently, you can hear David Guetta giving Rihanna a dance music vibe on her Unapologetic album just as easily as you can hear the more underground sounds of Bassnectar or Zeds Dead, who are both sitting in the iTunes Electronic charts.

The darlings of the industry, Zedd and Calvin Harris, are tied to major labels (Interscope and Columbia, respectively), and have proven track records at not only remixing known pop artists, but also having the power to top the Billboard charts with their own solo work. For the commercial side of EDM to thrive, there will need to be more producers like these two—artists who are not afraid to create “big” records with hooks and emotions a-plenty. Throw the go-to veteran like David Guetta in this mix, and you have a pretty solid idea of what the face of “EPM” could be this year.

Slightly underneath them are the artists who come across more as characters. Skrillex or Deadmau5 are known for their production, but the aura around them has helped expand their fanbases to astronomical proportions. While Skrillex has parlayed his notoriety into collaborations with The Doors, A$AP Rocky, and, apparently, Kanye West, Deadmau5 is known for his run-ins with Madonna, DJ Pauly D, and any other artist he feels has wronged the scene. He might be the Noel Gallagher of EDM - when it comes to defending EDM, he does not bite his tongue or back down from a fight - and his brashness makes him the first bonafide star of the current wave of EDM.

One of the biggest moments that helped spark the beginning of EDM’s reign of dominance was a Billboard cover in 2012, where Skrillex was shown alongside Diplo and A-Trak as the guys pushing EDM to the forefront. Fans of their work know that A-Trak and Diplo sure aren’t newbies, but they both stay in the forefront of the scene by jumping head first into whatever new styles of dance music emerge, utilizing their independent labels to the fullest as the perfect vehicle for their work. A-Trak runs Fool’s Gold, which has helped bridge the gap between rap and dance music with tracks like the massive Crookers remix of “Day N Nite,” but he is also a world-champion turntablist who translated touring with Kanye to even greater name recognition. Diplo has helped push emerging sounds and producers via his Mad Decent imprint, but has also spent time producing tracks for household names like Snoop Dogg, Usher, and M.I.A. They both know how to work the sounds of dance music into the mainstream, but they do it in a way that injects a different vibe to pop music, as opposed to compromising their sound and conforming to pop constraints.

If there’s one singular Don within the EDM scene right now, it has to be Tiesto. He’s the first to sell out major arenas. He’s the one who’s landed massive sponsorship deals with Heineken, HP, GUESS, and other established brands. He’s the artist that (RED) commissioned to curate the EDM compilation to help fight AIDS. He’s also the only EDM artist signing with a major agency outside of the EDM sphere, effectively putting himself in a tier above. He’s almost like the Funkmaster Flex of EDM, showing DJs that there’s more to the game than just spinning records: You can become the brand. He’s the one that guys like Avicii seem to be modeling their careers after. Smart move.

With all of this talk about an EDM explosion, the sounds of electro house (and house in general) still remain the prefered style for the fans flocking to major EDM gatherings like the Ultra Music Festival and the Electric Daisy Carnival. Ask anyone on your favorite Internet forum or comments section about dubstep, and they’ll probably hit you with the same phrase: “Dubstep’s dead.”

It sure feels like this line of thinking is true. Dubstep, a sound that ranges from most of Skrillex’s hard-hitting output that many call “brostep” to, roughly, anything at the 140BPM range. The rise of Skrillex was timed with the rise of dubstep in America, with a lot of people getting into EDM because of Skrillex and/or dubstep. The heavyweight bass and hard-hitting beats were igniting dancefloors from the fraternity circuit to the main stages during festival season. This led to dubstep being used in mainstream media, from commercials to awards shows, but the missing link in all of this excitement? The actual progression of the sound.

Not that it wasn’t there, it just wasn’t being showcased.

We decided to speak with N-Type, a producer, DJ, and owner of the Wheel & Deal record label from the UK who has been involved with the scene since 2006. Our hope? That we could silence those who are on the rooftops, proclaiming the death of the 140 BPM range.

The key point that N-Type spoke on was the lack of originality within dubstep: “Over the years I have seen some unhealthy traits when producers try to replicate other producers, making a million and one copies of a certain sound,” he said. “It’s rife at the moment.” Given the sudden popularity of the sound, it’s not surprising that many of these producers are looking for the quick buck, or to achieve a certain level of popularity without developing their own sound. While the dubstep scene has a large group of producers looking to innovate, the sounds the masses want to hear are the aggressive, “brostep” tracks made popular by people like Skrillex.

If you listen to Skream & Benga’s show on BBC Radio 1, or catch DJ Hatcha on Kiss FM, you know that there’s a strong movement in dubstep’s underground, both in America and worldwide. Producers either need to be unafraid to experiment and create original material, or fans need to start pushing more of these acts to the forefront, with Do Androids Dance doing our part in keeping you informed.

Some would argue that trap’s ascension is the reason dubstep is “dead.” The space occupied by the dubstep crowd was overtaken by the prominent, 808-heavy sounds that Mad Decent, Fool’s Gold, and a number of dubstep producers started flocking to. While no one has been able to directly pin its explosion on the popular sound of Rick Ross, Waka Flocka, and other southern rap artists, the timing sure makes sense. Whatever the case may be, the careers of Flosstradamus, Baauer, UZ, and a slew of other producers can be directly credited to 2012’s trap renaissance.

If you’ve been to a party where a trap track is dropped, you know how infectious the sound can be. With the good, sadly, comes the bad, and there was a host of negative energy being thrown at trap, with everything from cries of tracks not having depth to the whole homage vs. exploitation debate that ensued (dealing with everything from the stereotypes about the sound to the literal “trap” that exists in the inner cities). In speaking with Heroes & Villains’ Daniel Disaster, we get a chance to see how the EDM trap scene sees its connection with trap music, as well as how it marries the trap style with EDM sounds.

In Disaster’s eyes, trap isn’t exploitive. The feeling is that producers “get inspiration from everywhere. As long as they are doing something creative with it and adding to it,” then there’s no reason for this new style of EDM to be seen as taking advantage of the literal “trap.” There’s also the idea that it makes “EDM and trap way more interesting. A lot of rap artists can't jump on traditional house/electro records and maintain their street cred. Trap EDM gives these artists a more comfortable space to work in and be themselves.”

With an album-length project on the horizon for Flosstradamus, and Baauer set to have a stellar year as a solo artist working on new material with Just Blaze, and guys like Carnage, TNGHT, and the scene in the UK starting to emerge, it’ll be interesting to see how trap develops. It will definitely have to become more diverse, bringing in elements outside of itself to truly thrive.

Dance music is a worldwide phenomenon. This has always been the case, but now that the Internet is the primary means of distribution, it’s more true than ever before.Even with techno and house, two genres of dance music that were born here in the United States, it wasn’t until the tracks traveled overseas and got to the UK that styles started to take shape and grow. The British music scene has always been more open to dance music on a mainstream level than America’s ever been; if you think hearing a dance remix on your favorite pop station is groundbreaking, go through the history of UK radio and see how long they’ve been playing dance music during the morning drive, although it took years of renegade DJs setting up pirate signals throughout the UK to help push this music onto the mainstream UK audience. While non-EDM artists feel justification if they can break into the American music scene, the gatekeepers in the United Kingdom are the ones you have to really impress; they’re the ones who help solidify your status within dance music. Of course, with America formulating its own EDM scene, the idea of a British supremacy over the global dance music scene tcould potentially be a thing of the past, but from where we sit now, it helps to get some outside opinions.

DJ Friction is the top-tier drum & bass DJ in the world. When it came time for the BBC Radio 1 D&B Show to bid Fabio and Grooverider farewell after over a decade of service, Friction was the obvious choice was to take their mantle. He’s studied under some of the greats within the scene, and started his own label, Shogun Audio, where he helps mold drum & bass in his image, with talents like Rockwell, Spectrasoul, and Icicle not only providing quality drum & bass, but digging into dubstep and other forms of bass music.

With the added Radio 1 show, Friction says his “life has transcended into chaos as I now write tracks in the studio, DJ all over the world, A&R my label and do a weekly radio show,” but he loves it. With the massive amount of strong drum & bass that came out in 2012, Friction feels that the genre has “really excelled itself in the last 12 months. The music is very varied and I see that continuing in 2013.” As for Shogun Audio, they plan on continuing the success of their worldwide parties, and he feels you should be on the lookout for Rockwell, Metrik, and Technicmatic in 2013. worldwide parties,

Drum & Bass started in the mid-1990s as a dark, dirty cacophony of sampled breaks, woofer-searing bass, and melodies from a plethora of different places, all sped up to 160BPM (or faster). Somehow, it worked, and became mainstream the way dubstep did over the last few years. In the UK, labels like Ram Records are spawning the next wave of in-demand producers (Chase & Status released their first album on Ram in 2008, and went on to produce tracks for the likes of Rihanna), or Hospital Music, which has artists like Netsky producing a remix for Disney’s Epic Mickey 2. Another label, Breakbeat Kaos, is headed up by legendary DJ/producers Adam F and DJ Fresh; BBK has helped put today’s drum & bass stars on the map, which includes Pendulum (who you may know now as Knife Party) being one of their chief exports. The Brookes Brothers is a duo that put out a solid self-titled LP on Breakbeat Kaos in 2011, and recently put out their latest single since it’s release. Not to be confused with the menswear designer, they are also truly seen as the cream of the crop in their field.

The Brookes Brothers spotted the clearest distinction between what moves the US and the UK crowds: “It’s snaking off in so many different directions, it’s hard to predict where it will go in different parts of the world. In the UK, taste seem to be headed in a slightly ‘deeper’ direction (for lack of a better word), with the focus more and more on vibe, and the sound that people are looking for getting ever-so-slightly softer.

“Contrastingly in the States, epic bass-oriented dancefloor productions seem to be the flavor of the month. There’s a slight disparity beginning to emerge there which is gonna be interesting. I think we might see slightly different pools of artists operating either side of the Atlantic. It’s definitely more global than ever!”

Looks like 2013 will be interesting for both sides of the Atlantic, with the US on more of a high-energy diet compared the the UK’s heartier meals, there’s no telling where we’ll be dining by year’s end. The UK has been digging into our trap stew, with London DJ MistaJam bringing in Chicago’s own Flosstradamus to craft Daily Dose mixes on his BBC Radio 1Xtra show, and the footwork and juke styles from the Detroit/Chicago scenes in the US also have counterparts in the UK, with Londoners Om Unit and Fracture being big proponents of the sound. And everybody can agree on Burial, who makes the kind of forward-thinking electronic music that tastemakers in the US and UK alike can rock with. We’re also waiting to see the moment when Disclosure releases their album and pops up on US radio, as 2012 saw their popularity rise throughout the UK while getting some love from the United States as well. Their blend of house/garage beats and catchy vocals could be the sound that translates on both continents.

Who knows what the future holds for EDM? It feels like the sound will snake its way into many different facets of the US, be it TV advertisements or reality shows; one place you will definitely hear more EDM in is American music, infused into pop radio by morphing established acts and styles with added EDM vibes. This could first be fully exploited with the hip-hop scene, with a number of artists already working with EDM producers just last year, as well as Flux Pavilion being sampled on Kanye West & Jay-Z’s Watch the Throne. ne of the linchpins might be Danny Brown, who has already spoken on his admiration for grime (to Mike Skinner of The Streets, no less), and has reportedly worked with the likes of Darq E Freaker and Rustie on his forthcoming album, Old (which should be released on Fool’s Gold). The UK grime scene has already showcased how the rap scene and dance music can interact, with grime MCs like Dizzee Rascal gaining some notoriety in the US with affiliations to El-P’s Def Jux imprint, and working with Bun B. Adding onto that, you’ve got US crews like Slit Jockey (headed up by Starkey) in Philadelphia, or Shiftee and the Hot Mom USA guys, that are putting a spin on “urban” sounds mixed with grime, dubstep, and other bass music styles.

Call it the age of the Internet (or the iPod); people consume music differently. No longer are they tethered to one style or sound, and they’re used to completely switching genres at the whim of a shuffle of an eclectic playlist. DJ Cable knows all about that, being one of the more varied DJs within the UK scene. Grime is the closest thing we have to the fusion of EDM and rap to pull from, and to hear Cable tell it, grime grew in 2012, and he feels that “2013 will see more progression. Everyone is becoming more switched on and professional with the way they're putting out music, decent videos, and building their fanbase(s). I think we'll see more international collaborations, hopefully more large scale shows like Eskimo Dance, and potentially more mainstream acceptance of Grime music, other than specialist radio.”

To achieve this, Cable feels that grime has a few things that it needs to nail down. “I’d like to see grime breaking into the Top 40 while still retaining its credibility. We very nearly saw it happen this year with JME's "96 Fuckries," which, considering the tune didn't even have a chorus, is a major look.” He would also like to see “more dedicated grime events and club nights around the UK, rather than generic "urban" nights who only book one or two specialist DJs on the lineup, or book in the the odd PA. Again, the return of Eskimo Dance was a promising start.”

One thing grime artists can do is work with US producers and MCs: “Darq E Freaker & Danny Brown made it happen, while Elijah & Shiftee showed us all how it could sound with their blend tape. Imagine Juicy J on a Faze Miyake beat? Or imagine Waka Flocka on Spooky's "Playground" remix?” And lastly, Cable feels there should be an emphasis on “quality vocal releases, and regular output from MCs. Free EPs are great, but don't fall in to the trap of making everything a free download. We also need more vocal tunes that are certified club bangers.”

Influences coming from both directions, with a general love for rap and dance music being the connecting factor. With producers like Diplo and A-Trak out there to connect dots, and artists like Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, and Danny Brown ready to experiment, it feels like you might be hearing a lot of futuristic rap being created. Bambataa must have had a point with all of that “Planet Rock” talk.

That’s a lot of information to dissect, but if there’s one thing we’re trying to teach you here, it’s that EDM is way bigger than what it might get considered. Trap, house, dubstep, grime, and all of these other genres fall under the “electronic dance music” umbrella, and with the Internet being as infused as it is into our daily lives, the soundtrack switches just as quickly as our ways of relaying messages do. The future we dreamed of is now, and the pulsating beats of Calvin Harris or Skrillex are as much of a part of the conversation as Coldplay or Adele are.

With all the money that is being invested into the EDM scene, there’s no telling how high the ceiling is, or how long it will be before hearing a dubstep track during your station’s “Top 9 at 9” countdown is commonplace. There needs to be a balance, though;; not everyone is going to rock to the stuff on Evolution Radio, and outlets like DAD are here to showcase what’s going on on both sides. We will chart the progress the EDM scene is making, but will be sure to let you know which producers are really making the best tracks out there, or which DJs are guaranteed to drop some amazing beats when they touch down. Because in the end, that’s what it’s really all about, right? The rave scene was born because people loved a sound, and wanted to go to whatever undisclosed location these parties were being held to experience something. Sure, producers and DJs need to get paid, but when it turns into solely doing this for the cash grab, it stops being fun.

2013 might end up being important not just for how ingrained into the mainstream EDM will be, but how true the music stays to itself once it gets there.