Mainstream America Steers Into Electronic Dance Music Abyss

Being an American child, living in the middle of America, I remember years of pouting, having to listen to boring AM/FM radio, and not having any other music choices!

When I was 9, I remember I started going to record stores, garage sales, and church sales, all to find rare dance music. I got lucky a few times, like when I found that Axel F (by composer Harold Faltermeyer) song, which was the Beverly Hills Cop anthem, or when I found Paula Abdul’s “Shut Up and Dance Remixes” tape at a record store in downtown Indianapolis.

Axel F and Paula Abdul remixes just weren’t enough! I then started remixing tapes with a double cassette stereo. I would record songs from the radio onto blank tapes and then splice the songs with other cool songs- and that was a bootleg remix! Did you ever do this?!

Eventually I didn’t have to go to garage sales or strange record stores to find this sound I wanted. An Indianapolis radio station called X103 The Alternative Rock Station, started up a midnight, 1-hour show that played non-mainstream electronic dance music. A DJ named Jonathan Keith hosted the show. I used to call into the show, and tell him how he soothed my aching for dance music.

Whilst listening to taped episodes of Planet X, I then learned who these musicians were who made electronic music, I took notes, and hit up the Internet for answers. Of course all of the artists were from Europe! Soon enough, I was so inspired, that I started making my own beats and electronic songs on a computer program called “ACID”.

Sirius satellite radio was then born, and you already know I was apart of the first group of people to own a SIRIUS satellite radio- I finally had 24-7 dance music in my ears. My dreams of hearing more of this music were coming true.

The mainstream sector of people started to catch onto the music at this point, but they heard about it the worst way possible. Independent parties, that played this music were put together, and they were called “Raves”. These were amazing shows where electronic dance music DJs headlined. Police busted a lot of them, only because some kids brought drugs and ruined it for real-deal electronic music lovers. The System tried, and succeeded ridding any sort of dance music party, and even, seemed to destroy the chance of this music blossoming years ago in America.

So the mainstream sector of people continued to think of dance music as only being appropriate for movie soundtracks, and maybe aerobic class music- but not a normal fit for everyday life. I still continued my quest…

Dance music is now finally inching it’s way back into America, as it follows in the footsteps of Europe. Clubs and radios in Europe have been banging dance music for many-many years, and America is just catching on. Even though Miami has held the annual Winter Music Conference  since 1985, which is all about DJs and dance music parties, it’s still taken the masses up until about a year ago to catch onto.

Las Vegas has totally caught onto this trend, and it actually didn’t take long for masses to follow. Ever since Paul Oakenfold started his “Perfecto” weekend residency at The Palms Hotel and Casino just a few years ago, other superstar DJs like DJ Tiesto began to come to Vegas, and now every major DJ is coming through town. Las Vegas has now become the electronic dance music capital of America.

You want to see the biggest DJs and the listen to the hottest electronic dance music? Come to Las Vegas. There are superstar DJs headlining clubs year-round, and dominating pool parties through the Summer now.

EDM DJs/Producers who have gotten mainstream success like Moby, Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto, Daft Punk, Guetta, Deadmau5, now rumors of Skillrex getting a Grammy… it’s becoming more common for these type of DJs to get breaks. David Guetta has a couple big radio and club hits featuring Rihanna.

Seems like the old fashioned record labels wolves like Interscope, might want to scoop up these sort of DJ-Producer types fast, because EDM might be the only direction the mainstream music industry has left to turn in America.

Saturating? Saturation???