With EDM garnering so much spotlight in the music world lately, plenty of media outlets, businesses conglomerates and showbiz types have turned to EDM as if it just came out of nowhere. Popping up all over the US through music festivals, YouTube sensations, blogs and sold out amphitheaters, it's understandable why everyone (including us) seems to be vying to capture a piece of this audience nowadays. However, whenever you have an influx of reporters, bloggers, TV anchors and social media whores delivering content about the genre, there are always going to be a few attempts that really make us cringe. Whether its an out-of-touch news anchor, or a hipster blog that's long on party pics and short on content, there are some outlets that any EDM lover worth their kandi bracelets should avoid like the plague. For that reason, we've put together a quick list of the top five worst places to get your EDM news.
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5. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is one of the most respected publications
covering music, politics and pop culture since the 60s. Published every
two weeks they have the most relevant artists and figures grace the
cover. Enthusiastic to see Deadmau5 on the July cover
this year, we were still disappointed with the “Dance Madness” coverage
inside which focused on the parties, drugs and super star DJs. The
interview with Joel Zimmerman paints a picture of a guy
who cares little about the music or his fans. They further add to the
stigmas of the EDM scene by doing a section on ecstasy use and the
“Anatomy of a Kandi Kid.” Rolling Stone has the
opportunity to do respectable investigating about the pioneers of dance
music and where it is headed with the rise of big investors who just see
dollar signs and have no real passion for the music instead of mocking
the scene from a one sided perspective. Additionally, though we enjoy
seeing interviews and reviews on the blog on EDM artists, we wish there
was more variety and it wasn't just the superstars like David Guetta or Kaskade. There are plenty of talented producers, songwriters and DJs who deserve to be on their radar. Overall, their coverage of what the kids are listening to these days is making them look older by the minute.
Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic
4. Fox 11 DJ
Leave it to the usually conservative on news KTTV television station to be jumping on the EDM bandwagon and produce a new segment titled “Fox 11 DJ.” Though we think it's great that they want to expose their general viewers with dance music culture by giving them a so called “behind the scenes look,” how much can their meteorologist Pablo Pereira really know about the music? We give them props for doing a proper Wikipedia search on the artist's history and/or getting the appropriate press release from the artists' publicists, but with the opportunities to speak to some of the biggest names in the business like Paul Van Dyk and Amon Tobin the real EDM fans and Fox 11 viewers deserve much deeper questions than “Tell me how excited are you to be here right now?” Of course artists like Van Dyk are so seasoned in being interviewed that they know exactly what to say to someone uneducated in the scene however, this won't always be the case as the segment continues. Let's face it, when it comes to getting educated about a genre with 30 years worth of roots in the U.S., this shit is bush league at best.
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3. Facebook
Oh Facebook, the land where everyone thinks they have a valid opinion. From your annoying pretend friend to your pic-posting grandmother, they all think they understand EDM from what they see posted on their “news feed.” With the abundance of memes, “rave” pictures, fliers and videos floating around it's only natural for people to think they know what they are talking about. Fake line ups and gossip spreads like wild fire on Facebook as do misconceptions of sex, drug use and other EDM stigmas. Also, there are the annoying party invites and promoters who want to tag you in every single flier. Half the time they advertise a local DJ “performing live.” Of course most of the time it's an event for a DJ whose live show revolves around tapping the space bar on a laptop. With the abundance of unreliable blogs and people who think they know everything it's hard to take anything on Facebook seriously, especially your EDM news.
2. Go Ventures
We give credit where credit is due and fully understand Go Ventures is one of the oldest promoters who helped pioneer the EDM movement in LA. Yet how much longer are we supposed to follow them and give them a chance to make moves in the scene today? Their 15th “Annual” Monster Massive lineup was not released until 15 days before the actual event and disappointed many. For an event of this size and reputation the 12 artists and supposedly five themed areas at Monster Massive seem to have lost it's –for the lack of a better term– massiveness. It's fairly obvious that promoters like Insomniac Events (DJ Reza's one-time partner) and HARD among others have taken over and Go Ventures may have been left behind. We are all about educating the new kids on the background of EDM and influencing them to listen to old school DJ veterans, but we also think it's a very competitive scene today. The kids are expecting huge venues, epic lineups and, most importantly, state of the art production– something we just don't really see Go Ventures producing right now. Not after the unreliability of last year's MM cancellation and super late lineup announcement this year.
Meranda Carter / OC Weekly
1. Plurlife.com
At one point in time, www.plurlife.com was the largest place to get your “rave” information. Where they were, what the lineup rumors were and where the pre-gaming and after-parties where. Most promotion companies all had profiles, pictures were posted regularly and everyone updated their profiles with their EDM news and info. Today with the advent of Facebook social media sites like this (think MySpace for ravers) became obsolete. Besides being extremely non-user friendly the site which boasts “the largest community for electronic dance music” is really just a bunch of teenyboppers trolling about how corporate raves suck, posting naked pics and how many drugs they are going to consume at the next massive. They still post pictures here and there, but the EDM updates are even less relevant than anything you will find on, gasp, Facebook.
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