Electronica Is Dead
Well, that's what we're led to believe by XLR8R in the article "Entertain Us: The State of Electronica." The piece begins with Moby explaining his reason for discontinuing stadium-sized touring in favor of spinning in smaller clubs.
"At some point during the Hotel or 18 tours, I came to the realization that I was miserable," says Moby. "Which is weird, as it seems like every musician's dream is to do big venues and long tours, but the bigger the venues got, the less I enjoyed touring. Performing itself was fun. I just didn't enjoy waking up in a parking lot on a bus every day and being away from home for six months."To restore some semblance of order to his life, Moby did the unthinkable. He returned to his late-'80s roots by DJing at small New York City clubs such the postage-stamp-sized Alphabet City haunt known as Nublu.
"I quickly realized that I had more fun DJing records for 75 people at Nublu than going on tour and performing for 10,000 people a night," explains Moby. "I can imagine if I have children at some point, they're gonna say, 'Okay, college is $200,000 for four years and you need to pay for it.' And I'll say, 'Maybe I could... if I'd toured more instead of DJing at Nublu.' From a financial perspective, I'm an idiot."
From there, we get the thesis.
Moby's newfound credo is simple: Spinning records for an intimate crowd is more fulfilling than entertaining a faceless, seething mass of thousands. But let's be honest; it's also troubling/telling in terms of what it says about electronic music's place in American popular culture these days. After all, if Moby, a one-time activist/tea peddler/concert promoter/restaurateur/producer/DJ won't do the music industry's monkey dance anymore, who will?
That's a lot to put on the back one Moby for deciding to play in smaller clubs. It continues:
That's what we set out to examine on the eve of XLR8R's 15th Anniversary: whether the Top 40 takeover "electronica" promised in the mid-to-late '90s ever amounted to anything. As it turns out, some of dance music's biggest icons are more ambivalent about their fame-and the hype surrounding electronic music-than you might think.
The icons they talk to include the Prodigy, Underworld, and the Chemical Brothers. This is where it gets most interesting:
"I remember hearing the term 'the new British invasion' [in 1997] and thinking, 'We don't want a part in any invasion, let alone this one,'" adds [Underworld's Karl] Hyde. "Something about that era in the '90s seemed like the kiss of death in a way because British electronica was held up to be the next big thing to replace grunge. It was really, really odd that people chose something that was so not guitar music to follow something that was straight-ahead guitar music."In many ways, this is where the media broke the ground for electronica's early grave-the second some know-it-all critic gave a stack of dance music niches one homogenous name. As it turns out, the American public was mostly interested in dance tracks that played like rock or hip-hop songs, rather than the intricacies of jungle, house, techno, and trip-hop. Remember the "Buzz Clip" status of songs like "Block Rocking Beats," "Setting Sun," and "Firestarter"? How about MTV's Amp show and its accompanying compilations? The trajectory of electronica's rise and fall somewhat mirrors Amp's greenlight in 1996 and eventual cancellation in 2001, as KoRn and Limp Bizkit captured the interest of frat boys and future Tiësto fans. It's also telling that while the heavy metal-centric show Headbanger's Ball was killed in 1995-just before electronica's supposed takeover-and resuscitated in 2003, Amp has never seen a resurgence in any way, shape, or form.
This feels a tad purist, analogous to citing a handful of rock dudes from '92 and saying rock's dead because their bands aren't as stadium-filling popular anymore (um, Limp Bizkit?). What about the electronica-based and hybridized genres that are dismissed as less complex than "the intricacies of jungle, house, techno, and trip-hop"? Is there no Justice? Seems strange not to talk about developments and bifurcations in a scene and instead to hold up a particular period and the sounds from that period as the valid "electronica" definition. The piece ends:
But, XLR8R reader, did you ever want this music to go totally mainstream?"I don't," says [double Platinum selling artist Liam] Howlett [of the Prodigy], when I ask him that same question. "It's meant to be underground and in the clubs, where people are taking drugs and escaping."
"Rick and I used to say dance music in the late '80s and early '90s was 'more punk than punk,'" explains Hyde. "Because kids were making music in their bedrooms on their computers and filling warehouses with 10,000 people, not just a squat with a couple hundred. The cool thing about the scene is it was no big deal. It was one foot in front of the other-sell more 12s, tour, get on with it. For goodness sake, MTV didn't matter to us. In fact, the problems came when they started to play our music."
What do you think? Is electronic music dead? Hey, you, dude with the laptop ... not you, Trent.
Posted at 6:17 PM
Tags: Moby | The Chemical Brothers | The Prodigy | Underworld
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I disagree with the article entirely. The success of groups like Daft Punk and Justice show that electronic music is being taken seriously by many. You also have to look at the way electronica has become a vital part of the indie scene. I think it would be incorrect to say that electronica is dead; rather, it is transforming into something different.
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My love for electronica has branched out. I am still digging Justice, Midnight Juggernauts etc, but as G mentioned indie dance has sort of taken over in the popularity stakes. That's no bad thing either... it's really just electronica 2.0 with singers and guitars! Electonic music is still more punk than anything else out there :)
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Electonica was never anything but sad marketing by people over 30.
it was a name so frat boys could have a handle to hang on to something. they tend to loose grips on things easy. ask grunge about it.
it's still around if you listen. it's all underground. guys bending toys or kids hunched over laptops. it never left. it just went back to where it came from. like punk or ska or hip-hop. the real shit is hidden away.
if case you don't know anything at all, every music style gets a shot at the wallets of the kid with sports shirt. then it goes back.
broken and battered like a over loved toy.
kids who used to lust after $2999 boxes of gear now spend all night on a laptop doing shit that would have made Bob Moog cringe.
30 somethings pine for 1997. when they knew what the deal was. We they were the hipsters. when the turntable outsold a guitar.
the deal was you got hoodwinked into thinking the future was a stuck up British rich kid, a 303 and a sampler.
the future has been that lonely kid and his laptop for a while now.
the local record store now has a DANCE section.
Underworld is in there.
So is Moby.
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thankfully, in this article they only mentioned the acts that suck and chose to ignore the great works / genres that continue to influence the worthless mainstream OC/Hills auditory diarreha that is out there today... even though they don't admit.
and I agree with taki- "electronica," or more aptly it less than guido light stick genres is/are MUCH more punk than the fake brit teeny core hottopic junk that is out there now.
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This is Just a look on the face thing, not holding the microphone....
your the microphone...
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Moby decided to play small venues, huh? I have a feeling he didn't have much of a choice. Dude would be lucky to play 1000-1500 capacity venues these days.
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Yeah, electronica is totally dead. No one went to see Daft Punk this summer, no one listens to Justice, especially not in the next post on this very website, and no one listens to Junior Boys or Cut Copy or Digitalism or Dan Deacon or or or or.
It's a lame way from some magazine I've never heard of to try to sell magazines.
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I don't think Moby needs to worry about having kids.
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Electronica came from club culture....it ALWAYS sounded great when you're loaded and trying to get off with a random schveetnick. The problem is most of the music NEVER translates to an environment where you actually have to LISTEN to the song....ie: does it move you when you hear it on your crappy bedroom speakers after getting out of the shower?
The Prodigy WAS punk rock. Moby DID make an incredible album, PLAY, that moved people.
Justice? Is their music going to be the soundtrack of your life?
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The problem with electronica/IDM/whatever, is that the talented artists (Boards of Canada, Richard D. James, The Knife) rarely, if ever perform live. (And almost never in the U.S.--Aphex Twin at Coachella notwithstanding.) Justice and Crystal Castles have about two good songs between them, but hipsters eat them up because of their image. So it's not dead, it's just being meticulously created in Scottish studios every 2-3 years.
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electronic music will never die... what a foolish thing to suggest.
kidacomputerrock has a point about a lot of the original bands performing, so a lot of us in the states didn't have that connection to our heroes. -funny still, that even the detroit innovators find it easier to put shows on in the uk and eu than here, which could be a reason- however, when they did perform, it was monumental. i saw 808 state several times, as well as moby when he was a fledgling, and plastikman, joey beltram, etc... it was another world. and you know what, i didn't need drugs. i was into techno before i dropped acid or e, guswash, and i can still very readily listen to lfo, ruskin, model 500, any of that without losing any of the impact.
electronica the term died because it was foolish. it was a sad marketing ploy for a too obsessed with rock us of a who were refusing to respect or acknowledge the dance music developments that were going on. i heard no end of criticism from people when i first was into techno -as well as when i was growing up with disco and then electro-pop and then house- so many people have this ridiculous hang up about dance music, and they kind of still do to some degree when you consider the bands that cross over only do so because they have elements of rock or pop. which is totally cool, depeche mode were one of those groups, but in the eighties.
as fas as techno purists, they arrived in the middle of the 2nd wave in the nineties... hating disco, hating house, hating electro pop, hating all the things that preceeded techno. it was sad, and they ruined it for some. elitism was adapted by those who thought the original kids were excluding, which for most of us wasn't the case. however, in a case of going to limelight, sound factory, underground raves, it was a drag to have people come in and just be miserable and annoying because they didn't like it. we were into this music to escape criticism, to escape sexual orientation issues, etc., like disco had tried to do -but the 70's were just still too racially/sexually divided- and when that was dragged back in, it sucked. i lost interest around 94 when novelty techno tracks really were taking hold and it became a caricature of what it has been, it was unbearable. i think this is what some of the artists in that article were trying to get at in a bad way... it was an escape from the bullshit, and when the bullshit came back in due it lost the plot... so in some ways it was dead, but in a soul sort of way. it seems refreshed these days, which is exciting, hopefully it will stay that way.
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"From a financial perspective, I'm an idiot."
Funny, that's not what everyone was saying after EVERY song from Play was licensed for some dumb commercial.
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Um, two words: Postal Service. It may not be "electronica" in what we normally define it is (if there really is a common definition) but they did feature a dude making music in his bedroom with a laptop, however poppy it turned out to be, and "Such Great Heights" was a HUGE success in college and alternative rock radio for a long time (2003-to-2005 at least).
And how about LCD Soundsystem and the sucesss of Paul Oakenfold earlier this decade? Also, like people mentioned earlier, Daft Punk is still around and even scored a big peformance with Kanye West at the Grammys a few months back - and The Chemical Brothers won a Grammy that night too. [Funny, unless I'm missing something, I don't see the Chem. Bros. saying the scene is dead]
I still hear Junior Boys' "In The Morning" and Oakenfold's "Ready Steady Go" on radio and TV - in ads, mostly - to this day, but I hardly hear Underworld or The Prodigy on mainstream American radio or anywhere else (and that's a good thing). So maybe the latter two should quit whining about how not right or terrible it was when they were hugely popular (and making big money) and start making great records again - and in The Prodigy's case, making records, period.
In addition, Junkie XL, another '90s survivor like Daft Punk and the Chemical Bros., is still making pretty good records, as is Paul van Dyk, who tore up the download charts I believe (iTunes) last year with his latest album. So this genre is by no means dead, it's just not taking over big arenas and rock radio like it did in the '90s or selling lots of albums. Then again, who (besides me) buys CDs anymore?
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Yeah, that article is a heap of shit... Postal Service, The Faint, Hot Chip, Ladytron, Chemical Brothers, Junior Boys, LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk, Klaxons, Ratatat, Crystal Castles, Justice, Octopus Project, Goldfrapp, The Knife, Digitalism, MSTRKRFT, MIA, ... All going strong. It doesn't look and sound exactly the same as it did in 1997, but neither does rock music or any other genre for that matter. I don't think anyone literally meant that it would take over the charts while continuing to sound exactly the way it did 10 years ago; that would be foolish.
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Not Tru!!! Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Justice, The Presets, Simian Mobile disco and Bookashade are great examples that Electronica is not dead at all!! Hip Hoppers are using sound and beat straight outta Electronic Music.
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Electronica as in Electronic music? No.
Electronica as in late 90s Big Beat? Mostly.
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No one in the US gives a shit about dance music besides this whole electro/blog house trend of the past couple years and that's because a bunch of hipsters suddenly thought it was cool to like Daft Punk and rip them off. Justice's set at Coachella was a joke, but everyone ate it up. Dance music here has become more about image than actual content and substance. Are there even any decent dance music festivals in the US besides Detroit Electronic Music Festival?
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Electronic music does have a strong hold on North Americans. Most of big summer festivals have a "DJ tent", right?
Rock and electronic music have always co-existed well - each taking turns in the spotlight. Electronic music is huge right now - I mean, for an epic Coachella ending they pick Justice and the tent is PACKED. It is definitely not going anywhere.
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Probably. It was already dying before 9/11 killed it. And meth. And greed.
And let's forget "electronic", call it by it's real name... Rave. Rave culture was one of the three most innovative youth cultures of the 20th Century, along with Flapper and Hippie. It was totally changed the way music was created, packaged and heard. And come on... the underground venues, lack of radio play, the peace n' love bullshit, and crazy sexual energy... raver's have more fun.
This current batch of guitar music... blah. Nothing but pap. I'm so fucking bored of listening to assholes belting out their shitty poetry and covering it up with tired 3 chord music that I could puke. Jesus panty-sniffing christ... we've been doing this for going on 50 years. Isn't anybody bored yet?
I'm not saying raves should come back persay, but we were on to something. Too bad it's gone. We're poorer for it.
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Look its quite simple, the US makes great music but has a tough time supporting it. House, Techno, rock, and punk all began here. The US never fully embraces the genres, as they do in Europe or Latin America. Maybe its the lack of airplay, the lack of electronic shows, or just lack of mainstream understanding. Electronic music will never die, but will never be fully embraced here because its hard to market. I think thats a great thing; dance music has never exploded here but its been consistent. As for the the moby and underworld comments(dont piss off your fans) Dont say our scene is dead, because we are still out there at your shows and still get excited when u release new material. Every country now has dance festivals, and they seem to grow ever year. Its a global culture and it will just get stronger. So for u all out there who are still true to the scene; keep making music, keep goingto shows and keep supporting your fav artists. Dont believe the hype
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Mr. Bueno, your argument makes a LITTLE sense...however dance music is dying, and will eventually be dead...moby is just thinking about the future. don't get left behind with all the teenage ravers....
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I agree with mr. balls. Ive never been a fan of trance or house but I was invited to a show in San Fran a couple of months ago so I went. I had more fun at my grandmothers funeral. Sometimes you just have to abandon ship. Quit while youre slightly behind. You dont want to be THAT guy. You know who I mean. 10 years from now still wearing pink shirts and eectric green Pumas with a pacifier in your mouth. The equivelent of a musical uncle rico. Bow out gracefully and move on. Oh and Jose Bueno, dont you mean "dont believe the lack of hype"?
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a question for moby, underworld, and liam howlet
If electronic music is dead,then why are you still making electronic music?
Im a fan of all of you and to be honest I think you all contribute greatly to keeping the scene alive. However, remember one thing; we are the reason you all have careers. We are the "techno" dorks who pay 85 bucks to see you headline these festivals you say you dont like playing. So do me a favor, Show some fucking support!! You all are the big players and we are your supporters. We love you but your not the fucking beatles. Born Slippy, Go, and Firestarter are great but believe me there is better talent out there. So just keep your mouth shut and keep on making "electronic" music. There is people out there like myself who conisder you a big influence and dont make a penny from our productions. You all are very lucky, so like I said Show some support. Help us Help you.
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dude where did u learn english?
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a question for moby, underworld, and liam howlet
If electronic music is dead,then why are you still making electronic music?
Im a fan of all of you and to be honest I think you all contribute greatly to keeping the scene alive. However, remember one thing; we are the reason you all have careers. We are the "techno" dorks who pay 85 bucks to see you headline these festivals you say you dont like playing. So do me a favor, Show some fucking support!! You all are the big players and we are your supporters. We love you but your not the fucking beatles. Born Slippy, Go, and Firestarter are great but believe me there is better talent out there. So just keep your mouth shut and keep on making "electronic" music. There is people out there like myself who conisder you a big influence and dont make a penny from our productions. You all are very lucky, so like I said Show some support. Help us Help you.
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Bueno, electronic music is not dead its just evolved. Theres stil alot of good elctronic artists out there such as M83, Burial, Portishead. Whats dead is that cheesy euroclub trance and house music. Paul Van Dyk, okenfold, Digweed should have stayed in th nineties. I dont think anyone wants to hear that progressive "oh my god this tab feels so good to ths song" crap anymore thats why less and less peope go to those shows. The people who listened to that in the 90's, including myself, grew up and so did the music. A couple of people stayed behind and are holding on a little too tight. And the kids now want nothing to do with that scene.
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Um, yeah I guess the made-up genre known as "electronica" is dead if by "electronica" they mean mid-to-late-90's IDM.
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its always the artists who have already made a million dollars in their genre's few years of pop-dom that are calling to "take it back to the underground" and saying things like "we never wanted to be on MTV"
and its always impossible to take seriously
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Hmmm... so "electronica is dead?" Is that why some of the best albums out there are being produced by electronic artists? Royksopp, Underworld, Hot Chip, Basement Jaxx, Burial, The Field, Apparat, Ellen Allien, LCD Soundsystem, Ulrich Schnauss, M83, Cut Copy, etc. etc. etc... are you fucking kidding me?? Not only do they make amazing albums, but they put on AMAZING live shows. I'm pretty sure 16,000 people absolutely losing their shit at the Underworld show at Hollywood Bowl last year would tell you electronica isn't "dead." or the people at the Basement Jaxx & Royksopp show in 05, or Massive Attack in 06.... or.... anyone who has seen Hot Chip, or Goldfrapp, or SMD... etc...
Record companies don't see it as a viable genre because they can't figure out a way to shove it down the mainstream's throat... partly because that's not what the artists want, its not want the fans want... and it's clearly not what the mainstream wants. And that is a whole different problem- Mainsteam youth aren't open to anything different or groundbreaking because they've been brought up on a steady diet of boring derivative pop and hip-hop SHIT thanks to MTV and the god-awful Radio. Mainstream america's taste in music is shit, you can't expect them to all of sudden acquire good taste.
There's definitely a healthy following here in the US though, and denying it is just completely retarded. There are tons of people who support quality artists, electronic, indie, and otherwise. The record companies and mainstream magazines just need to realize music and culture is fluid. its not like all electronic music fans hang out at the electronic club and know each other. it can't be pigeonholed and turned into a 'market.' The tides have turned.... the internet is new platform for the music community. There is absolutely no need for the corporate record labels, radio stations, and magazines to tell us what to like. Anyone who doesn't understand that needs to wake the fuck up and realize its 2008, not 1995.
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easy way for a magazine to sell: include an article that dumps on an ambiguous genre
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Bottom line:
1. Ed Banger is the go-to tastemaker for current electronica (Justice, Kavinsky, Sebastian, etc.)
2. Daft Punk will always be universally heralded as the Godfathers of Electronica. There were even idiots at the concert in NYC who only knew the Human After All songs.
3. Dan Deacon, Burial and Girl Talk smooth out the fringe of serious interest in electronica.
4. 'Electronica', for this conversation, includes most synth-based non-guitar music (dance, electro, dubstep, techno, etc. If it bleeps and boops).
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Ever notice how it's the guys who've ceased to be relevant in their genre who then claim that said genre is dead?
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Simply purchase Carl Craigs "Sessions" compilation and wonder why we ever cared about most of this crap in the first place. Pick up a copy of any Plastikman (AKA Riche Hawtin) release while you're at it. Between those two, you'll be on a path to all sorts of incredible 'electronic' music, from Theo Parrish to the Kompakt label (um, THE FIELD, anyone?) to Ricardo Villalobos to Erol Alkan.
And Daft Punk forever, bitches
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Electronica is not what it was in the late 80's/early 90's. It's evolved. I like what it's becoming.
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P.S.: I saw Mody with a live band at Toads Place in New Haven, Connecticut a few years ago. Great show and a lot of fun. The band was having fun and it reflected in the crowd.
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i like electronica. do i hear it on the radio? not so much. do i hear it in clubs? sometimes. do i know a bunch of people that like to shake their asses to dance music? absolutely.
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please folks, can we do some more name dropping. those long lists of electronic bands…you know so much obscure music; i’m impressed.
that being said, you make a good point. this article is pathetic. there are plenty examples of acts recording and performing electronic music that are selling records and playing sold out shows. isn’t it more hip to listen to electronic music now than it was in the late 90s? i know i like it, and i’m cool as fuck. don’t make me spit out an obnoxious list of bands to prove it…
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moby? prodigy? really? (underworld, yes!!!) i've been writing about electronic music for a few years now, and i've never been busier - there are fresh tunes in my box DAILY, i can barely make time to chat up all the interesting people that are taking electronic music in so many directions - it's still more punk than punk. see you on the flo' ho's.
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Last week I was talking with Pietro of Igloo Magazine about a similar topic regarding how electronic music is still an underground phenomenon. Electronic music is on the one hand mainstream because you can find it in hip hop, Madonna's dance tracks or Beck songs but no one thinks of that kind of music as electronic music. On the other hand, even bands like Daft Punk and Justice are still obscure despite their popularity. You'd think by now that electronic based bands would be more recognized but sadly this is not the case. In the regard, electronic is not dead. It's just as obscure as the other genres of electronic music.
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How can music made with machines be dead ? ...
It is estimated that there are over a billion personal computers in the world.
Would you say Rock, Metal or Country music was dead if 1/8 of the world population
had a guitar in their bedroom ?
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being more punk than punk means that electronic music is THE genre furthest away from the market and a scene. simple electronic history 101 (without name droping!) the scientist guys that made computers realized that computers can make noises that give people orgasms so millions of people got crackin with machines. now its so simple kids can send out orgasmic bleeps and boops and blips from their laptops. orgasm = rock in purest form. but that is exactly why it dosent sell. most americans are afraid to rock so hard they wet their panties. Look at raves going on in europe- there is so much sweat its raining and no one is wearing all their clothes. Americans just arent comfortable with their sexuality- like another poster said. I have a system in my car unlike most indie rockers(please, if you listen to real music, let other people hear it) and when i play one of those beats that makes you feel totally numb everyone else in the car has a strong opinion and a feeling that wont die!!!
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Cut Copy's "In Ghost Colours" is the best album of the year. So... no
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I just read this blog post and had a good laugh. People love to hate words like "Electronica" or "IDM". Only in electronic music do people hate words. You never hear hip-hoppers say they hate the words Hip Hop.
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