After playing a Ministry Of Sound Anjunabeats party in London with fellow DJ’s Andrew Bayer, Jerome Isma-Ae and ilan Bluestone, electronic music mainstay BT felt compelled to launch upon an epic spiel on his current thoughts of the explosion of EDM throughout worldwide markets. BT took the opportunity to comment on American culture on a macro sense as a whole, and the resulting is quite thought-provoking. Instead of attempting to paraphrase, read in full below. Among the quote highlights include:
“Last night was incredible, effortless, stunning even. It was so relaxing playing for an audience that loves and understands good dance music” [obviously a jab at the uneducated mainstream American market], “The name “EDM” has unfortunately become instead of a movement, an actual sound & a terrible one at that. It leads the ADD/drop culture in US,” “As with many other things (and hard not to digress into politics and culture) America is no longer a leader at much of anything. We follow…”
Read on below to get Brian’s entire perspective:
Wow, so much to say. I had some pretty big epiphanies last night. First, thank you @anjunabeats and @ministryofsound for an amazing night
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
Last night was incredible, effortless, stunning even. It was so relaxing playing for an audience that loves and understands good dance music — BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
What I mainly realized is US is in a deep lull in electronic music. Which is counterintuitive because it’s inverse scalar in popularity
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
And I also realized, and I kind of haven’t wanted to admit this, because it WAS such a good idea to have one unifying banner for dance music — BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
The name “EDM” has unfortunately become instead of a movement, an actual sound & a terrible one at that. It leads the ADD/drop culture in US
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
As with many other things (and hard not to digress into politics and culture) America is no longer a leader at much of anything. We follow. — BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
And, I suppose appropriately, this is reflected in our consumption and “McDonaldsafication” of dance music. Here’s what’s happened.
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
The rest of the world has supported, embraced, loved, understood this music for almost 30 years. There is a long and deep understanding. — BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
America has never understood it. Until now. What happened? A lot of things. Corporate America stepped in for one, but most importantly…
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
We have DUMBED DOWN GREAT ELECTRONIC MUSIC. America is solely responsible for this. Not all American producers but our country none the less — BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
Because our country has to add salt, saturated fats and sugar to foods to make things literally addictive (this really happens)
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
Look up the focus groups and scientists that have figured out how to make Oreos more addictive than heroin. — BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
We have done the same thing with electronic music in America. It is a caricature of powerful, evocative, forward thinking electronic music
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
Many of us, let’s say a group of founders, purposely avoided pop music culture because it was too restrictive to innovate in. — BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
Quality dance music is not 3 minutes long. It’s not 1:30 to the next drop, it is not shitty and overly loud, it is not all soft synths
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
It’s not terrible vocals devoid of meaning. It does not have a shelf life of two weeks. It’s is not a hashtag. It has no hand symbol. — BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
All the pressure that producers & artist feel to “fit it” in American “EDM” culture is damaging the cultural &sonic diversity of dance music
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
And guess what, zoom out, look at a the macro, it’s an embarrassing blip on the radar. It will pass and when it does..(spoiler alert) — BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
There will be an incredible bloodletting. Either the people playing the “keep up w/the jones” game ie making crappy music to play festivals
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
Will either make (and somehow barely survive but also barely be able to sleep at night) another disingenuous shift it their creative output — BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
Or be eaten alive as the floodgates open & Americans begin to experience, authentic, moving, non-commercialized, beautiful dance music
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
And it’s resounding and rich, diverse culture. Last night, I realized it is still here. It’s just not in America. The people, the producers — BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
All of it still exists. While America gets fat and dies of diabetes on EDM Oreos, the rest of the world still cares.
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
And as with everything else, instead of taking the lead and innovating (like our country used too) we will fold and follow. — BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
and in this case, that will be a wonderful win in the world of music that I love. Electronic dance music. Viva dance music #endrant
— BT (@BT) December 13, 2014
