One of the highlights of Winter Music Conference Week is the International Dance Music Awards. The IDMAs spawn across 209 countries and has an impressive 57 categories. The awards branch out and lend a broader perspective on the current trends in dance music. Yesterday, Miami Beach hosted the 30th annual IDMAs.
The IDMAs go beyond just artists, recognizing software, equipment, clubs, companies and even apps as well. The awards are even expansive enough to include tracks that aren’t traditionally considered to be dance music. For example, this year the American rock band Paramore won for “Ain’t It Fun,” Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias won for “Bailando” and Mark Ronson and pop sensation Bruno Mars won for “Uptown Funk.”
The awards seem to have recognized some of the most commercially popular songs in each genre. For example, hit tracks like “Summer,” “Turn Down for What,” “NRG” and “Hideaway” all won the best track of their respective genre. Other winners included Hardwell for “Arcadia” and Armin van Buuren for “Together (In a State Of Trance).” The popularity contest continued when individual awards were given to the best DJ of each genre. Winners included Hardwell, Steve Aoki, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Calvin Harris, Armin van Buuren, Skrillex, Axwell /\ Ingrosso and Deadmau5.
One of the more controversial decisions could have been the Best Full Length Studio Recording category. Tiesto’s “A Town Called Paradise” took home the award, which was often lambasted by critics at the time of its release. The album beat out worthy contenders such as Porter Robinson’s brilliant “Worlds” album and Deadmau5’s “While (1<2).”
Regardless, the IDMAs give an accurate portrayal of what is currently popular in the dance music community. You can check out the full list of winners to all 57 categories here.
