Hot off their headlining performance at Ultra Music Festival, Axwell /\ Ingrosso have decided to share their opinion on the world of underground electronic music:
“Underground dance music — in the nicest way possible — it’s amateur.”
Both Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso boast extremely successful and respectable careers. Their music has touched the lives of millions – if not billions – of listeners. Their comment appears somewhat inflated by irony considering that both producers have strong roots in the early-2000s Euro-house underground movement.
Axel Christofer Hedfors – Axwell – founded his own record label in 2005, titled “Axtone”. Three years prior, he was signed to Soulfuric Recordings, which Wikipedia so tastefully describes as “an independent house-music record label”. Sebastian Carmine Ingrosso, on the other hand, got his start working in his father, Vito’s studio. Billboard.com writes about how he “labored as a house producer for several years” before releasing his first successful single.
We are all entitled to think what we want, say what we want and promote the music that we love. Free thinking is the granddaddy to all electronic music. Axwell /\ Ingrosso can continue to explore their own musical creativity, but before doing so, they should take a step back and remember where they came from.
UPDATE:
Both Axwell and Ingrosso have responded to their critics via Twitter. The guys suggest that both translation issues and the quote being taken out of context were factors before proclaiming that “nothing negative was meant” from their comments. You can read the statements below.
Axwell:
Listen up! The amount of bashing we’ve been given throughout the years for being commercial has been on a record level. and then a rather positive quote about “our” underground music gets put out of context – we are condemning underground music as a whole, and bashing where we come from ? seriously?
We were merely answering the question – so what do you guys think
of all the underground people bashing people like yourself for moving into the mainstream as opposed to our early music… which we answered from our
standpoint – ie. underground music if that’s what people label our early
releases as – for us – was our amateur stage – amateur the way we translate
it from English to Swedish means when we were trying things out, as a hobby, a lovely hobby, a happy time,
after a while we started moving into mainstream more as our music came more successful- or perhaps the
mainstream crowd got to our music – which i guess took it from the underground to mainstream. And we were clear to say that if people liked our music great, and if they didn’t, that ok. This was about our own releases, not other genres as a whole or other artists. We had nothing bad to say about anyone, this is a super happy time for us right now. Anyways, we
love all forms of music , underground or mainstream, and if you know anything about us you know very well we’ve paid our underground dues
enough, and for us to be “bashing” and condemning where we come
from is just ridiculous. It’s a bit disheartening to see the amount
of publicity this has gotten and the fact people seem to like to find something negative to focus on – when in fact nothing negative was meant.
Ingrosso:
Guys…you know me enough by now, i am not a negative person about music or anything else. English isnt my first language and after 6 hours of talking, this is out of context. We came from the underground, and you dont diss where you came from. Enjoy your weekend. Seb x