On June 26th, 2011 at 6:30 am I pulled into a Motel 6 in St. George, Utah and stumbled into the office mumbling, “What’s the cheapest room you got?” I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to recover from the previous night that ended at 4 am. I had just experienced the marquee night of the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Vegas. In one night, I saw some of the biggest names in EDM, at North America’s largest electronic music festival, on the infield of a NASCAR track. Yup. ‘Murica. Just some of the acts I was able to see perform were The Glitch Mob, Bassnectar, Green Velvet, Umek, Skrillex, Dada Life and Afrojack. I was over the moon with what I got to see and I was pleasantly floored with the entire vibe of the festival. Everywhere I went, everyone I talked to, was just excited to be amongst fellow EDM lovers. There were no visible haters or folded-arm pretentious, Wayfarer-wearing elitists present even with the easy to make fun of heavy doses Y.O.L.O. and P.L.U.R. covered swag. Granted some of these people might have been under the influence of (insert whatever name you want for MDMA here), but a vast majority were not. While I was taking a break from the 90+ degree desert heat in one of the many “cool off” areas (which happened to be the garages for NASCAR), I started up a conversation with a guy who looked like this wasn’t his first sit down of the night. After breaking through the usual forced questionnaire type of menial conversation, we started discussing who we saw, who we were going to see and so on. At the end of the conversation I asked him who he was going to see next and he said he was headed over to see the English trance/house group Above & Beyond and I responded with “Aw, you’re not gonna go see Skrillex?” His response to my decision to go watch a rising (at the time) dubstep producer over a seminal name in trance history was the reason why I wanted to put this piece out into the world. He simply said,

“Nah. Skrillex really isn’t my kind of music, but I’m glad to see him doing so well. Have fun.”

His answer was not a pretentious “You like that emo-core dropout?” or, “Dude, that guy only is famous because of deadmau5.” It was a message of acceptance of difference and tolerance in a musical community, something that is almost unheard of these days. Even though we had dissenting opinions, our mutual love of the entire EDM culture brought us together more than our subtle differences in musical taste set us apart. This encounter made me think EDM was bringing about a day when this accepting, up and coming musical style would completely redefine what modern pop music is, for the better. I thought with this overwhelming sense of universal acceptance in the culture itself, it might bring about more acceptability outside the culture, bringing us champions of the underground who catapult to mainstream success, a la Nirvana. But, I’ve come to realize that there never will be an EDM Nirvana, at least not in the foreseeable future.

The manufactured society of current pop music dictates that for music to be enjoyed by a given group of people, it must be easily defined and nicely packaged for a certain culture or demographic. Yet, with the increase of globalization and social networking, the “underground” effect that usually came along with this neat packaging has almost been completely eliminated and therefore the clique-ish, arrogant mentality of musical elitists focuses less on particular musical stylings and more on popularity, or lack thereof. How many times have you heard some obnoxious form of the following phrases, “Oh, you’ve probably never heard of them,” or “I liked their early stuff better” aka before they were famous. They rely on the ridiculous notion the ubiquity in society of their music is inversely proportional to their niche’s acceptability. This is where I thought EDM was different. At EDC, trance, house, hardstyle, dubstep, techno, and all other forms of electronic music coexisted beautifully with both stars and unknowns playing side by side and together. And then Skrillex got nominated for a Grammy… and the divisiveness began.

The Best New Artist category to be specific. A category that was graced by the presence of one, Justin Bieber, the year earlier. And like Bieber, Skrillex did not win (Esperanza Spalding over Bieber, Bon Iver over Skrillex). Skrillex’s nomination put EDM squarely in the eye of the public and skyrocketed its popularity. It was right around this time when I noticed a picture going around the web that actually ended up on our website here at ElectroJams. The point of the image, if you can’t tell, is to show you how advanced deadmau5 and Daft Punk’s setups are compared to Skrillex’s in an attempt to show how little Skrillex does during a live performance. And the image is right, Skrillex only uses his MacBook and an M-Audio Trigger Finger MIDI controller (a rudimentary MIDI controller) and at times will talk between songs so that he doesn’t have to beat match them, eliminating a huge part of the DJing performance. But even knowing all of this, I still love Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites, Bangarang and the lot and will defend their musical legitimacy whenever I get the chance. If you are a lover of EDM of any kind I implore you to do the same and let me explain why.

There have been a few times when EDM tried to breach the mainstream. Unfortunately these efforts, like those of The Prodigy and The Crystal Method, were usually nothing more than passing fads regardless of the level of talent of the artists. But this time is different. Skrillex has unlocked Pandora’s Box but we have the ability to control this power. Let’s all face facts that EDM is not going anywhere this time. It’s in Wii commercials and artists from Taylor Swift to Kanye West are seeking out EDM producers. Zedd is even on David Letterman!

My biggest fear is that we will turn on our own and begin again a vicious cycle of unnecessary bickering of differences in taste till the genre itself burns out. You might not like that Skrillex does not have a strong DJing ability but it’s impossible to deny that he has created a voice that is uniquely his through the construction of flowing melodies and glitch filled drops that all create a vital timbre that have given him an instant identifiability in a genre that is known for the opposite. And with his popularity he is able to bring artists to the forefront that you may never have ended up hearing about, otherwise. Skrillex has helped expose artists like Sazon Booya, Porter Robinson, Zedd, Jack Beats and the list goes on. If you simply dislike the music of Skrillex, I can’t argue with a strictly subjective opinion but I will argue that the attitude of that fellow EDM lover at EDC will help extend the life and creative possibilities of EDM exponentially more than a mantra entitled “’He sucks live’ and other non-intellectual pejorative insults.”

An obsessive musical hobbyist who graduated in genetics. Fell in love with electronic music growing up in the Detroit music scene. Now lives in Utah and enjoys the serene solitude it offers. Follow him at @Brian_the_Red15 the-crooked-spoke.blogspot.com