Thoughts on EDM


Credit: L.A. Times

On Feb. 2, the L.A. Times ran an article detailing the drug dangers of the EDM (electronic dance music) scene. The article is mostly about how local struggling businesses and governments welcome EDM festivals as huge income boosters, but also gets into how intimately linked drugs and the EDM music scene are. Online supplements to the article include a heartbreaking video testimony from the father of an 18-year-old who overdosed on ecstasy at Nocturnal in San Bernadino in 2006 and photos/descriptions called “ravegoers who died.” The video and photos are pretty disturbing, and really make you think twice about the nature of EDM.

However, opinions are strong on both sides.

Screen shot 2013-02-04 at 7.02.59 PMToday, world-famous DJ Kaskade wrote an infuriated, articulate, passionate blog post in defense of EDM, titled “No One Knows Who We Are.” He begins:

Please. I’m all for looking hard at things that need to change, but first the fiction has to be knocked out of the discussion. Let me set a few things straight.”

The rest of the post is incredibly interesting. I highly recommend a read.

For someone who loves EDM and has attended many of these music festivals, this topic makes for a ton of food for thought. I think it’s important for people who aren’t into EDM either, because there’s no doubt there’s a huge gap of understanding for those who aren’t a part of the scene or who don’t make an attempt to better understand it. It’s a pretty complex issue that I think has a lot to do with drug use and less to do with one type of music. Though you can’t ignore the heartbreak of a father getting a phone call at 4 a.m. telling him that his son overdosed, that heartbreak is not specific to EDM.

Shuffle Sundays: Kaskade

Every time I ask friends or strangers who went to some major music festival (Coachella, EDC) that Kaskade played at who their favorite performance was, they ALWAYS say Kaskade. I’ve yet to see him live and it bums me out. Can’t decide if $100 is worth it to see him in San Francisco at the end of the month. Until then – I can pretend and listen at home…and so can you! Enjoy a shuffled assortment.