To sum the whole electronic dance music scene up is a fairly difficult task! Everyone will have their own opinions about the scene but here is my own quick summary for what its worth:

Ill start with the production side of things. I believe that there are currently far too many producers bringing music out. It seems as if every Tom, Dick and Harry is bringing a tune out these days, which I dont really have a problem with. My problem with this is that very few who are bringing anything fresh, new or exciting to the scene. Dont get me wrong, there are plenty of producers who are consistently coming out with exciting work, but I think that the majority of producers are copying other peoples work as opposed to striving to create their own sound. The majority latch onto a sound and try to create a track that sounds along the same lines, which I think is fundamentally wrong. If you are copying a sound then obviously you are not creating anything new. I dont know where the blame lies in relation to this, although I do think the fact that production software is now more accessible than ever has something to do with it.

This moves me on to the different genres of electronic dance music. Obviously we all know of the different genres within dance music but as the scene has developed, the sound that defines these genres has become more and more blurry (which has led to many an arguement on this site!). As a result, there are now more genres and sub-genres than ever before. One thing that does annoy me about the current scene is the creation of 'in' genres. I know throughout the history of dance there have always been genres which have subsequently created movements i.e. acid, detroit techno etc. but nowadays, we are at the stage where everyone in the scene seems to latch onto a genre which is considered 'the' genre to be involved in. A couple of years ago it was electro house and more recently it is minimal, but I honestly find these trends to be very damaging to the scene. It seems as if everybody takes the attitude of 'well your not cool if you arent playing this sound', which to me is absolute rubbish. It goes back to my point about producers copying others, these genre trends are the same. Nearly all DJs start playing the 'in' sound, producers start producing the 'in' sound, clubs start playing the 'in' sound...regardless of what their own tastes are. I think an awful lot of individuality has been lost over the last few years because of these trends.

In relation to DJs, the same more or less applies. Many DJs nowadays play whatever sound is deemed to be 'cool'. Far too many of them jump on bandwagons and very few manage to create their own unique style and individuality. Far too many of them forget to base their profession on playing good music, but instead base it on whatever sound will increase their popularity.

Clubbing wise, I dont think anyone can really comment on the 'global clubbing scene' unless they have travelled a ridiculous amount of air miles! From a personal viewpoint, Ireland's clubbing scene is fairly shit. Not enough clubs, even fewer playing dance music, even fewer playing non-commercial dance music and of the people attending the dance gigs, far too many go purely for the drugs and havent got a clue about the music they are listening to.

I seem to have just highlighted all negative aspects of the scene but there are plenty of positives also. Despite what I have said before, there is still plenty of great dance music being produced, some quality DJs who arent afraid to stick to their own unique style and I suppose one benefit of the increase in productions is that there is more choice than ever before. I personally love being involved in the dance scene and would recommend anyone to start listening to dance...you just have to know where to look.

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Beauty is in the ear of the beholder

ye agreed, one thing i DONT like about it, is that everyone tends to follow one 'in genre'.

australia tends to be behind the rest of the world a few yrs anyway, so its still electro house here. i doubt 'minimal' will happen. australia is too rock band orientated anyway. hardly anyone knows jack about electronic music at all.

the other thing i would say is bad, is that drugs still have a strong association to electronic music, from the perception of society as a whole. I get the feeling alot of ppl think that electronic music is PURELY for drug use, MADE from drug use, and can ONLY be appreciated on drugs. which is so insanely not true. this would be the one thing that i would change out of everything that i am aware of.

Overall i think the scene is good and healthy, no idea how it could go in the future. ive only been in the scene for a short time. Am thinking positively

It's been better than ever here. Large outdoor events, big dj's being booked occasionally, the usual sound of the local dj's is good (much better than when tribal house was everything here, ugh), some of the companies that organize events have a very high standard of quality (altho others are a bit half-assed). And the environment at the parties is fun. I do sense that maybe we've hit our top peak over the last 1 or 2 years and things might be starting to go downhill.

On the global scale, without having ever had the privilege of visiting foreign clubs and events, I'd say it's either remaining at the same level or going downhill. There have been some fun new movements over the last couple years (yes i'm talking about the "electro" and "minimal" bandwagons, which overall were good in my opinion), and the globalization has brought some great new things like being able to buy and listen to samples of a lot of stuff on .mp3, the digitalization of the scene finally stopped being seen as an evil thing and people have started to try taking advantage of its full potential (i'm talking about things like Ableton). On the other hand, I also think the scene is coming to a boring stale state where commercialism and the re-hashing of ideas is getting more and more the common theme.

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Originally posted by paulandrews The same applies to Prague and we're located in the very centre of Europe When I read in the local magazines about minimal being the new thing, I have to cringe hard.

The same thing here, in Poland. Trance became really popular just when it started to suck.

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Originally posted by Sykonee Are you basing this on Vancouver's scene, or other ones abroad. Because Vancouver doesn't really have much of a nightlife compared to, say, Montreal or Ibiza. What I have noticed, though, is Vancouver seems to latch onto trends a year or two after they've worn out their welcome in other parts of the world. I guess that's the price we pay for being at the end of the Earth, eh?

quote:

Originally posted by paulandrews The same applies to Prague and we're located in the very centre of Europe When I read in the local magazines about minimal being the new thing, I have to cringe hard.

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Originally posted by phant0m The same thing here, in Poland. Trance became really popular just when it started to suck.

i'd say this is true for most parts of the world actually. trends get big in places like germany, uk, and the netherlands, and the rest of the world follows. when you have scenes as strong and vibrant as in these places, you tend to be trendsetters

blah blah blah

incessant ramblings

quote:

Originally posted by TheKidsWantTechno i'd say this is true for most parts of the world actually. trends get big in places like germany, uk, and the netherlands, and the rest of the world follows. when you have scenes as strong and vibrant as in these places, you tend to be trendsetters

According to my local scene, NU SKOOL Breakbeats is the "newest" thing

I agree that the "drug" misconception is really annoying. I hate it when someone notices that I'm listening to House, or something EDM, and they go "Man, you would love to hear this at a rave with some X/E/(insert 90s MDMA reference here)" The problem is that there are the 90s candy-kids who are now in their 20s, who apparently only know about the early 90s scene. There is no media influence on these people to let them know otherwise, and the EDM magazine that we do get in the area (Mixmag) glorifies some ridiculous new pill every month

I'm tired of having EDM events be called "raves". I'm tired of being told to take MDMA. I'm tired of being stereotyped as a druggie just because I listen to Dance music!

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Originally posted by Ted Promo That's a very broad topic to try and cover. Some parts of it are good, some parts aren't. There's a budding dubstep scene, a shit trance scene, a steady tech house scene, a changing techno scene. Pick one, and even then it can get hairy.

That pretty much sums it up.

Even if the scene isn't good enough as it is, there's plenty of old stuff to discover.

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Originally posted by Dojomaster26 According to my local scene, NU SKOOL Breakbeats is the "newest" thing

That's a good thing. There's a crew in my town that's promoting d'n'b and breakbeat and I'm thankful for that.

this is a worthless topic


there is no such thing as one scene

and good/bad is far too simplistic a way of looking at contemporary culture

quote:

Originally posted by nefardec this is a worthless topic there is no such thing as one scene and good/bad is far too simplistic a way of looking at contemporary culture

its fun to talk about and see what other peoples opinions are thou

i think you should probably reconsider what fun is.


i like to think stabbing myself in the eye is more fun than this