Religion does play a pretty big role, mainly due to the Extreme Right Wing politicians who are telling us that electronic music is nothing but drug music, etc. The media's horrible interpretation is also to blame, as again, all they show is 1 or 2 kids that passed out, maybe one died from overdoing it, so the whole scene is labeled as a huge drug fest that if kids attend, there going to do some street drug and die from it. Its a real shame, but this country has a loooooong way to go before it grows up like most of Europe has. The issue of "How much money is in it" is another big one, and thats priority to most of the club owners as well. He pretty much hit on the right points I would say.

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Originally posted by ibizzzaaa I can understand morals and the prejudice towards the term "dance music", but religion? If religion was that big of a barrier, America wouldn't have a big hardcore metal scene full of music with violent lyrics such as "I will abort you with a crowbar," and there wouldn't be a huge porn industry, and many other things. I don't know, that was a really random of him to give such an answer. I can definitely understand if he just wasn't prepared for that question, because I myself have gone on senseless rants when asked a question that I never thought through and felt pressured to answer it right away.

Metal music is popular because radio stations play it, makes money, and it was not as aggressively attacked as EDM has been. Sure the 80's had its share of bad media coverage, but nothing like what EDM has been labeled. They focused more on it causing brain damage (LOL), makes kids do stupid things, but not die from it. Its also been around much longer, or at least a commercial form of it from the 70's, and this country was different then, and more Liberal. EDM has been sorta kept underground more so than most forms of music, and therefore less commercialized, since most of the good tracks come out of Europe and elsewhere....IMO. Americans are stupid as a whole, and if its not on a Clear Channel radio station or TV, they don't know what is out there.

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Originally posted by ibizzzaaa I can understand morals and the prejudice towards the term "dance music", but religion? If religion was that big of a barrier, America wouldn't have a big hardcore metal scene full of music with violent lyrics such as "I will abort you with a crowbar," and there wouldn't be a huge porn industry, and many other things. I don't know, that was a really random of him to give such an answer. I can definitely understand if he just wasn't prepared for that question, because I myself have gone on senseless rants when asked a question that I never thought through and felt pressured to answer it right away.

Just because things exist that defy the religious consensus doesn't mean that there isn't a massive influence of religion on the way the average American lives his or her daily life - and the clear influence of religion on politics is, I think, what Craig is talking about.

Implementing policy that has its roots in religious beliefs does have the affect of changing the way people live, and the kinds of popular entertainment within a culture. You'd be hard pressed to find the kinds of death metal you refer to being accepted by popular culture, which seems to me to be what Carl is talking about.

I think Carl was very prepared for that question - in fact, in my mind, the response given implies pretty clearly it's something he has thought long and hard about over the years.

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I imagine that what he said has been brewing in his head for quite some time. I really doubt that this question cought him off gaurd. The way he presented it or got it off his chest may not have made a lot of sense if taken face value (I do this all time time) but read between the lines and you will know exactly why he is trying to say.

Again, he makes a lot of good points and I do agree with some of it. Last night, here in Philadelphia, is a prime example of EDM in the US. Josh Wink, Philly's own, barely pulled 80 people at Fluid. The party was absolutely insane and everyone that was there had a blast but I'm sure anywhere else in the world he would have had a MUCH better attendance then that.

Last edited by DOOMBOT on May-01-2008 at 20:04

I get what he's getting at, but when he starts going off about separate countries, that's a little much.

Hence, I agree with Beat Blog.

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Well, I think that EDM is definitely better off being underground. History has showed how almost everything goes shit once it starts getting extra airtime and mass media attention; and that's regardless of whether we are talking about the pop culture of US, UK, Europe, whatever. The difference is that in most cases what goes mainstream in Europe is I guess you could say "more classy" quality-wise. But still, there are very few European major-label artists that I find interesting.

Besides, the question was regarding the lack of local scenes in America and elsewhere. It's hard for me to see something immensely popular being split into local scenes. Well, I guess hip-hop is split into east coast/west coast/southside "scenes", but come on - what they have going is just bullshit.

I can see lack of local scenes and unique sounds as an issue, but certainly not the lack of commercialization.

The religion does have a ponderable influence on politics. There is no doubt about that. But blaming it for lack of local scenes still seems random to me. Indie Rock in America used to be all about local scenes during late 80's and all of 90's. Then publications such as Pitchfork came along and began to draw more attention to indie. The weightiness of their opinion eventually grew to such dimensions, that the concept of local scenes is almost inexistent these days.

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Originally posted by DOOMBOT Josh Wink, Philly's own, barely pulled 80 people at Fluid. The party was absolutely insane and everyone that was there had a blast but I'm sure anywhere else in the world he would have had a MUCH better attendance then that.

I can see myself having more fun at that party then the Digweed gig I went to once, where the club was packed with a sea of douche bags who would be just as happy at a Tiesto gig.

The reason why America doesnt have the scene that other parts of the world has has nothing to do with Religion or Morals. It has to do with culture, but its deeper than that, with racism, differences in socio economic classes included in the mix. People in other parts of the world have a strong culture, usually one race they share with most of the patrons (Latin America/Eastern European), so most of the parties are like family get togethers, tight knit communities (London/Germany), and most of the patrons are of similar social economic standings, focused on the music and having fun. I think the main thing people of all scenes have in common is similar morals when it comes to nightclubs. Americans simply arent built to have fun in the way the rest of the world does, we see fun in materialistic objects more than anything, there is an eccentric enigmatic few who see different, but for the most part culturally Americans dont have what it is needed for a "great scene." That said...we have a good scene in America if you know where to go and when to go, like Coachella most recently.

Last edited by LionsLair on May-01-2008 at 22:01

Is the new cool thing to suck the cocks of 'legendary' non-trance artists now? Instead of Tiesto? What Carl said isn't revolutionary and can be boiled down to 'money makes the world go round' with a sprinkle of anti-Americanism. What a damn genius. If some random guy had written all that crap, you wouldn't even give a shit.

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Originally posted by ToxicGreenWaste Is the new cool thing to suck the cocks of 'legendary' non-trance artists now? Instead of Tiesto? What Carl said isn't revolutionary and can be boiled down to 'money makes the world go round' with a sprinkle of anti-Americanism. What a damn genius. If some random guy had written all that crap, you wouldn't even give a shit.

lol TA's are either hating or sucking a cock.

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Originally posted by ToxicGreenWaste Is the new cool thing to suck the cocks of 'legendary' non-trance artists now? Instead of Tiesto? What Carl said isn't revolutionary and can be boiled down to 'money makes the world go round' with a sprinkle of anti-Americanism. What a damn genius. If some random guy had written all that crap, you wouldn't even give a shit.

I didn't say it made him a fucking genius you prat, I said it was a good interview because the questions and discussion went beyond "what is it like touring" or "what do you think about trance?". There was frank discussion on an array of themes including a lot of historical stuff that most interviews just skim over.

Its hilarious to me that everyone is trivializing the small excerpt I posted (which I thought was an interesting albeit poorly articulated run of Q&A) and clearly not taking in the interview as a whole. Read the whole thing you idiots.

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Originally posted by ******** Seplling don't demonstrate intelligence and educatoin - knowing does.