Dance
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In the fall of 2012, Richie Hawtin took to the road in the United States for CNTRL, a college campus tour intended to educate young audiences about the history of dance music. The run included lectures by day — and, naturally, dancing after dark.
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The timing wasn’t accidental. This was the dawn of the EDM era, with big room sounds lighting up mainstages at emerging festivals and mega-clubs around the U.S., pulling in a new generation of dance music fans like moths to a pyro flame.
Hawtin, sensing which way the wind was blowing, organized CNTRL to show nascent dance music fans electronic sounds beyond EDM, with Hawtin serving as a key figure of techno and minimal techno since the Canadian producer first got into the sound in the late ’80s. (His hometown in Windsor, Ontario was, after all, just a short drive from Detroit, the birthplace of techno.)
Over the last decade, Hawtin’s vision of getting the masses into techno worked — in fact, maybe too well. Over the last half decade the sound has thumped out of the underground and onto mainstages, with one strain of it in particular — tech house — becoming the United States’ most trendy and hyped dance music genre of the moment, supplanting EDM.
“It feels like what’s happened is, the sound of techno was actually influenced by that EDM boom,” Hawtin says over Zoom from his elegant home in Berlin. “What’s happening in the scene is really a mixture of techno from the ’90s and EDM sensibilities of big drops and personality-led music. It’s been a huge kind of jumbled-up, even confusing development the last four or five years.”
Once again reading the room, Hawtin decided it was time for another tour intended to educate audiences via the dancefloor. Wrapping earlier this month, this eight-show run — From Our Minds — hit cities in the U.S. and Canada and featured a crew of rising techno producers (“other like-minded weirdos,” Hawtin calls them) who he selected for their skills in making techno with a “faster, ferocious type of tempo and strength, but it’s much more minimal.” (One of the featured artists, Lindsey Herbert, in fact discovered techno while attending a CNTRL set back in 2012.)
Hawtin sees this crew — Herbert, Barbosa, Declan James, Decoder, Henry Brooks, Jay York, Michelle Sparks, with support from Deep Pedi, Huey Mnemonic and Jia — as part of a network of underground producers that gelled during the pandemic. He calls this time “a great incubator for new talent, as it kind of leveled the playing field. Anybody who could plug in a computer and stream or make good set had a better opportunity to reach fans sitting at home, and not going to clubs, and not expecting international tours. I think that was the thing, especially in North America, that helped a new generation of artists come through more than they had in the last couple of years.”
The post-pandemic moment in fact reminded Hawtin of his own early days in the scene — just one more full circle moment inherent in From Our Minds. Here, Hawtin reflects on the tour, and and on techno at large.
Given the prevalence of techno currently in the States, do you feel satisfied with where it’s all at? Are you satisfied with the sound?
Yeah, that’s a good question. “Satisfied” is a good word. I think part of me is satisfied that electronic music and even a form of techno has now really become mainstream. It’s huge. Where you could have said in the past on the big stages that it was a form of trance, or some form of house — now it is definitely a form of techno. And yeah, that satisfies the kid who always wanted to see more people come into the door of techno.
But it doesn’t satisfy my need to feel that I’m part of something which is alternative. Because I don’t think all the music that is played on the bigger stages now is actually made, created or enjoyed by people who feel a little bit different than the masses.
How do you mean?
I was talking to everyone on the tour, and we all kind of got into this music because we didn’t really fit in. We felt like we were the weirdos. I guess I don’t feel as weird as I used to be — maybe I’m pretty normal now — but that was a big part of the attraction, that it wasn’t what everybody else was listening to. So although part of my psyche can accept some satisfaction, part of my of my inner being was very excited and satiated and inspired to go back on tour with other like-minded weirdos playing stripped down, minimalistic music, and playing to crowds that when you looked out, felt like they were a bit of the outcasts and had found themselves on another dirty dance floor.
It’s almost like what you were trying to do with CNTRL, in terms of educating mainstream audiences about the roots of dance music, worked too well, and it’s like, “oh, no — it’s so big now that it’s become mainstream too.”
Yeah. Be careful what you wish for. I’ve thought about that a lot — how the juggernaut of techno grew to this size. I remember certain decisions [I made]; I even I reread a couple of old interviews back from 20, 25 years ago, and things I said or did to actually welcome people into this world. I never wanted it to be just so insular and insider that it became hierarchical.
Electronic music, techno music, the music that started my career and that grabbed me back in the late ’80s, was something very different than what else was going on [then.] It made me feel welcome and invited lots of diversity and introduced me to people I never would have met in any other circumstance. I hope those ideals are still on the dance floors I’m playing to. I think as the music and the scene gets bigger and does welcome all types of people, the bigger it gets, the less that happens and the more homogenous the dance floor becomes.
Why do you think size and growth induces homogenization?
Is there an answer? Can I make one without, like, talking down on someone? I think an open, eclectic, free-forming dance floor needs to be led and/or inhabited by lots of very open-minded people. And I actually think as much as the internet and social media has spread the idea of “let’s all be different,” it’s also spread the idea of “let’s all be the same.” When social media and these platforms are our main source of promotion, and marketing, and letting people know what’s out there — the bigger you get, the more focused it becomes on the image, on the sound, on the personality, on everything else.
The globalization facilitated by social media kind of flatlines things in a way where it all looks the same, regardless of territory.
When you’re thinking about music, and places like Spotify, and this long tail that they speak about, it’s all the weird stuff at the end [of that tail.] And the mass stuff isn’t just like, great pop music — it’s a lot of things that sound the same. It’s the same artists over and over again. I was just talking to a friend of mine about a rather large electronic musician who just had a new album out. I was like, “It just seems like they’ve invited a bunch of other people in to collaborate, just like every other pop album seems to do.” It’s so much the same.
You mentioned house big techno has gotten, but how is it evolving into those weirder spaces that you like?
Really, what I intended to showcase on the tour is the type of music I’ve always loved. It takes cues from what’s happening and from other strains of electronic music right now, which is definitely based upon a much faster, ferocious type of tempo and strength — but it’s much more minimal, which of course, I love. It’s stripped of most vocals and any other kind of sample references, and it’s just hypnotic.
I was talking recently with another artist who’d just done a gig in New York. It was a big warehouse party, but they were playing more of that [hypnotic] style of music and weren’t sure about the reaction, because people weren’t putting their hands up in the air. And nothing against hands in the air — [at] an outside venue or big festival, that makes sense. But in a warehouse where it’s dark and pummeling, I think the best thing you can do is let people lose themselves in music and maybe not react, maybe not look at you. Maybe you shouldn’t be on stage. At all of our events, we had everyone basically on the floor, or maybe one step up, just so people could see their heads.
A set-up that de-emphasizes the artist.
Yeah, it does. I don’t know if we want or need to go back to the the faceless DJ in the corner who never got any actual notice or respect — maybe that would be too far. As part of the tour we brought on a company called Aslice, which allows [artists] to upload [the setlist] after the event, and [people can] donate money to those songs — kind of like a tipping jar — to bring some more money to the producers who are making music, and who are just not making enough through all the different avenues out there, specifically streaming.
I’m part of [the company], and I feel very strongly about that kind of initiative. Because one, the artists and producers need that money, but two, it also reminds us that no matter how good the superstar DJ is at the head of the dance floor, if they’re not playing great music, they’re not gonna go anywhere.
Right. It also de-emphasizes the artist onstage and reminds people that it took a lot of artists to create that set.
This tour is also to remember and celebrate that we’re all wrapped up in music [made by people] who aren’t actually there. That’s a really special situation, where other people’s music is being played, and somebody else is controlling it and that people are losing themselves on music they’ve maybe never heard before or will never hear again. That’s not like 99% of people who go to 99% of the concerts out there, who are hoping to hear and sing along with their favorite song.
It sounds like this tour allowed you to present artists you’re excited about in a format you really believe in.
The the format of the dance floor, the dark warehouse, the simplicity of that, is the foundation of where this whole scene came from. As we said, we can be satisfied that it’s actually [become] so many different things. But if the foundation isn’t kept going, and if the foundation isn’t respected, and if the unseen artists and producers [aren’t respected], then it all starts to unravel. If I’ve played a little bit of a part in helping things grow over the last 30 years, and I also want to be part of making sure that foundation stays strong for the next 30 years.
Each year during the penultimate week of March, the city of Miami is inundated with superstar DJs, up-and-coming producers, fans and electronic music industry insiders — all of whom flock from around the globe to have a little fun and seek their fortune at Miami Music Week.
As is annual tradition, from Tuesday to Sunday — or in the case of Club Space, which hosts a 48-hour closing party, the following Tuesday — every venue, warehouse, hotel lobby, art gallery and alley that can fit a pair of turntables is transformed into a party; the piece de resistance being Ultra Music Festival, the three-day mega-fest that takes over downtown’s Bayfront Park the weekend following MMW.
But other than throwing parties, booking every hotel room within a 20-mile radius and getting roughly five hours of sleep a night, what is everyone actually doing? What, exactly, is Miami Music Week actually for?
This business-laced bacchanal got its start in 1986 when dance music fans Louis Possenti and Bill Kelly organized the first Winter Music Conference. What started in a Fort Lauderdale Marriott over the years expanded to host an estimated 100,000 people in its golden age in the ’90s. The conference lured a who’s who of DJs, record label executives and everyone in between to Florida’s tropical beaches to talk shop, swap records, test the latest gear and share a cocktail or 20.
WMC also hosted informative panels alongside a lineup of official pool parties, demo submission opportunities for up-and-coming artists and capped this celebration with the International Dance Music Awards.
Soon, satellite parties not officially associated with WMC popped up around the city, taking advantage of the wealth of talent flying in. The first Ultra Music Festival came to life on South Beach in 1999, and by 2011 had grown from one day to three, becoming one of the largest and most successful dance music festivals not only in the United States, but the world. In 2011, when WMC decided to move to early March while Ultra kept it’s later in the month dates (effectively forcing the industry at large to choose one of the other week), the MMW brand was born to give a name to the week of parties leading up to the festival.
In 2018, Ultra bought WMC outright, putting on small iterations of the Conference in 2018 and 2019. After the pandemic, however, there’s been no conference at all. (Its official website has been updated for 2024, suggesting a return next year.)
Still, hundreds of thousands of electronic music makers, lovers and executives keep returning for MMW. But how important for business is Miami Music Week? Or is it just a party? In an industry that parties for business, does it accomplish both goals?
View From Spinnins Sessions Miami Music Week 2023
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“I’ve been going to Miami for more than 10 years already, and I almost never went to the conference,” says Jorn Heringa, Head of A&R at Spinnin Records. This year, he and VP of Marketing Susanne Hazendonk flew to Miami from Spinnin’s Dutch HQ to take advantage of what they see as one of the most important business opportunities of the dance calendar year.
“You have a little drink together and it makes our chats a bit easier,” Hazendonk laughs. “But I wouldn’t say it’s just partying. It’s definitely also business — otherwise we wouldn’t be allowed to fly over.”
“It’s great for us to be here, because normally you don’t see a lot of American artists and managers,” Heringa continues. “Amsterdam Dance Event is just the overall business, and I think Miami is more DJ-minded — there’s a lot of DJs and managers around.”
With so many of Spinnin’s DJs and producers in one picturesque locale, the label books tons of talent for its Spinnin Sessions Pool Party and asks these artists to take part in press runs and on-site shoots, filming content that can be shared on social media for months to come.
“We also try to launch a couple of really important club tracks, so DJs can test the waters,” Heringa says. “If it feels good, they hopefully will play it in their sets at Ultra or one of the bigger pool parties — because it’s the starting point of the summer, and if it works over there, they will play it the whole season.”
Ultra proudly proclaims itself as one of the most globally attended festivals in the electronic world. Heringa and Hazendonk liken its global impact with that of Tomorrowland in Europe. Add to that the Ultra livestream broadcast, viewed by millions, and you’ve got a recipe for serious exposure.
“That has a lot of impact on our current marketing strategies,” Hazendonk says, “so it moves the needle for sure.”
You don’t have to be a record label or artist playing Ultra to feel the impact. Brownies & Lemonade is an event production brand that started in Los Angeles and now hosts a variety of concepts across the country. After hosting a stage takeover at Ultra and its first MMW event in 2018, B&L considers MMW pivotal.
“Miami Music Week is one of the few events where, no matter how big or small you are, you can have some sort of involvement,” says co-founder Kush Fernando. “It’s a week long and stretches all around Miami from small to big events, as well as Ultra. If you’re into dance music in some capacity, you should definitely try to take advantage and do something.”
For Fernando and his team, MMW has become a spotlight and launch pad for whatever the B&L brand sees as its most important activations. “Our drum’n’bass parties [DnBnL] are a big initiative for us, so we really wanted to have the presence of that at Miami Music Week,” he continues. Fernando says that in the past, B&L’s Miami events made enough to cover their expenses, although this year’s sold-out events turned a profit.
Madeon Plays Brownie & Lemonade’s Miami Music Week 2023 Show.
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Standing on the side of the stage at B&L’s Thursday night party, the impact MMW can have on an artist could be seen first-hand. Madeon was delivering a massive DJ set, complete with his hyper-saturated Good Faith Forever visuals. A group of industry insiders gathered in VIP to watch, including up-and-coming producers ISOxo and Moore Kismet, both of whom were scheduled to play Ultra in the coming days.
When Madeon started mixing into ISOxo’s single “Beam,” the friends looked at each other, jaws on the floor. They started jumping up and down, and then Madeon turned and waved ISOxo to join him on stage. You could tell it was a moment the 22-year-old would never forget.
“When I first experienced Miami Music week, I was a college student in Miami working as a waitress,” remembers Stefania Aronin, known now to fans as DJ and producer Nala, with releases on Dirtybird, Pets Recordings and her own label Mi Domina. “It was the first time I realized I could pursue a career in music and be part of the arts and entertainment world. By the time I left the infamous Hard to Leave Sunday party at 7:00 a.m., I decided to quit my waitressing job two hours later and throw myself into the music events industry 100 percent.”
Aronin lived in Miami at the time, and though she now lives in LA, she returns each year to take advantage of booking and networking opportunities.
“While partying is still a big part of the week, I’m at a different point in my career where the goal is to discuss track releases, tour dates, and collab opportunities with old and new colleagues,” she says. “It’s about sending unreleased tracks to friends and playing parties that showcase your art direction. This past week, I spent a lot of time reconnecting with artists, promoters, agents and label managers from cities across the world. It’s a mix of a reunion and a reminder that we’re all pushing full speed ahead in our careers.”
“Miami Music Week is definitely a highlight of my year,” says Brandon Kessler, co-founder of Miami-based management company Super Music Group, whose roster includes Grammy-nominated artists Amtrac and Durate and Major Lazer member Ape Drums. “Being from Miami, it’s amazing for everyone in our industry and the artists we manage to be together in our city playing shows and networking. This year was my 15th MMW, and every year it reminds me of the growth we’ve made during the previous year.”
Kessler’s client Amtrac used MMW as a platform to launch a new party concept called Go Time!, going back-to-back with his friend Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, a show Kessler says “had the nostalgia of an OG MMW event.” While Kessler declined to comment on the profitability of these shows, he calls them “a labor of love.”
Ian O’ Connor
So too was the panel that LP Giobbi and her Femme House non-profit organized at the W South Beach on March 24.
“During a week that is chaotic to say the least, it was important to me to take a beat to set intentions on what we are all doing out in Miami in the first place,” LP Giobbi says. “Hearing all the panelists and my co-founder, Lauren Spalding, speak about allyship and equity gave me the fuel I needed to power through that week.”
This panel, Allyship and Amplification: Creating Equity in Dance Music invited representatives of Spotify, UTA, Diplo’s Higher Ground label and more (including the author of this piece) to discuss the current state of the industry’s diversity initiatives. It was well-attended, demonstrating that there’s still a demand for informative panels during this party marathon. One of the young women in the audience told me days later on Instagram that it was the highlight of her MMW.
“If we just go into the city, throw a party and then leave, it kind of seems like we’re missing the point,” says Bryan Linares, Label Manager at Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak. He’s worked with the company for more than 15 years and has been coming to Miami for 14.
“What we’re trying to do is figure out how we make this more of an interactive experience,” he says. “How do we create more of a community with fans, but also with up-and-coming artists?”
Toward that end, Dim Mak set up a demo submission opportunity for emerging artists to have their songs heard by label heads, who in turn gave them instant feedback. It’s something Dim Mak started at last year’s ADE and hopes to continue in cities across the U.S.
Speaking of upcoming talent, there is one segment of MMW that still feels under-represented no matter where you go: Miami itself.
“The scene is kind of getting run over — like, trampled,” says Miami event producer Justin Lobo. “It’s all become super-commercialized, and there’s not really a place for locals to have the spotlight shined on them. Club Space kind of does that for some of our locals, but they’re basically a huge conglomerate. At the end of the day, the majority of people that come here are tourists, and we live here. We should be able to get a piece of that.”
Rather than sit and complain, Lobo and his buddies put on a massive house party some 20 minutes west of the main MMW hub. Happening on March 25 (the second night of Ultra), the cheekily titled Miami A– Party fit a few hundred locals into two downstairs rooms and a backyard, transformed with club-quality sound systems, lighting tech and some of the highest-tier DJ and live music talent I heard all week — all of whom are born or based in Miami and south Florida.
Anastasiya Verbytskaya
Cars lined every edge of grassy lawns for a roughly five-block radius, while inside, the kitchen was completely covered in silver wrapping; disco grooves bounced off the refrigerator and through the ears of sweaty dancers. Another room was set up with a folding table where DJs played straight-up electro records in the dark for hours on end. Every time someone accidentally hit a light switch, the room of kids would shout until someone turned them back off.
There were full bars set up in each room, and a merch table with Miami A– Party t-shirts in the backyard. Here, I heard a live band play everything from ‘80s new wave covers to country music before having my mind totally blown by the improvisational grooves of three-piece band Eris. Lobo says he lost money on the party, but, “For the sake of the party and the community, I said, ‘F–k it.’”
It was particularly insane that all this was going on in a two-story residence, while just a quick drive away, essentially every major electronic artist in the world was playing. The party went until 9 a.m. the next morning, until one of the neighbors finally called the cops.
“I think that there’s a possibility we might bring this thing to the [94th Aero] Squadron,” Lobo says, referencing one of Miami’s large and off-the-beaten path venues near the airport. “That’s a big dream of mine. You put a thousand people in there that don’t know any of these f—ing locals—well, guess what? After that party? You’re going to know who they are.”
Skrillex is taking the rumble to the Rockies. On Wednesday (March 29) he announced a show at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre that will happen next month.
The set, going down on Saturday, April 29, will feature Skrillex playing a five-hour set from 7 p.m. until midnight, local time. This format emulates his show last month at Madison Square Garden, where he — along with co-headliners Fred again.. and Four Tet — played for five hours, from 7 p.m. to midnight ET.
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Tickets for the Red Rocks show go on sale this Friday (March 31) at 12 p.m. ET.
This show announcement comes in the wake of the release of a pair of Skrillex albums, Quest For Fire on Feb. 17 and Don’t Get Too Close, which was surprise released the following day, Feb. 18. Skrillex has not announced a full tour behind these albums, instead opting to play prestige venues like MSG and Red Rocks, along with a hefty list of summer festivals: Something In The Water, Hangout, Movement and Elements, plus a series of European events including Primavera in Barcelona and EXIT in Serbia. This Euro run also includes a show at Ibiza’s influential techno mecca DC10.
Quest For Fire is currently sitting at No. 11 on Dance/Electronic albums, where it peaked at No. 2 upon release and is currently its fifth week on the chart. Album singles “Rumble” and RATATATA” are currently at No. 20 and No. 18 on the chart, respectively. Skrillex also appear on this same chart for “Baby again,” his recently released earworm single with Fred again.. and Four Tet.
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The Do Lab, organizers of its flagship festival Lightning In a Bottle and producers of its own stage at Coachella since 2004, have dropped its lineups for Coachella 2023 on Tuesday (March 28).
Over it’s nearly 20 year history at Coachella, the Do Lab’s stage has become famous for being a festival within a festival, bringing the production company’s heady, bespoke, sort of deliciously loose vibe to the polo field.
Weekend one will feature sets from dance/electronic starts including Aluna, Carlita, DJ Tennis, Flight Facilities, Michaël Brun, Phantoms, SOHMI, The Glitch Mob, Whipped Cream Daily Bread, Franky Wah, Henry Pope and Party Favor & Baauer playing b2b as Dylan and Harry.
Weekend two will bring in another round of heavyhitters including HOLLY b2b Machinedrum, Giolì & Assia, Mikey Lion, A-Trak and Chrome’s Dave1 playing together as The Brothers Maklovitch (as they are actual brothers), Carré b2b Samwise and many more. The Do Lab also assures surprise guests playing over both weekends.
These artists, some of whom are playing on other stages at Coachella over its upcoming back-to-back weekends (April 14-16 and April 21-23), join the festival’s already robust lineup of dance/electronic acts.
Key acts include Calvin Harris, who hasn’t played Coachella since his main stage slot in 2014, the Coachella debut of Eric Prydz’s revered HOLO show, a set from Deadmau5′ TESTPILOT alter-ego, along with genre pioneers The Chemical Brothers, whose last Coachella appearance was back in 2011.
Meanwhile, the Do Lab will throw its annual Lightning In a Bottle bash this Memorial Day weekend in Bakersfield, Calif. with a lineup including REZZ, LP Giobbi, Caribou, Diplo, Zhu, Tokimonsta and many more. 2023 marks the 20-year anniversary of Lightning In a Bottle, a key player in the “transformational festival” circuit that’s helped influence festival culture up and down the West Coast and to points well beyond.
See The Do Lab’s full 2023 Coachella lineup below.
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By its very name, “underground” music should be something you have to “dig” for. You have to seek it out, stray a bit from the beaten path and try something that feels a little risky. In this way, it seems diametrically opposed to the “mainstream,” which is very easy to find because it sits at the top of the charts, gets played on the radio (often ad nauseum), and requires little to no research to learn about.
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The class war between “mainstream” and “underground” dance music fans has existed for over a decade, since EDM roared into mainstream consciousness and many “serious” heads looked on aghast. This era cemented the idea that those who “do their research” have a one-up on the “uneducated” masses, because underground folk have earned some kind of status by way of taking ownership of their playlists, and mainstream music lovers just take what they’re given.
In the greater conversation of today’s U.S. electronic music industry, the “underground” is usually defined as house and deep house, techno and tech house; while the “mainstream” consists of EDM bangers, dance-pop crossover hits and maybe, sometimes, bass-heavy American dubstep.
But after attending Ultra Music Festival 2023 this past weekend (March 24-26) in Miami’s Bayfront Park, and scoping the lineups of large parties at the surrounding Miami Music Week, the so-called “underground” sound has clearly become as popular, if not more so, than its chart-topping counterpart.
So what are we even talking about now when we talk about underground music and the culture surrounding it?
Indeed, how “underground” is a back-to-back set from house/techno heroes Maceo Plex and Michael Bibi when it draws roughly 10,000 people into a covered stage the size of a small airplane hangar, just a five-minute walk from where Zedd is bringing out the trendiest up-and-coming rapper in the world? (Ice Spice’s cameo on the Ultra mainstage during Zedd’s Saturday night set even inspired hate from EDM fans on the Internet, despite her massive popularity and the fact that her 2021 hit “No Clarity” directly samples one of the star producer’s biggest hits.)
There’s a narrative that lives within dance music; this idea that one is lured to the rave scene by some big EDM pop hit and attends a couple festivals with their friends, mostly hanging around the mainstage to hear familiar favorites. A couple years down the line, if they keep going to dance festivals, they start exploring the side stages and get exposed to house and techno. Soon they trade their daisy bra for a black T-shirt and sunglasses, and now they’ve “evolved” into a “serious dance music fan.”
This narrative is bolstered by many within the industry, whether it’s a promoter trying to book more European acts Stateside or a blogger on Twitter reminding everyone that “we all started at the mainstage,” and surely it fits some people’s actual lived experience. But it also reeks of oversimplification into neat demographics that can be exploited for profit. Surely we all realize that in reality, people are more nuanced than “bass bro” or “black T-shirt techno.”
There are lots of other people who were turned on to dance music by some other means of exploration, and some people skip the dance-pop train entirely. On the way home from Ultra on Sunday night, a friend of mine rattled off intimate life details about Italian house and techno DJ Joseph Capriati, but had never even heard the name Illenium, and only the latter artist has a Hot 100 tune.
Where does my friend fit in the grand scheme? In fact, right there Ultra Music Festival alongside the Marshmello stans, standing a few feet away from the guy in a Deorro jersey jammin’ out to a tech-house set from Mind Against. Maybe all of our tastes are a little different, but we’re all dancing in the same field.
Yes, there’s something sexy about being part of the “underground.” It’s got a sense of exclusivity, like you’re special for being there, even if tech-house has become the scene’s prevailing genre — one that was nearly unavoidable over the weekend regardless of what stage one was at. The “underground”s exotic allure is the backbone of Ultra’s “Resistance” concept. The brand debuted at the festival in 2015, the same year Major Lazer and DJ Snake released their record-setting “Lean On” and Martin Garrix collaborated with Usher, two feats that represented the peak of EDM’s U.S. radio saturation.
With a lineup this past weekend boasting sets from Tale of Us, Sasha, Jamie Jones and The Martinez Brothers, the idea seemed to be that house and techno DJs were somehow “resisting” the urge to do mainstream pop things, and that those who flocked to the stage were in the cool corner doing something really interesting. It’s not that they weren’t, but it’s hard to argue that anything happening on this massive stage, in front of its massive crowds, was somehow more exclusive than anything else going down in Bayfront Park over the weekend.
Maybe there’s not a huge overlap between the people who want to see Art Department and people who want to see Armin Van Buuren, but ultimately, both those categories of people will spend hundreds of dollars on a ticket, along with airfare, hotels and other amenities during one of the most expensive weeks in Miami tourism. Both acts are really popular. Otherwise, Ultra wouldn’t book them.
Not only are the Resistance stages popular, they’re also highly favored by the overall Ultra brand. Case in point, Ultra’s Resistance residency at newly opened South Beach mega-club M2. It follows in the footsteps of Ultra’s existing and highly lauded Resistance residency in Ibiza, and it debuted this week with performances by house and techno stars Carl Cox, Sasha and John Digweed, Solardo, Anfisa Letyago, Charlotte De Witte and other mainstays of the Resistance brand.
De Witte, the Belgian DJ-producer known for hard-edged dark techno, also made her debut on Ultra’s mainstage on Friday evening. The set was positioned like some kind of coup, with Ultra presenter Damian Pinto asking the audience to show de Witte the same amount of love they would for any of the other more familiar main stage acts, as if this incredibly talented and well-known international DJ accidentally ended up on the festival’s biggest stage without anyone having have ever heard of her.
Was it the first time a “serious” techno DJ played the Ultra main stage? Maybe, but Deadmau5 has played here, and he’s no stranger to the genre. Hardwell’s big comeback set last year was pretty dark and bangin’, both emphasizing and capitalizing on how popular the style has become for audiences worldwide. To act like de Witte’s performance was some kind of wild upset seems a little disingenuous, and a bit patronizing to audiences overall.
Dance world classism is so entrenched, it’s begun to affect the artists themselves. A producer friend who wasn’t playing Ultra this year but who came to the festival to hang and support her peers talked about the disappearance of “middle class DJs” – a phenomenon not dissimilar to the current economic crisis that’s diminished the strength of a true American middle class.
According to her, some artists feel they have to choose between high-paying, seemingly “mainstream” gigs like Ultra, EDC Vegas and the like, or walk a “more honorable” path playing “culturally-rich” spaces for much lower fees. It’s a decision that’s become increasingly difficult as corporate interests take control of the scene, and one that suggests the amount of money artists make or number of people they play in front of somehow defines the quality of their art. But it’s dangerous thinking, both in terms of how it might limit creativity, and in the sense of the welfare of artists who’d shirk financial gain for fear of losing credibility.
The Megastructure at Ultra Music Festival 2023
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Ultimately, this week’s Ultra and Miami Music Week proved that “underground” house and techno is really popular in the United States — just like many scenesters critical of EDM during the boom days hoped it someday would be. If you needed more proof, consider the 5,000-capacity mini festivals thrown at Miami venue Factory Town every night last week, including the sold-out Afterlife showcase featuring Tale of Us, Camelphat and Mathame, who then played to massive crowds at Ultra’s Resistance Megastructure four days later.
But at the end of the day, if one really loves music, “popular” shouldn’t be a dirty word. Tastes change and evolve over time, on micro and macro scales, but it’s slippery to suggest that the type of music one likes says anything about one’s value or intelligence as a human. (Case in point is M83, who played Ultra back in 2012 and who recently faced backlash from DJs on Twitter for saying he regrets any crossover EDM fame, due to his distaste for the fans that scene brought him.)
This past weekend, it was cool when Kayzo’s live guitarist stood on a cage while fire spit from every corner of the Ultra live stage. It was really cool when a giant, 3-D lineup of exterminators shot cryo over the crowd at Eric Prydz’ stunning Holo show in the Megastructure. It was dope that Swedish House Mafia played Fred Again.. tracks between the trio’s classic hits as they closed out the main stage on Sunday and it was fun when Kaskade and deadmau5 bantered back and forth like besties while spinning on giant, glowing cubes. It was sick when Tiësto dropped drum’n’bass out of nowhere, and it was neat to hear Carl Cox create a live remix of Daft Punk’s “Da Funk” on the fly.
As genres continue melting into one another, “underground” music draws massive crowds, and the mainstage gets increasingly experimental, it’s hard to argue that many (or any) true “rules” to dance music remain. But — from the mainstage to the Resistance stage to all the places where mainstream and underground overlapped and to musical moments beyond — much of what went down at Ultra 2023 made people dance. Certainly, that remains the best test of what’s good.
Every week, Billboard Dance gives you a look at the newest tracks you need to know about for the dancefloor days and nights to come. These are the five recently released tracks keeping the beat going as we ease back into the workweek.
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LP Giobbi Feat. Sofi Tukker, “If Love Is a Skill”
The Artist: Real life friends LP Giobbi and Sophie Hawley Weld, of Sofi Tukker.
The Label: Counter Records
The Spiel: The newest single from LP Giobbi’s forthcoming debut album Light Places, “If Love Is a Skill” delivers a nuanced and subtle take on romance, a topic often treated with cringey overtness in dance music. Built from a looped beat, Giobbi’s delicate piano playing, equally delicate vocals from Hawley Weld and Michael Cheever on drum machine, the song unfurls languidly, and serves as a vibey counterpart to it’s harder, more club-focused and percussion heavy B-side, “Georgia.”
The Artist Says: “I’m the kind of artist that has to grind tooth and nail to get something good. Who sits with a loop throwing things in and out until finally (and sometimes never) it starts working” says Giobbi. “Watching Sophie work is a whole other experience. The music comes through her and she is so grounded and ready to catch it and be its conduit that it flows with such raw intensity catapulting through her.”
The Vibe: Pure seduction, but like, the kind that leads to real and long-lasting romance.
Yunè Pinku, “Sports”
The Artist: 19-year-old London-based Malaysian-Irish producer/singer/songwriter Yunè Pinku.
The Label: Platoon
The Spiel: Pinku’s considerable buzz is given additional weight with her latest single, “Sports,” which bends IDM and indie-pop into a dreamy, breezily cool earworm with staying power. The track is the latest single from Pinku’s forthcoming BABYLON IX EP, coming April 28k, with her U.S. debut live shows happening this June in Los Angeles.
The Artist Says: “‘Sports’ is based loosely on an angry version of Lana Del Rey’s ‘Video Games’ — mainly just the idea of someone putting a TV screen before the people they care about and their own life. I envisioned a sort of Wall-E-esque future: people glued to the chair with a TV guide vibe.”
The Vibe: Stoned inside a kaleidoscope.
J. Worra & Shift K3Y, “All The Girls”
The Artist: Denver-based fav J. Worra in collaboration with London’s Shift K3Y.
The Label: Ultra Records
The Spiel: This straightforward rager encourages “all the girls in the place with glitter on your face” and “all the boys in the back who are busy sendin’ racks” to engage in such activities as shaking their asses and moving their waists. Tell me how you could hear this one and not.
The Vibe: Literally just frenzied ass-shaking.
RÜFÜS DU SOL, “Something In The Way”
The Artist: RÜFÜS DU SOL
The Label: Rose Avenue Records
The Spiel: As part of tastemaking Aussie radio station triple j’s cover series, the trio do their thing with Nirvana‘s “Something In The Way” from the band’s 1991 masterpiece, Nevermind. The guys take the original and RÜFÜS DU SOL all over it, upping the BPM and adding layers of percussion, keyboard, synth and a string section — creating a richness and different sort of intensity from the already intense original.
The Vibe: Still fairly harrowing, but also now quite vibey.
Jai Wolf Feat. Evalyn, “Want It All”
The Artist: Bangladeshi-American artist Jai Wolf, with L.A.-based singer Evalyn.
The Label: Mom + Pop
The Spiel: Jai Wolf returns with his first new single in three years, the effervescent, pop adjacent “Want It All.” The track, which climaxes with a sax solo, comes before Jai Wolf’s Coachella performance in April.
The Artist Says: “This era feels like a true rebirth by pushing my sound into new territories while still feeling grounded in my usual sonic palette,” says Jai Wolf. “While a lot of electronic music is defined by the production, I really wanted to focus on lyrics and songwriting for the new music. It’s been cathartic putting my feelings to paper and then extrapolating them even further through interpretative dance for the music video.”
The Vibe: As polished and emotive as the aforementioned music video, which features elegant choreography and segments made with A.I.
If you track seasons via the rave, then you know one of the clearest signs of spring is CRSSD, the San Diego dance festival that’s gone down annually (minus the pandemic years) since 2015.
The most recent iteration of the event, which happened March 4-5 in its longstanding location at San Diego’s Bayfront Park, was not just a harbinger of summer but also a sonic heatwave, with a lineup that included headliners ODESZA, Polo & Pan, Kavinsky, Bedouin, Maya Jane Coles, Deborah de Luca and Umek. (Another edition of CRSSD will also happen this summer, with the event always happening bi-annually.)
Drawing a crowd of roughly 15,000, this month’s fest also featured a strong crew of house and techno heavy-hitters from around the world, including these four acts whose sets can be relived (or heard for the very first time) exclusively here.
AMÉMÉ
The West African born, Brooklyn-based producer brought a tribal house mood with his 90-minute set, which got progressively steamier via remixed Haitian folk music courtesy of KEENE, layers of hand percussion, an edit of his own “Kaleta,” deep cuts from New York producer Easy Tyger and much more.
Jackmaster
Scotland’s Jackmaster was characteristically cool, playing intermittently hard, heavy, spare and sleek techno from a flurry of underground acts including Von, Joshua Puerta and Hezziane and ending his set with an impromptu b2b2b2b of pals alongside Skream, Seth Troxler and Ben Sterling.
Space 92 X POPOF present: Turbulences
Rising French star Space 92 went b2b with French vet POPOF for a pummeling techno set that grabs you by the proverbial collar and takes you along for the ride. The set wastes no time, launching with Adrenochrom’s excellent “Space Invader Defcon Three,” mixing in Space 92’s collab with Oliver Heldens’ HI-LO alias and staying darkly and deliciously relentless for the full 90 minutes.
Tom & Collins
The Mexican duo’s set spanned styles and origins of house music, crossing Latin rhythms with the extremely vibey “Booty” from Canary Islands-based Chantrero and the pair’s very own and very fire singles “Se Va,” “Hagüe,” along with several equally excellent tracks that are thus far un-Shazamable.
While house music was already popping when Todd Terry entered the scene in the late ’80s, the New York producer grabbed hold of the sound and evolved it — mixing house with breaks and hip-hop and forging an altogether grittier strain that became his signature.
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This sound scored Terry a pair of No. 1’s on Dance Club Songs in the late ’90s while making him a fixture in New York clubland and points well beyond it. He, like many house producers of the day, found a particularly warm welcome in London, which in the ’90s joyfully embraced the genre that would take much of the States longer to figure out.
Terry in fact helped put dance music on Top 40 radio in the U.S. via an England-born song, with his now-classic remix of Everything But The Girl‘s “Missing.” Terry’s edit added a beat and a New York club vibe to the previously spare track, becoming the de facto version of the song and helping push it to global ubiquity (and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100).
He’s been a constant on the scene since, dropping a steady drip of tracks, albums, compilations and remixes for the past 35 years — dropping 1,000 original productions and 1,600 remixes in total, many of them through his own InHouse Records, Freeze Records and Terminator Records.
Out today (March 24), Terry’s latest — “I Give You Love” — is a collaboration with Estonian DJ/producer Janika Tenn and U.S. vocalist Lee Wilson. The bright-as-sunlight song finds the trio bringing warmth, emotion and a classic house feel that will no doubt land in Terry’s upcoming spring and summer dates, with his name on lineups for five festivals in the U.K. and Belgium this season.
Here, Terry talks about his affection for the U.K. scene, “sometimes” selling out and how — in this post-EDM era — the scene has “come back to being real house music.”
1. Where are you in the world right now, and what’s the setting like?
I’m in Estonia now and kinda snowed in at the moment, but it’s all good, nice place here to eat and chill. Then I’m off to London next, then back to New York to see family and play a gig at the Silo club in Brooklyn.
2. What is the first album or piece of music you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?
The first record I bought was James Brown‘s “Hot Butter Popcorn.” I couldn’t wait to bring it home and play it. The record player was in my sister’s room, so I had to wait till she left; it felt like it was forever, but it was fun to play it and dance around.
3. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid, and what do or did they think of what you do for a living now?
My Mom would say, “Turn that music down.” I was like, “No, Ma, this is what’s gonna get us out of here.” My Mom didn’t realize that the record business was the way to go at the time. I wanted to do music for the love and for the business.
4. What’s the first non-gear thing you bought for yourself when you started making money as an artist?
The first thing I brought was a car. A car is always the best way to listen to your music besides the club, of course! I did finally get some Cerwin Vega speakers as well with my first check.
5. If you had to recommend one album for someone looking to get into dance/electronic music, what would you give them?
Kraftwerk was my favorite LP. I learned so much from that album — how to arrange and how to make different sounds to make people notice your music, and that you do not have to be a great singer to make a cool song.
6. What’s the last song you listened to?
The last record I checked out was Stevie Wonder‘s Songs in the Key of Life. It’s a true classic, forever and ever. This reminds me that I still got a long way to make great music. I hope one day I’ll get a chance to make that record with a really big giant label or team — a company that really gets it. I would hate to sound like everything that’s out there. This is the bad part of the business.
7. The word “legend” is associated with your name. When do you feel most legendary?
I feel as though I have to live up to that name as strongly as possible. The word “legend” means a lot to me, to keep going no matter what. I love the respect, so I have to give it my all to live up to it.
8. When you were helping develop the sound of house music in New York, did you have a sense of how massive the genre would become?
I got the sound of house music from Chicago. I sampled Chicago to create my style. I didn’t really know what I was doing; I just wanted to sound like them. Later I learned that I had sampled Marshall Jefferson, Kevin Saunderson, Tyree Cooper and Adonis. I didn’t know anything about this style, and I was learning it as I went. To find out that it was blowing up in London really opened my eyes to do more. Then it was everywhere in the world. Wow.
9. With house music now a global phenomenon and commercial force, what’s your take on the current scene?
It’s good that it came back to being real house music. I think EDM took us away from its soul on the dancefloor, but I still think we need more songs that represent the old-school feeling that got us here, like Ten City’s “That’s The Way Love Is,” Crystal Waters‘ “Gypsy Woman” and Lil Louis’ “Club Lonely,” these type songs are just the icing.
10. What’s the best city in the world for dance music currently?
London is the best city for me. The crowd always seems open to new sounds and funky music as well. I always have to break my new music on the dancefloor there. People dancing is the power to keep you going, and they definitely gave me the power to keep going in my career. House music forever is what we need in life. Thanks to London.
11. Do you have guilty pleasure music?
Old school funk is what I really like — such as James Brown, Quincy Jones, Gap Band, Funkadelic, and Chaka Khan. When rap music came out, that made it the next level for me: Eric B and Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One and Nas.
12. Your latest release samples Steve Miller Band‘s “Fly Like an Eagle.” What was the appeal of working with this song, 47 years after its release?
This was a song I always wanted to rock. The infusion of warped sounds in the original made it interesting to me. I love weird s–t that makes you dance, so this is a track I always wanted to do a new version of in my style. Like what I did with reworking “Keep on Jumpin‘.”
13. Are there rising artists that you’re finding particularly exciting right now?
Janika Tenn, Majestic, DJ Kash. These emerging DJ/producer/artists are coming up with new styles for house music, dance and Afrobeats. They are the reason why I keep going. Sometimes you need a new vibe to inspire you to take a different look at things.
14. The most exciting thing happening in dance music currently is _____?
That the feel of the dancefloor is back. People are having a good time and not just standing around waiting for a drum roll to get hyped. We need to keep it feeling good.
15. The most annoying thing happening in dance music currently is _____?
That the major labels put out the worst dance records ever. I find myself selling out to them as well. I’m trying to stop taking the money to please them and please myself instead.
16. The biggest difference between making music in the ’80s and making music now is ____?
Computers! I think we are less creative because of them. We gotta bring our souls back to the table and add some live musicians.
17. The proudest moment of your career thus far?
That I don’t need to shop my music to other labels. I can do what I want and put out my music myself and [the music of] some other people I like on my own labels InHouse Records, Freeze Records, and Terminator Records.
18. What’s the best business decision you’ve ever made?
Getting rid of Zomba as my music publisher. They held me back at the beginning of my career. You gotta watch these people putting money in your face and not caring about you and your music.
19. Who was your greatest mentor, and what was the best advice they gave you?
My mentors, in the beginning, were Mark Finkelstein of Strictly Rhythm and my attorney Christopher Whent. They taught me to get my business right first. It’s hard to do sometimes; you just want to get your music out. You gotta take a step back and listen and get the business right first.
20. One piece of advice you’d give to your younger self?
To take my time. It’s not always good to rush, especially when it comes to the business side. I could have made a bunch more money if I got that right, but there is still time to make the money back. All those bastards that robbed me are dead, ha!
Many musicians, DJs, sound engineers and ravers call Los Angeles home, yet — rather surprisingly — its nightlife scene can sometimes feel underwhelming and disjointed. Brooklyn-born, L.A.-based promoter Tal Ohana has found a muse in the city’s expansive, sunny landscapes, seeing the city as “an open canvas” of possible D.I.Y. outdoor venues.
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“The scene here [for us] drastically grew, from us selling a couple thousand tickets to doubling and tripling [that number] in a couple of years,” Ohana tells Billboard over Zoom. “It’s still developing a bit; people are still trying to grasp [what we do.] It’s an exciting time.”
With his event company Stranger Than, Ohana has activated some of the city’s many outdoor public spaces with memorable raves, including the skyscraper-backed Grand Park and El Pueblo de Los Angeles in front of downtown’s iconic Union Station. He launched Stranger Than in 2017 in New York, and expanded to L.A. in 2018 with buzzy Burning Man camp Mayan Warrior’s debut in the city. The company has since brought many high-quality outdoor raves to L.A., often with DJs who are Burning Man and New York club regulars.
Stranger Than’s move to L.A. was a strategic one, intended to utilize the city’s ample outdoor space and perpetually excellent weather. “I won’t necessarily call [the L.A. scene] ‘nightlife’ because the 2:00 a.m. [call time] really limits it,” Ohana says. “So producers and promoters are drawn to do day events… [which is] a completely different experience than what a normal nightlife show would be.”
“In most cities,” he continues, “you’ll have a lot of wide-range capacity venues that can accommodate 4,000 to 7,000 people. In L.A., it’s either your nightclub or your stadium, and there isn’t really much in between. If there is, it’s a corporate-owned venue that does rock shows and stuff, so it’s kind of tough to bring in outside and independent promoters that do this type of music.”
Stranger Than’s next event is happening well beyond any traditional venue. The 3,500-plus capacity beach party led by revered German producers Âme b2b Dixon is taking place this Saturday (March 25) on Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro. While the L.A. area is lined by beaches, beach parties with amplified sound are rare, because getting a permit for them is difficult. This will be one of the few large-scale dance events to be held on a Los Angeles beach, and the first on Cabrillo Beach. Ohana is hoping it won’t be the last.
He and his team have had their eyes on throwing a beach party since launching in L.A., and making this one a reality has been a two or three year process — Ohana has lost count — the longest it’s taken them to secure a venue. Cabrillo Beach has been used for TV and movie filming (including scenes from Face/Off and 50 First Dates), which gave them hope they could secure it for a party.
Indeed, because so much filming takes place in L.A., Ohana believes it’s easier to get permits to shut down a street or public space for a party than in other cities. (To wit, L.A. promoter Future Primitive has for years been doing events in downtown L.A.’s Pershing Square and in Chinatown.) One of Stranger Than’s seven full-time employees, Russel Hadaya, is focused on location scouting and managing, and also works as a film scout. The other employees work on marketing, talent buying, content creation and operations.
“We love to do these locations that have never been used before,” Ohana says. “Getting approval from the neighborhood and from the city is really the longest and hardest part about it. We have millions of ideas of where and what to do for events around the city, it’s always just a matter of if we’re able to, which is the biggest step and also fun for us.”
They’ve learned a lot over the last five years, including the importance of getting city officials and the local community on board, to ensure people feel comfortable with them throwing an event in their backyard.
“It was harder in the beginning than now,” Ohana says, “because the city knows us and knows what we’re doing.”
For Cabrillo Beach, they did neighborhood outreach to make sure locals that regularly use the beach and live nearby were on board before even approaching the city. Ohana emphasizes that they have to be clear in communicating details on how things will happen and to make sure the reality of it lines up neatly with expectations. Permits aren’t typically signed off on until the last minute, when the space is set up, so officials can verify everything looks safe and fits with what was outlined on the application. Through experience, they’ve also found more ease in the stressful waiting process.
“It’s a lot of pre-work. There’s a lot of meetings and making people comfortable,” he says. “When you look at it through their eyes, it’s understandable – with bringing 3,000-plus people to a location that never really accommodated that.” Wisely, they also extend a party invite to all the locals.
Just as with large events, the power of the brand is important and can help get people to out to parties, particularly with so many promoters and events in L.A. Stranger Than harnesses this power with events that often bring well-known international brands to new cities for the first time.
In addition to ongoing events with Mayan Warrior, Stranger Than has partnered with legendary the Ibiza club Circoloco for their L.A. and Austin tour dates, with Behrouz’s Do Not Sit on the Furniture, Audiofly’s Flying Circus, Amsterdam’s Garden of Babylon and other boutique house and techno brands. They’ve also done events with fellow L.A. promoter SBCLTR LA, the only local promoter they’ve officially linked up with, although they are open to collaborating with others.
“When I started Stranger Than, it was more about trying to find these bigger brands which were not really in the market yet,” Ohana says. “The first show was the debut of [Berlin’s] Keinemusik in the U.S… New York is very competitive and a hard market to work with. I came out to L.A. to do shows that have already been done in New York, but have not yet been done here.”
When he wanted to bring Mayan Warrior to L.A. in 2018, he asked local promoters for location advice, but says they didn’t have much to offer. So, he and his team used Google Maps to find a spot that could work. Grand Park hosts a free summer concert series on its upper level, but the Mayan Warrior party was the first time the lower level of the 12-acre park was used for an electronic music event. 2,600 people showed up to dance among its glittering lasers. They moved the second annual Mayan Warrior to El Pueblo – another downtown public community space home to free concerts and events. El Pueblo has since become a popular rave space, with San Diego tech house favorites Desert Hearts bringing their 2019 City Hearts party there with a similar layout and L.A. left-field house and techno promoter Midnight Lovers using the space as well.
“It’s always different when you come in for the first time,” Ohana says. “If you’re using a location that has been used before you have something to work with, like a skeleton. Where was the stage? Where was the bar?”
While these outdoor spaces present a lot more variables — including weather, open-air sound challenges and having to fully build out the space with bars, security and more — Ohana loves the flexibility they provide to customize the experience. To ensure stellar sound, they assess events on a case-by-case basis and bring in a sound engineer when setting up.
This eagerness to try new things and find solutions amidst limitations is part of Ohana’s DNA. When he was 13, his older brother bought DJ decks to try his hand at spinning the trance records he loved, but gave up after a month. Ohana put the decks to good use and soon began throwing under-18 parties in his native Brooklyn. Soon, his events grew, and “the magic you can create with events took over.” His career path was clear.
Stranger Than remains most active in L.A. and New York, but also throws events in San Francisco, Miami and Austin, a city Ohana feels “is very similar to L.A. three or four years ago.” In New York, Stranger than works with independent house and techno promoter powerhouse Teksupport. (Ohana has been friends with owner Rob Toma for years, since they were both throwing teen raves in Brooklyn.) The partnership has helped Teksupport build a presence on the West Coast, where they also co-host buzzy events.
This past January, Stranger Than also threw their first non-afterparty L.A. club event in L.A, hosting Nina Kraviz and Madgalena at Hollywood’s Avalon. They planned it indoors because of the rainy winter, but Ohana was happy with how it turned out and is excited to do more events there. (He says that even though there’s less flexibility in a club, they can still bring design and production elements to make it feel unique.) They haven’t done any warehouse parties in L.A. because, Ohana explains, you can’t get permits for them. (The city has a number of privately run warehouses that host electronic shows, but legality around some of these events can be hazy, especially if they serve alcohol after 2 a.m.)
Of course, L.A.’s dance music scene is not new, it’s just constantly in flux, with boom and bust periods as certain sounds and scenes gained and lost popularity and as the city cracked down on, then once again warmed up to, dance events. Tech house followed EDM’s explosion, and house and techno have since gained popularity, paving the way for Stranger Than events focused on these genres. Warehouse raves have always been a part of the scene as an underground alternative to VIP-focused clubs. Back in the ‘90s, underground warehouse raves were scattered across L.A. and Southern California, creating the scene where Insomniac Events’ Founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella got his start.
He acknowledges that the scale of Stranger than events – where capacities range from 800 to 12,000 – makes it hard to build community with and among the ticket buyers, so he also wants to throw more intimate events to foster deeper connections while promoting more left-field acts.
“In the near future we want to do smaller capacity shows, very similar [to what we do now], open-airs with cool new locations. We want to book an artist that isn’t really going to necessarily sell thousands of tickets, but to have our attendees trust us to come out and hear them … there are a lot of other promoters doing that … the more of us that reach into that zone, the better.”
Miley Cyrus’ ‘River’ launches at No. 2 on Billboard’s multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (dated March 25). The track from her new album, Endless Summer Vacation, which she described as a “dancefloor banger” on Instagram, is Cyrus’ first on the chart as a lead act, her first top 10 and her second overall showing, after will.i.am’s “Fall Down,” on which she’s featured, hit No. 11 in 2013.
As previously reported, the LP launches at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, marking Cyrus’ 14th top 10.
The No. 2 debut for “River” is the highest for any track on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs since Elton John and Britney Spears soared in at No. 1 with “Hold Me Closer” last September. From the chart’s start in January 2013, only nine songs have launched at Nos. 1 or 2.
“River” begins with 13.7 million radio airplay audience impressions, 10.9 million official streams and 1,600 downloads sold in the United States (March 10-16), according to Luminate. Correspondingly, “River” rules the Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs chart, giving Cyrus her first leader in her first appearance.
The track also starts on Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (No. 4, Cyrus’ second top 10, equaling the peak of “Fall Down”), the Billboard Global 200 (No. 16), Billboard Global Excl. U.S. (No. 20) and the Billboard Hot 100 (No. 32, becoming her 21st top 40 hit). Not officially being promoted as the new album’s radio follow-up to “Flowers,” which rebounds for a seventh week atop the Hot 100, “River” also debuts on Adult Pop Airplay (No. 26), Pop Airplay (No. 27) and Radio Songs (No. 48).
Additionally on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding debut their third top 10 collab, “Miracle” (No. 6). Previously, the DJ/producer and singer charted with “Outside” (Harris feat. Goulding; No. 2, Feb. 2015) and “I Need Your Love” (Harris feat. Goulding; No. 3, July 2013).
“Miracle” is Harris’ 22nd top 10, tying him with The Chainsmokers for the second-most among all acts (after Kygo’s 24). Goulding achieves her sixth top 10 and her highest-debuting, eclipsing the bow of “Outside” (No. 7, November 2014).
“Miracle” starts with 3.2 million streams and 1,000 sold, also good for No. 7 beginnings on both Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs and Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales.
Bizarrap and Shakira surge following their joint interview and performance on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon March 10. “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” improves on Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (7-2; 2,100 sold, up 167%). It ranks at No. 3 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, after eight weeks at its No. 2 high.
Shifting to the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, Snakehips, BIA and Lucky Daye slither 13-9 with “Solitude.” The first top 10 for each act, the track is drawing core-dance airplay on supporters including Music Choice’s Dance/EDM Channel, KMVQ-HD2 San Francisco and iHeartRadio’s Evolution.
Plus, ILLENIUM adds his seventh Dance/Mix Show Airplay top 10 and Nina Nesbitt notches her first with “Luv Me a Little” (16-10). (The chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 70 top 40-formatted reporters.)