#sorry for the novel but edm is something i feel very close to

[mechabass]

Hi, as someone who would consider themself a person somewhat (if not very) knowledgeable about EDM I would like to talk about this and make a few points.

First of all, I’ll do a little tl;dr in advance, I’m not going to be agreeing or disagreeing with the points/purpose of this article. I’m just going to be stating some truth/what I think on various topics mentioned in this thread in general. This is going to sound very gatekeepy and I frankly don’t know how else to put this. But I feel like a lot of people reblogging this are here to get their social justice quota in for the day, and don’t actually care about or listen to EDM. That’s, like, I guess it’s fine. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that. But if you’re about to shit talk a genre you don’t listen to because you read some stuff, I figure you should hear from someone who speaks for many who do.

A lot of people are going to read this and use this to further a case supporting the “EDM is trash anyway” path of thinking. Don’t let this be you. EDM gets a LOT of shit, and I’ll admit, for all the reasons that EDM gets its shit from the drug culture to the misogyny, this is one of the more “valid” reasons. I assure you, it’s so much more than what you see on TV and hear on the radio. The broad genre of EDM is incredibly diverse, it has a little something for everyone, even if that means you need to look for it or have someone recommend it to you. Don’t let this become just another reason why EDM is “garbage” and not worth your time, because it’s not “garbage” and it does have a very promising future.

But, let’s talk about the elephant in the room.

The EDM community has a problem with Poc, LGBT+, and females in the industry. That’s pretty much an objective fact. There are such a scarcity of big names in one or more of those categories that even I could probably count them on one hand. The answer to “why” might not be as easy. But you know what else has an issue with poc, LGBT+, and females in the industry? Music. The whole music industry, inclusive of most genres there are. These “minorities” are just that. It’s pretty sad, actually. Why shouldn’t these “minorities” be given equal chance at fame for their music? I don’t really have an answer for that. I agree, it’s a problem. I’m not going to excuse or justify it, but I’m just going to say, this problem is not and never was a problem exclusive to EDM. This sucks, but this is a music problem, not an EDM problem.

Now let’s address something entirely different. I don’t have a real answer, but I have some thoughts on the question originally proposed in the article. It may have to do with the way that I think the creation of what we think of as “modern EDM” is being attributed to black gay males. I totally believe and get what was said about the music being created for the clubs being hubs for gay males. That’s cool. But we are talking about the events of, what, the 1970s here? We are talking about some of THE oldest examples of techno and house music. Do you see where I’m going with this? Basically what I mean is, today’s EDM no longer has heavy association with that. If we had black gay EDM artists who were big names today (and I refer you to my point earlier about the music industry being homophobic and racist on almost all fronts before you say anything about that) then yeah, you could logically expect to see more of it. But these gay black EDM artists haven’t been “relevant” (to a certain extent) for quite awhile. You can’t expect a group of people who did work to be credited with the creation of one thing forever, ESPECIALLY given that said thing has evolved and deviated TREMENDOUSLY from what it was in its creation.

Oh, and one last thing.

I feel a lot of assuming of sexuality going on here. The dudes listed in the article are white and there’s little doubt in my mind that they’re straight and cis, but some other huge edm personas have not disclosed anything about personal relationships. Is it largely heterosexual? Absolutely, but there’s no need to assume that someone who has said nothing about their relationships is straight. A lot of these guys are old farts too, which brings me to my LAST last point. The future of EDM is, as I said, promising. With more acceptance of LGBT+ people in media and what have you, you have my word that the works of the gay black artists may surface once again. But the unfortunate truth is, in the meantime, you have to look for them. But when you do find a producer you like that may or may not be a minority, take some time to let them know you appreciate them. If there’s anything I just said that I’m positive about, it’s that letting an artist know that you like their work does MILES more than posting about “how come there’s no x minority group in y industry?” and giving it no more thought. Thanks for reading, folks, and if you ever want to hear some good EDM, my inbox is always open.

They ain’t lie 🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️