EDM Artists/Headliners

[MostlyMellow]

Ok so Ive honestly only been into electronic music for a little over a year but I have some questions. I think its pretty obvious that visuals help connect the crowd to the music and make the show a more enjoyable one. Any big name artist has some pretty crazy visuals to go with the show. This also means that it must be premixed. You cant have million dollar light shows and live mixing. So why does it seem like daft punk and the chemical brothers get a free pass when they go onstage and dont do shit but you get SHM or Kaskade everyone attacks them for not actually performing? Honestly it seems rediculous to me. You cannot have a huge visual display and not sync it beforehand. Please enlighten me.

Also from reading these boards machinedrum in the do lab is better than kaskade with a milliondollar light show. Do you people really believe this?

[frizzlefry]

Here's a fun fact: People can connect to music through the music.

[IRSCOTT]

why can't you have a huge visual display and control the audio and visual aspects? i.e. plasticman? am I wrong?

[frizzlefry]

God I can't get over the fact that these might be legitimate questions. Does your opinion of an artist or producer really depend on how many expensive lights they have working during their shows?

[Ferris Wheeler]

One of my favorite things about edm is trying to understand what the live elements of each artists live show actually are. It seems that there are no rules. I believe the same applies to the light shows. Some artists probably have their whole set and their light shows pre-programmed and do almost nothing the whole time. Some artists do a TON on stage and have very talented people actively running the light show. There is probably a forum somewhere where light show designers are shitting on other light show designers who automate too much of their show.

The thing is that because of the technology, many artists are creating their music in somewhat of a non-linear fashion that can't be fully replicated live. I don't respect that music any less, it just makes for a less interesting live show- more of a celebration of an artist than a performance. For me, I get really excited when artists show me that they're performing live EDM in their own way like AraabMUZIK and Madeon's pop culture video (to name a couple coachella acts).

To answer your question about why some artists seem to get shit on and others don't... It's because edm is like every other genre of music- a bunch of cynical music snobs pick up an opinion and create an echo chamber.

I really hate it actually. Some people don't seem to realize that just because you don't particularly care for an artist's music doesn't mean that you have to hate them. I haven't been listening to edm for all that long either but I'm always surprised that even in a genre that's roots lie in tolerance and acceptance, there's a lot of assholes who want to tell you what you should and shouldn't listen to.

[Iamwelting]

I grew up with the guy who now does the lights for Pretty Lights. I got to go into his booth at a show one time, and he was definitely doing a lot of shit on the fly. OP clearly doesn't know a whole lot about how skilled many light board technicians are. In many cases they're doing more work than the DJ.

[omerta]

So why does it seem like daft punk and the chemical brothers get a free pass when they go onstage and dont do shit but you get SHM or Kaskade everyone attacks them for not actually performing?

Because daft punk and the chemical brothers do whole a lot of shit when they're on stage.

[malcolmjamalawesome]

Because daft punk and the chemical brothers do whole a lot of shit when they're on stage.

i.e. head bobbing

[lt.roast.a.botch]

To answer your question about why some artists seem to get shit on and others don't... It's because edm is like every other genre of music- a bunch of cynical music snobs pick up an opinion and create an echo chamber.

I really hate it actually. Some people don't seem to realize that just because you don't particularly care for an artist's music doesn't mean that you have to hate them. I haven't been listening to edm for all that long either but I'm always surprised that even in a genre that's roots lie in tolerance and acceptance, there's a lot of assholes who want to tell you what you should and shouldn't listen to.

I agree with most of what you wrote but disagree with the above quote. While there are some who will dismiss certain artists such as SHM and Kaskade because they are "cynical snobs," majority shit on these artists because they haven't done anything to show progression. Sure they made it more popular for the masses and granted some of the new songs are very catchy pop electronic songs - but that doesn't necessarily mean it's quality work or music that will stick 5 years from now. If you look in the history of music, whenever a certain genre became mainstream it usually signaled an eventual departure from that genre due to lack of perceived quality (grunge, hip-hop, 80's ect.). Same is happening with the SHM, Skrillex ect. type of electronic music.

Personally, I like to find the music that shows constant variety in pushing out new sounds and ideas. 2-3 years ago for me that was the SHMs and the Kaskades ect. I saw them and had a great time. But with computers and programs, electronic music moves fast and they are still doing the same thing so my attention has gone elsewhere. I don't blame them either since that type of electronic music is popular, they would be crazy not to cash in while sitting on top.

I also do agree with you that some people are too harsh on other people's choice of music and I bet most have songs that they enjoy to listen from the same artists they hate on. But this is the internet so people will say whatever to get a reaction. There's no such thing as PLUR on the internet.

As for the OP, Daft Punk and Chemical Brothers are pioneers. They are timeless, still relevant, and a very important part of electronic music history just as Jimi Hendrix was for the electric guitar. KRS-One for hip hop ect.

[MostlyMellow]

Thanks for all of the responses. I'm a huge music fan and definitely connect to the music for music, but it does seem naive to pretend these insane visuals don't have an impact. It's like dismissing visual art alltogether as irrelevent imo. As a newcomer to this genre I just feel like visuals are an extremely important aspect . It isn't like a rock band where you can see the artist pouring his heart out on stage. There's less humanity to it , it seems to be about overwhelming the senses with bass and lights/images to get you to move. I caught the chems last year and can definitely say they have better music than the artists this year , but I also saw Kaskade last year and watching his visuals made his music really come to life. Same with bands like Empire of the Sun. On record they made only an average album to me. Then I saw them live and was blown away by the theatrics and visual display. It does matter in a live show. Your going to WATCH a performance .

[MostlyMellow]

Here's a fun fact: People can connect to music through the music.

Go drink your everclear and black out at coachella. Sounds awesome bro

[Mugwog]

When you have seen quality acts with great visuals (NIN/DP/Chems) you tend to up your stakes. When you see more and more acts that don't deliver musically, you tend to be taken out of the moment. This is what separates the goons from the gods of music. The gods of music take you on a journey from the start to the finish. You feel satisfied with what they gave you, of course you want more, but the mind has already been blown!

The goons on the otherhand, play the popular songs and never really venture to the experimental realm, only the realm of not knowing how to mix a song. I fucking hate it when a song is poorly mixed. I stop dancing, you broke my beat.

The latest Dj trend of holding out on the build before the drop is one current cheese house trend I disgust. Most DJs miss the perfect moments they could have dropped the bass by trying to build these "jumps" and really just don't even try at mixing into it. I've heard several DJs have perfect opportunities to continue a beat and instead they got lazy

[weezy f baby]

Ok so Ive honestly only been into electronic music for a little over a year but I have some questions. I think its pretty obvious that visuals help connect the crowd to the music and make the show a more enjoyable one. Any big name artist has some pretty crazy visuals to go with the show. This also means that it must be premixed. You cant have million dollar light shows and live mixing. So why does it seem like daft punk and the chemical brothers get a free pass when they go onstage and dont do shit but you get SHM or Kaskade everyone attacks them for not actually performing? Honestly it seems rediculous to me. You cannot have a huge visual display and not sync it beforehand. Please enlighten me.

Also from reading these boards machinedrum in the do lab is better than kaskade with a milliondollar light show. Do you people really believe this?

A lot of performance software can trigger cues now. That's how it can be live with an elaborate light show... just like how bands do it. Tool has an elaborate lighting show, and they play instruments and are still a band. It's all cues and a ton of rehearsal with the lighting technician.

[cured]

lt.roast.a.botch--agree with pretty much everything. Ditto Mugwog. What's happening is artists are seeing what works and what people respond to and they go in that direction. I noticed a bunch of years back that knock-off producers would come out of nowhere, take one element out of a popular song and try to create something similar with it. It felt cheap. They were just seeing what was going to make them cash, as opposed to genuine inspiration, and went in that direction. It became harder to separate the good from the bad because the market was flooded.

On another note, I got involved with this music circa 1999 when epic trance was becoming the in thing. The previous generation was mostly appalled by it. Then came progressive house and that dominated for a few years and it just wasn't happy enough music for some. There's always room to complain in this genre.

As far as DP and the Chems, as noted before, they've been around for awhile. Daft Punk debuted in the mid 90s, the Chems in the early 90s, and they've built bodies of work over the course of years. They have their own distinctive sounds but they still sound fresh from album to album. Back then massives didn't draw 80k per day. Jujubeats 99 was my first massive and there was something like 5k people there (and it had a map point!). The next year it was 20k and it steadily grew from there.

[frizzlefry]

Go drink your everclear and black out at coachella. Sounds awesome bro

Have fun with your bright lights you fucking moth

[Sensuality]

Ok so Ive honestly only been into electronic music for a little over a year but I have some questions. I think its pretty obvious that visuals help connect the crowd to the music and make the show a more enjoyable one. Any big name artist has some pretty crazy visuals to go with the show. This also means that it must be premixed. You cant have million dollar light shows and live mixing. So why does it seem like daft punk and the chemical brothers get a free pass when they go onstage and dont do shit but you get SHM or Kaskade everyone attacks them for not actually performing? Honestly it seems rediculous to me. You cannot have a huge visual display and not sync it beforehand. Please enlighten me.

Also from reading these boards machinedrum in the do lab is better than kaskade with a milliondollar light show. Do you people really believe this?

You are everything that's wrong with EDM these days. You'll understand in a few years of you're still on the bandwagon.

[Ferris Wheeler]

You are everything that's wrong with EDM these days. You'll understand in a few years of you're still on the bandwagon.

See what I mean?