[Nostalgia Is Harmful] How Dance Music Connoisseurs Who Think the Old Days Were Better Destroy the Scene's Future [We Are in the Reiwa Era Now]

There are Facebook groups for exchanging dance music information and connecting with others. While browsing one, I came across a post that bothered me. Here it is:

It has already been over ten years since house as a club music genre began declining.

Regardless of the period, house itself seems to be becoming classical, but good music remains good forever.

Still, not just house but music itself seems to be losing relative value. In this age, the internet's development means people rarely pay for music anymore.
(It is a fact that I have not paid a single yen to listen to this mix.)

That means even if producers spend money making tracks, they cannot make a business of it or even recover their production costs.
Professional-level producers will only decrease, and it will be difficult for young talent to emerge.

If there were a system like idol culture, adding value to the person themselves and encouraging concert attendance and merchandise purchases, payment would arise more easily. But club music tends to compete on the tracks themselves, making things difficult.

Clubs, where club music can be enjoyed as a physical experience, can collect admission and food and drink revenue. But because they primarily operate late at night, their gradual decline in Japan, with its shrinking and aging population and limited hope for the future, was only natural.

The huge EDM festival model of recent years probably achieved some success in collecting admission fees. But merely semi-automatically playing finished tracks in a predetermined order on CDJs or computers, while repeating banzai-style arms-in-the-air poses in the DJ booth, was obviously going to bore people. Above all, those who have long loved quality dance music may instead have avoided such empty performances.

Where will dance music culture go from here?

One thing can be said: dance music in general, including house, has countless great tracks created by earlier generations. Even if hardly any new releases have appeared for a long time, the fundamental pleasure of discovering great old tracks and enjoying DJ mixes that combine them exquisitely into a musical flow never fades, even without flashy presentation.

It may not readily lead to quick business opportunities, but individuals are free to keep enjoying it. I would be glad if even a few more people realized or discovered that enjoyment.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312871015535549/permalink/1247559005400074/

This person is not alone; we often see pessimistic opinions about a scene that diverges from someone's ideal rooted in established values.

However, to put it mildly, this analysis is wildly off the mark. It is mere nostalgia, with no possibilities for the future or constructive proposals—or, without mincing words, the opinion of an out-of-touch old-timer.

I do not want people to take it seriously, so I want to communicate my own thoughts in response properly.

House as a Club Music Genre Has Never Declined

I do not know what this person means by house, but in the broad sense, much electronic dance music has its roots in house.

Even EDM is a form of house, as subdivided genre names such as progressive house, big room house, and future house demonstrate.

In other words, house itself continually lives on in the dance music scene, merely changing form.

Certainly, if you define house as classic house such as Pete Heller's Big Love or David Morales's Needin’ U, there were undoubtedly substantial periods when it withdrew from the mainstream.

But a major attraction of dance music should be its constant change and freedom from rules.

Even if the current mainstream is not to your taste, isn't that a healthy state for the dance music scene?

Also, this person probably looked at domestic event lineups and concluded that house as a genre had been declining for over ten years.

When discussing the scene, you need to look at its heartland, Europe.

Japan seems to have had many EDM events over the past ten years, but overseas, Sonar, Elrow, Glitterbox, The BPM Festival, Hideout and others firmly keep house—now often tech house—in many fans' hearts, along a separate path from EDM.

Also, Josh Butler, Hot Since 82, Eli&Fur, Lauren Lane and others show that young, talented house DJs are active too.

If It Looks Like It Is Declining, It Will Make a Comeback

And in recent years, as EDM winds down, house's momentum is returning to the mainstream.

Asia, including Japan, often follows these developments several years after the European scene.

In particular, inbound tourism demand is accelerating, so there will be more opportunities for house to provide valuable content to European and American visitors to Japan.

In other words, the chance of house events becoming popular again in Japan is extremely high.

In fact, I went to Laurent Garnier's extended set at Contact Tokyo in 2018, and entry was restricted, with a large number of Europeans and Americans filling the venue.

Long-serving house DJs should not say negative things like “House has become a has-been in the eyes of the world” or “It gradually declined in Japan, with its shrinking and aging population and limited hope for the future,” without understanding the actual situation.

Tracks and Mixes Can Be Free

This person says, “Music itself seems to be losing relative value, and the internet's development means people rarely pay for music anymore.”

Is there really any problem with that?

The essence of business is to give first, let people feel the value, and receive compensation afterward.

This is not limited to music. Many individuals and companies publish useful information on websites and YouTube. Once people appreciate its value, they become more likely to buy services and products.

In other words, rather than producers being unable to make a business or recover production costs, the model is to provide tracks and mixes free first and recover the investment through festivals and club events.

Today, content itself has no value. However, value becomes attached to DJs and artists who continue publishing excellent content.

It looks like a very rational approach to me.

In fact, EDM DJs and big festivals that became famous alongside EDM often use this approach. It is hardly something that began just now.

Where Dance Music Culture Is Going Is Already Clear

Alongside my long involvement with dance music, I am knowledgeable about marketing and technology. From that perspective, I think these three things will be key.

These are not new; signs have been visible for some time, but they will accelerate further.

AI

Frankly, from now on, most great tracks will be composed by AI, with people adding small nuances to finish them.

EDM star DJs were actually composers, but balancing touring with composition caused them physical and mental suffering.

For those reasons too, adopting AI composition will be inevitable, and artists will increasingly need the skill to use AI well.

Performers Who Can Communicate and Publish Information

Content and mixing technique will no longer be points of differentiation.

Who, rather than what, is what matters.

Good-looking DJs have often been celebrated in recent years, which I think was a natural development. But with more of them around, further differentiation is needed.

The important thing will be the power to communicate. The models to follow are YouTubers and TikTokers.

Publish frequently, build a relationship in which you feel close to the audience, and make it easier to draw them to festivals and events.

International DJs already distribute tracks, mixes, festival performances, and radio shows for free, but going forward they will need to do more than that and let people know more about their personality and character.

Every performer will increasingly need marketing ability.

Experiential Value

Popular overseas festivals attract audiences by making effective use of experiential value beyond music. Tomorrowland is a perfect example.

At a more local level, silent discos and dance bathhouses are examples too.

Technology will be mixed into these effectively.

AR might make dynamic presentations such as fireworks even more dramatic. AI could create floors playing only your favorite tracks and developments. Stages might feature designs applying digital signage.

Livestreaming will become VR.

Lots of exciting things look likely to emerge.

Legacy and Classic Things Come Alive When Mixed with Something New

I have been into dance music for 20 years myself, so I somewhat understand the desire for the energetic scene of the old days.

But even if you want it, and even though history repeats, exactly the same thing will never return, nor should it.

Above all, young people are at the center of dance music culture. We should not impose our sensibilities on them. However, there is great value in presenting things they do not know but might enjoy.

One example is the “mash-up” technique EDM DJs excel at.

For instance, Hardwell and Oliver Heldens took classics such as Dave Armstrong's Make Your Move and Eurythmics's Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) and layered them over their own songs, introducing them to young EDM audiences.

This is truly learning from the old to discover the new.

Continuing to play great old tracks through legacy mixes is never an absolute ideal, much less something that advances the scene.

*That is why I am not especially fond of classics-only sets that Trance DJs sometimes play, or Agefarre, haha.

What Matters Is Freedom

There were times when I too justified legacy techniques and sounds.

But now I am completely different.

Global technology is continually changing the world, so frequent paradigm shifts in dance music are entirely unsurprising.

Besides, cultures that foreground the rigidity of traditional performing arts or craftsman mentality are, to put it mildly, fucking boring and drive people away.

I hope this reaches even a few more people.