[A New Era] EDM Has Drastically Decreased in Ultra Miami 2020's Lineup [Techno and House]

The biggest event after the start of 2020 is Miami Music Week.

Among its events, Ultra Miami, familiar to Japanese audiences, is scheduled for March 20–22.

So I would like to discuss what this lineup suggests about the scene in the 2020s, with plenty of personal opinions and without mincing words.

The EDM Lineup Is Shrinking Further...

↓For reference, here is the previous lineup.

↓And here is this year's lineup again.

Well, more acts will keep being added, so I think the EDM contingent will end up reasonably substantial, but the excitement is definitely around the techno and house acts.

Even so, this time the Resistance lineup looks incredible.

Even though Ultra Japan 2019 had no Resistance stage, haha.

Will Techno and House Take Off in Japan Around 2022?

So will techno and house become more popular in Japan?

My answer is no.

To be precise, as before, ‘they will be quietly loved by fans with a keen ear for dance music’ and ‘foreign visitors may perhaps help liven things up’ are about as far as it will go.

Let me explore this more deeply.

Techno and House's Current Momentum in Japan Is Thanks to Early Adopters

Since around the end of 2018 and through 2019, good-quality techno and house events have increased in Japanese clubs.

The people organizing these events and the audiences enthusiastically attending them are the early adopters of today's techno and house scene.

It was the same with EDM.

EDM events slowly began appearing in Japan around 2012, became noticeable in 2013, and the first Ultra Japan took place in 2014.

At that point, EDM was also in its prime globally.

I was putting quite a lot of effort into DJing in Tokyo clubs then, and 2014 was a period when new EDM producers and hit tracks kept appearing.

Attendance began increasing in 2015, and Ultra Japan expanded to three days. At the same time, the audience deteriorated (with a proliferation of party people).

Let's call this commoditization.

EDM's commoditization greatly increased the “EDM population”.

The 2010s and 2020s Have Very Different Contexts and Preconditions

That is because the context and preconditions of the 2010s and 2020s should be very different.

These are why techno and house will not become as large a movement in Japan as EDM did.

Characteristics of the Genres

Put simply, most Japanese people do not understand what is good about techno and house.

In Japan, the most familiar musical culture is karaoke.

The majority spend time listening to amateurs' unbearable renditions of old hit songs, helped along by alcohol, reminiscing about when they were popular and mixing in distorted sentiments like ‘those were the good old days’ or ‘times have changed, but good things are still good!’

I think EDM became popular partly because it shared elements of this karaoke culture and was easy to digest, but up-and-coming house and techno are its polar opposite.

Technological Development

Technology in the 2020s is expected to be extraordinary and completely different from what came before.

AR, VR, and MR will probably be the key points for entertainment.

I will not explain 2020s technology in detail on this blog, but I have no doubt that, probably from around 2025, club dance floors, raves, and festivals will be held in immersive VR.

If you read this blog, you have probably seen the YouTube channel Cercle, whose premise is “dance music in a place like this!?” You will be able to experience exactly that while staying in your room.

Incidentally, when DJing in VR becomes possible, I want to return to DJing seriously myself, and I would even like to build a platform for it, haha.

The Direction Indicated by 2020's First Big Event

So this Ultra Miami at the start of 2020 should offer views of dance music's future from all sorts of angles.

Now that EDM and trance have lost their strength, I wondered whether Ultra Miami would still set trends. But considering how it presented the next generation through Resistance in 2016—the spider-shaped stage was novel too—I still cannot help paying attention.