How Did EDM Conquer Mainstream America? A Producer Perspective

How Did EDM Conquer Mainstream America?

A Producer Perspective

Pierre-Yann Dolbec

How Does a Genre Become Mainstream?

– How do categories change?– What is the role of niche and mainstream actors

in changing categories?– How do changes in categories impact niche and

mainstream actors?

Why is this important?• Lack of research on genres in marketing• Categorization from a social constructionist

perspective• Process through which categories emerge and are

accepted by everyday consumers through the actions of producers

• Decentralized category evolution • Theoretical implications for work on boundaries &

categorization• Managerial implications for market and trend

research, and product launches

Some literature: Categorization• Institutional approach to categorization (e.g.,

Lounsbury and Rao 2004)• The influence of categories (e.g., DiMaggio 1997;

Scott 2001)• Categories are cognitive infrastructures that

underpin markets (Lounsbury and Rao 2004; White 1981)

• Music genres as categories (Lena and Peterson 2008)

Some literature: Boundaries• Boundaries as “conceptual distinctions” (Lamont

and Molnar 2002)• Categories can change and have more or less fixed

boundaries (Hannan 2010)• Category work as a specific type of institutional

work (Lawrence, Leca and Zilber 2013)• Bridging • Creating • Mimicking

Data

Archival data3271 pages522 media articles

Netnographic6 months

Interviews

2007-2014• Mainstream news sources (e.g., NYT, The Guardian)• Music-specific (e.g., Billboard, Rolling Stones)• EDM-specific (e.g., THUMP, RA, blogs)• Evolution of 15 artists (Forbes’ Top Paid DJ list)• Major players of the field (e.g., Sillerman, Roachella)• Industry-reports & press releases

• Primary interviews: • industry actors (4 interviews: 2 promoters, 1 producer, 1 A&R; average

interview length: 75 minutes)• 3 consumers (average length: 60 minutes)

• Secondary interviews & conference panels:• 25 panels from industry conferences (e.g., EMC; average length: 45

minutes)• interviews with DJs, promoters, A&Rs, and managers (15 interviews; e.g.,

Tiesto, Deadmau5, Jake Urdel; from 5 to 90 minutes)

• Reader and commenter on EDM.com, THUMP, RA, edmplanet

Billboard charts6 years

• HOT Top 100 albums coded for genres and styles (2007-2014)

EDM in Numbers• Fastest growing music segment (in sales of

recorded albums)• 8.4% growth 2012-2013 (Nielsen 2013)• Highest growing genre in # of tracks sold

• A genre tailored for the experience economy• 4.2BN$ of the 6.2BN$ industry revenue comes from

events (IMS 2014)• EDC grew from 65 000 in 2008 to 400 000 in 2014.

• Burning Man: 65 000 in 2014• Coachella: 545 000 in 2014 (Calvin Harris, Skrillex,

Zedd)• Other electronic music festival

• Ultra: 330 000• Tomorrowland: 400 000

Findings

EDM-pop had to fly, and then die, so electro-pop, in all these wonderful new

iterations, could live. (Williot 2013)

The Crossing2007 - 2009

Music journalists are only just now beginning to grapple with how EDM seemingly sneaked up on

them unawares. The narrative of new music has so often been one of building from a despised

underground after years of struggle, rip-off, and hustle to mass popularity. But EDM came in by no

back door but right through the front gate, with Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" in late 2008. (Bogart 2012)

Evolution of electronic music presence in the Hot Top 100

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2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Crossovers Pure Artists

Crossing Fragmenting Embracing

The boundaries of pop• Partial membership to different genres “of the moment”

widens the target audience: • “pop music is music found in Billboard magazine's Hot 100

Singles chart. Songs intended for the pop music market usually have their distinguishing genre characteristics purposely obscured or muted in the interest of gaining wider appeal” (Lena and Peterson 2008; Weisbard 2008; see also Hannan2010).

• Pop music boundaries are fuzzy/porous• Contrary to Hannan (2007, 2010) where fuzzy boundaries

are not ideal since they do not allow for the definition of categories and reduce appeal


Bridging: The role of pop• …no one's name came up as often in interviews for this

piece as the ever-shapeshifting, reggaeton-cum-house vocalist Pitbull. […]“He's a combo between a little hip hop and some pop," […]That's really good to see for the house community." […] EDM got another heavy dose of validation when Kanye West and Jay-Z's Watch the Throne […] rap over the textbook dubstep beat on "Who Gon' Stop Me.“ (Makarechi 2011)

• Something we saw over the last two or three years—more in America than anywhere else—is that the normal Top 40 radio pop culture has been influenced [by EDM]. Suddenly Rihanna and Usher want to become dance electronic artists. (Paul Van Dyk interview by Lynch, 2012)


Bridging: The multi-artist festivalCrossing Fragmenting Embracing

In a couple of hours they proved that two men operating laptops on stage could not only rival but surpass anything that any other musical genre could offer in terms of a live experience.They also cracked the unresponsive US market for dance like a walnut … (Dick 2013)

The tipping point was Coachella 2006 […] [it] truly introduced Daft Punk to the rock kids. […] Not only prove that live electronic music could be captivating, but they set a new standard for spectacle. (Sherburne 2011)

Impact: Legitimacy for electronic producers

[On Afrojack] Ninety-nine point nine percent of New York has no clue who the f- I am […] [yet] he racked up an impressive assortment of global hits during the past few years for his production and songwriting work on Pitbull and Ne-Yo's"Give Me Everything,“ (2011) David Guetta and Sia's "Titanium“ (2011) and Chris Brown's "Look at Me Now.“ (2011) […] I don't want to be an EDM artist […] Making such goals attainable is an album that's consciously commercial […] The guest lineup betrays his cross-genre designs. Snoop Dogg […] Wiz Khalifa […] Devin Cruise […] Sting (Hampp 2014)


Impact: Introducing EDM to a New Audience• Macklovitch [A-Trak] […] credits Daft Punk's

masterful Alive 2007 tour across America and Justice's simultaneous explosion as "educating a whole generation of kids about electronic dance music" (EDM). The obsession spread like wildfire, and familiarity with electronic artists became a ready-made badge of cooler-than-thou … (Makarechi 2011)

• AVICII: … suddenly artist like the Black Eyed Peas and Akon were introducing house beats to American audiences. That introduced electronic music to a lot of people. It opened their minds. (Gottlieb 2012)


The Fragmentation2009-2012

Nice song and all, but where’s the drop? (Comment on Skrillex’s page when he posted a song

from British experimentalist Aphex Twin)

Creating: New Practices• The structural feature around which much modern EDM is

built—the "drop," a series of fritzing, tempo-shifted noises …often characterized in Internet slang as WUB WUB WUB (Bogart 2012)

• Skrillex’s dubstep “has become pop music’s buzziest new word” […] with its sonic upheaval, aggressive posturing[…]— tempos and textures aligned nicely with current rap tracks […] "Wobble," as it came to be known for its oscillating bass…(Gaerig 2011)


Creating: New Identities• Kathryn Frazier (Press agent: Skrillex, Diplo): no offense to

shiny shirt dance-y euro, but in America that didn't really fly.Dave Rene (A&R: Zedd): Yeah, there started to really be some personality behind this music, some attitude and not a gay one. (Ryce 2012)

• DJs are the new rock stars (Forbes / Greenburg 2012)• …to what they wear to the tattoos on their body […] the

thing you feel is that we bring the rock to the raves. (Jake Urdell, Krewella manager, EMC 2013)

• Button pushers: “he's a producer who chooses to publicly represent his sound in person, but not a DJ in the traditional sense: a selector who responds to the mood of the crowd.” (Reynolds 2012)


Creating: New Audience (& resistance)• Joe Nice is unconvinced. “It’s a completely different

audience,” he insists; “the noisier stuff is for the kids. The ‘real’ dubstep is usually an older crowd. (Mugge 2011)

• …it's probably best for our culture if RA does not choose to combine these worlds …Yes, that scene helps introduce electronic music to new ears, but really- just wait until they start digging and developing their palette, and they will end up here on this site, where the discerning fan resides.[…]The real fact is, these two sub-cultures have nothing to do with each other and they are simply two seperate but similar cultures based around using technology to make dance music. (RA user 2012)


Impact: The Creation of a New Category


The Embrace

2012-onward

“EDM is the new sound of American pop music" - David Guetta (2012)

Presence of “true” electronic songs and electronic artists on the Top 100

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Pure Artists


Songs

Mainstream recognition• 2012: VMA introduces an electronic music category for its

prizes• 2012: deadmau5 and David Guetta play at the Grammy’s• 2012: Skrillex wins 3 Grammy’s, is nominated for “Best

New Artist”• 2013: Billboard introduces a Dance/Electronic chart.

Will.I.am. And Britney Spears take the first two spots.• 2013: Skrillex wins 3 Grammy’s• 2013: 6 electronic artists make it to Billboard’s Year-End

Hot Top 100• 2014: Dick Clark Productions (Billboard Awards, People

Magazine Awards, Miss Universe, Golden Globe) announces a Dance Music award show


Mimicking: Professionalization• If the EDMBiz conference confirmed anything, it’s that the

genre is a business first, and an artistic endeavor second (Wolbe 2014)

• I quit drinking. Before that I’d drink at least two vodka Red Bulls during every set, but now I live like an athlete. I only drink water during shows, no after parties. It sounds boring, but there’s so much pressure and professionalism in my scene that I just can’t afford to do that anymore. (Laidback Luke interviewed by Friedman, 2014)

• You need to have a very consistent message across every single touchpoint. […] if you look at the acts that are really succeeding […] there’s very specific storyline features […] activating brands is not that different from activating recording artists. (Jake Urdell, Krewella manager on Krewella’s media strategy, EMC 2013)


Mimicking: From electronic artists to pop artists

• Practices• From DJs to button pushers to bands

• [On Krewella] The group’s use of strong vocals, electrohouse and dubstep combined with Top 40 melodies generates appeal from both the EDM and Pop music crowds. They consider themselves a band that does some DJing, in contrast to many of the EDM guests that prevail as DJs. (Emmer 2014)

• Featurings & vocals• Guetta's stock has soared since. His latest album, Nothing But the

Beat, features collaborations with more than a dozen hip-hop and R&B stars. (della Cava 2012)

• Tailored for Pop• Cooked into the DNA of Zedd's music are ingredients designed to

attract commercial success. Songs hover in the three to five minute range and are heavy on swooning vocals and catchy melodies. (Yenigun 2012)


Mimicking: From the DJ booth to immersive show experiences

• The show is … gonna be way more immersive. It’s in the round. We have Hollywood screenwriters coming up with a script. We have Chris Ha over at Blizzard [the video game developer] doing storyboards for it. We’re producing it like you’d produce a film. (deadmau5, interviewed by Smyth, 2014)

• Modern EDM festivals like Electric Daisy Carnival, HARD Fest, and Skrillex’s Mothership tour are massive productions that dwarf their predecessors: most "laptop" artists and DJs were, until recently, lucky to have shoddy projections on a poorly hung bedsheet as their visual backup. … Now … tents are covered in acres of LED panels, riddled with high-intensity lasers, and dense with the sticky musk of artificial fog. (Wolbe 2014)


Impact: Emergence of Electronic Pop Stars • 6 electronic artists on the Hot Top 100 in 2013• Even vocal verses are no longer a necessity for pop listeners,

as evidenced by the popularity of Avicii’s “Levels,” which dominated radio airwaves no less than a year ago. (yPulse2013)

• …now a great deal of people that come out to festivals have an expectation of immediately accessible music … EDM, in a live setting, has a way of being instantly entertaining – and here’s the kicker – in a way lyrical, 90s-style hip hop really has no chance at matching. When you’re accustomed to thousands of perfectly synced strobe lights and the energy-building peaks and valleys of a common electronic dance music set, suddenly, watching a guy pace back and forth on stage uttering halfway-audible lines isn’t as entertaining anymore. (Hirsch 2014)


Discussion

Theoretical implications• Fuzzy boundaries and lack of conflict

• Rather than field stability (Zietsma and Lawrence 2010)• Conflict in fields depends on the type of boundaries

protecting it• Boundary crossing dependent on field position

• Appropriation• Adaptation

• Between niche and dominant fields• Authors previously theorized niche fields to have an

influence on dominant ones• Developments in dominant fields can open up new spaces

of possibilities that re-orient niche-based communities and lead to conflicts in niches

• Emergence and decline of one category can facilitate the emergence of another

Managerial implications• Launching a new cultural category• Requires

• Building an audience• Multiple actors from different field positions• A strong niche

• Monitoring niche discourses can facilitate the identification of emerging scenes

• Monitoring bridging work from established actor can help in identifying meso-level cultural trends

Thank you

Business

How Did EDM Conquer Mainstream America? A Producer Perspective