- Chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain does not like electronic dance music. He dislikes it so much, in fact, that he dedicated three whole minutes of his CNN show Parts Unknown to the subject. "It's a DJ's world and where once they used to say, 'Cocaine is God's way of saying you have too much money,' now, maybe EDM is," he said with no reservations.
So my thoughts on this are complex, and my body of knowledge is deep. Start here. Or, if you prefer, start here to see that flagamuffin and I have discussed this before. That's just bottle service. Bottle service and DJ culture go hand-in-hand, however, because most DJs aren't working nearly as hard as most musicians, so they're more a part of the party than a performer at the party. So it's not like Bourdain is trashing EDM - he's trashing EDM clubs in Vegas. At the same time, compare and contrast: cover for Marquee, the club in question, is $30. Stupid high, but it's Vegas. Last time I saw a show in Vegas it was Celine Dion because friends had a spare ticket. Celine Dion at Caesar's? $450. So your choices are simple: $30 plus lots of $15 drinks to interact and mingle and get some of that "what happens in Vegas" you've heard so much about, or $450 to sit in a chair and listen to "My Heart Will Go On" while Cirque du Soleil spins on their trapezes in front of what was the world's largest TV in 2004. Musical acts have, in many ways, gone the same way as movies. People are going out to see fewer bands, so the bands charge more. The bands charge more, so the audience expects more. So the band throws more intellabeams on stage which costs more. I remember an industry mag, which is usually all about overproduction, lamented the fact that Britney Spears went on tour with 900 moving heads in 2005. They pointed out that had she left half of them at home, nobody would have noticed... but with 900 moving heads, you have... 900 moving heads. Which you need to charge for. Vegas, meanwhile, is now and has always been a destination. For a while there it was cheap because nobody was coming but boy howdy. They fixed that problem. So if you want to do something other than sit in your hotel and watch pay-per-view you're going to pay through the nose for it. I mean, the damn tramway is now like $6, just to save you the walk from the Bellagio to the Venetian. Wanna go see Penn & Teller? Right now? At the Rio, truly a casino on its last gasps? $115 before Ticketbastard throws on their fun charges. And yeah, that can be discounted but so can cover charges. And really - let's pretend you're under 40 and in Vegas. What is there to see? You gonna go watch Boys II Men? Fer real? I used to stay at the Flamingo when I went to trade shows because it was about as cheap as you could get on the strip. I now stay in Buffalo Bill's in Primm for $30 a night and park at Caesar's 'cuz they don't check but I digress. Anyway, Danny Gans, as mentioned in the video, held court at the Flamingo. Used to see his signs all the time. And I'm barely under 40, and I know a bit more entertainment history than most, and I was still looking at the sign, forehead scrunched, saying aloud, "Who the fuck is Danny Gans?" So Rolling Stone can opine that Anthony Bourdain is bagging on EDM fans. Really, though, he's bagging on the fact that Vegas priced itself out of the performance ecosystem.
I mean, it's not that he's not wrooooong... Living in Boulder, you get to really dig deep into the EDM scene, and it really does reek of pretentious douche-baggery. Maybe it's because I hate Boulder already, or the two groups cross over easily, but it really is the crowd for rich White guys and girls being there more for the molly than the music. I've gotten to know a rave girl very well these past couple months. She's a flurry of weird-colored ripped up clothing, and glowing hola-hoops. Perfectly nice girl, but I have no idea what the fuck these people are doing. Which whatever, do what you want, but I don't have to like it. Edit: or care
How dare you say that to me? Haha. Kidding. I'm not sure which parts of my comment sound bitter, but I'll try to answer your question. I went to school in Boulder because I wanted in-state tuition. DU was too expensive, and CSU isn't as good a school as either of the other two. Boulder is a great school. It has a solid law-program, a pretty good medical program, and...I mean it has professors and buildings, which is what I'm looking for when I'm going to a school. What I'm saying is it didn't really matter to me where I go, as long as I learn, because this is an undergraduate degree. What I underestimated was how annoying Boulder's community would be. I thought my brother was exaggerating when he talked about how much he disliked the people here, until I spent time here. Never have I experienced a greater dosage of culture clash than when I went to Boulder. I knew the rate of minorities would be low, but not nearly as low as it is, for one. It really is disheartening to be the only person of color in an 8 [10(30?)] mile radius, especially having lived in an area that was multi-cultured. I didn't realize that coming to school here would mean getting tailed by police-cars when walking home in the middle of the night, or people burning holes into me when I answer a question, or being asked if I got into the school because of my skin-color, and not my academic merit. I have to work twice as hard for an equal amount of respect as people who don't really deserve it. Beyond that, I get to be either the token black friend, or the black guy trying to be white. Even my own roommate try to pin me with a label. Another point: I went to school in Saudi Arabia for a semester, a long time ago. It was a private school. I couldn't relate to those kids because I was literally sitting in Spanish class with the King of Saudi Arabia's sons (one, by the way, was a huge douchecanoe, the other was very nice). The kids that went to school there were on a level of wealth that I couldn't even comprehend, going on trips to Japan over the weekend. But at least I knew where I stood when it came to them. With the students in Boulder, I'm in a weird twilight zone, dodging longboards and Californians. Weed, you guys, is super expensive! I didn't know this until I came here. The thing, to me, about Boulder, is that it claims to be a Democratic, Liberal type of town. But it swings so far to the left in its extremities, that it whips right back around to being conservative. It claims liberalism, but just because you helped make weed illegal, doesn't mean that you're liberal. It's still a town dealing with racism, sexism, classism... Long and short of it is that it's very hard to relate to the town. Which is fine, I'm here to get schooled, (yo), but I don't have to particularly like it, haha. I've made friends and whatnot, but there are two things about that: it's like saying that you can catch Shiny Pokemon. Yeah, they're there, but there's a 1 in 4,096 chance in catching a Shiny. And an overbearing culture that you can't relate to can negate the effects of a Shiny pokemon. I should probably stop talking before this gets any longer!
White boi here. Lookin' to make my way to the CU Boulder graduate physics program for fall of 2015. I already know a few people in town thanks to my job (we have a branch there), and they are, of course, all white. I have some family in the area too. They're white. Hadn't really given much thought to Boulder's racial blandness, but now I'm feeling guilty at the prospect of contributing. I'm currently living in a fairly diverse area (Hispanic majority), but most of my friends are Caucasian... a product of mutual interests? I don't actively discriminate, to the best of my knowledge, but America's identity as a cultural "melting pot" is an ongoing process, far from complete. Anyway, I'll look you up if I land at CU, and I'll make sure to stay out of your namaste space. Hahah! P.S. you say that DU is too expensive (tuition, I guess), but from what I understand, the cost of living in Boulder isn't exactly pennies.
Mainstream anything is likely to not be awesome. We understand this already.
I would say its a genre. There is a lot of electronica that exists in the world and not all of it sounds the same. EDM is the music you'd think would be played in a typical rave setting. Think big, sweepy synth lines and an automated, unswung rhythm. But then there's also electronica that doesn't exist solely to be danced to. I'd pay to see someone attempt to dance to Aphex Twin or Squarepusher. Also, turntablism (good example would be Kid Koala or Cut Chemist) and sample music (DJ Shadow, Avalanches) are dancy electronic music, but certainly not EDM. Electronica is the over-arching term and EDM exists under it along with a whole bunch of other music.
EDM DJ's like to come in to the bar I work at and try to arrange a Drum and Bass night or what not. It's absolutely the wrong place for this kind of thing. They get real offended when they are told this won't work out. They are super lame. Sometimes their little EDM posse gets prickly about it.
I didn't know there weren't any female EDM fans.
What. Where did all this anger come from? The guy's a chef, not a performer getting forced out by the new acts."Come ye lords and princelings of douchedom," he said. "Hear my clarion call. Anointeth thyself with gel and heavenly body spray. Maketh the sign of the devil horns with thine hands. Let there be high fiving and the hugging of many bros, for this is the kingdom and the power."
His show is and has been for some time now, even when it was "No Reservations" been as much about culture as it is food. I think he's poking fun at the scene and not the art that inspired it. Much like I used to make fun of the scene at Greatful Dead shows while never knocking the music. I think Bourdain is great, he's the kind of cynic I enjoy.