The Final Drop

As the semester has come to a close I am saddened by the thought of not being able to share my thoughts on what is trending in the EDM world right now. To recap there are a lot of great festivals that are happening this summer including EDC, Lollapalooza, North Coast, SummerFest, Spring Awakening and so much more. If you are not engaged or in tune with the EDM culture I highly suggest checking out of the listed festivals. I feel like the majority of the time I have spent on this blog, I only talked about the news surrounding EDM but never really shared my personal favorite artists or songs. I have been listening to EDM/Dubstep/Techno/Trance/House music since I was in the 8th grade. That is just shy of 10 years of listening to a specific genre of music. I can say that I may have varied tastes from some people but I claim to be a veteran in this music field.

My list (No Particular Order)

1.Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites-Skrillex
2.Harder,Better,Faster,Stroner-Daft Punk
3. Leave Me-Taska Black
4. Fire-Louis The Child
5. Don't You worry Child- Swedish House Mafia
6. Get Free- MajorLazer
7.Raise Your Weapon- Deadmau5
8.To U-Jack Ü
9. Tell Me- Bauuer
10. Rough Neck Bass- Skrillex

These are just a few of my favorite songs that I believe give me the most amount of energy when I listen to them. These songs are not the best songs in the genre simply some of the more notable ones that I have heard in the past 9ish years. This is my parting list for those who are interested in listening to some of my favorite songs. It has been a lot of fun making these posts and I hope to continue making them in the future.

Electric Daisy Carnival

Electric Daisy Carnival. No don't think too literally here, this is not a carnival of lit up flowers, it is one of the biggest EDM festivals around. EDC is a huge EDM music festival that is put on by Insomnia, an independent entertainment group. The festival this year is over the weekend of June 16,17, and 18. It among most festivals is a three-day festival full of thrills and excitement. The feature that stands out the most is that they make the festival resemble a carnival with different amusement rides and vendors. They bring two different types of entertainment together to create the perfect festival experience. The festival takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is already the party capital of the world and draws in much more people from across the nation and the globe. There are so many lights that you could see the festival from space, literally.

The most unique and fortunate part of this festival being in Las Vegas is EDC week. They have a whole week dedicated to the festival. Each big club in the strip will feature an artist and play a show in a club each night that week. The festival strategically plays in Las Vegas with the intent of making more shows available and profiting off that. All that aside, EDC has been a pioneer in the EDM festival field and has continued to create more spectacles throughout the years. The culture welcomes an interesting amount of characters and ravers to the festival. It is a festival that is celebrated by many different kinds of people and is an expert in pertaining to the hardcore EDM fans. It has so many other features including a chapel where people can have EDM themed weddings. Yes, real weddings have happened at EDC and those people are legally married. It is easy to see why this Festival is such a destination because it is so unique compared to any other festival.

Gorrilaz keeping us on our toes. New app and merch

Yes, this is another post derailing a bit off the EDM track to talk about one of my favorite infamous bands, Gorillaz. With the huge amount of buzz, they are getting plus the amount of listens their 4 newly released singles from the album are getting, Gorillaz have seen an opportunity to come back to music in a big way. The group after releasing that they will debut their album this month has been planning to come back to mainstream music in a big way. To relate the band back to EDM they di have some songs that incorporate electronic music. Since Gorillaz is known for their music mashing it is no surprise that they will release songs with an EDM sound. The group has just launched an app which gives the viewer a full in depth tour of the animated band's new home, the spirit house. The spirit house is a psychedelic fun ride full of haunted beings, hence the name 'spirit house.' The app allows you to interact with each of the band members and take a look at their new digs.

Along with the new house, the band has been working on making new fan merchandising and even creating a Gorillaz clothing line (my inner fan is screaming). They wanted their comeback to music to be more than just a listening experience but a full out campaign. The band is looking to reconnect with all of their loyal fans (me again) and also looking to expand their fan base even further. Most people have heard their song 'feel good inc' and are familiar with at least some aspects of their work, however, this new app and whatever else they have planned can help their popularity. There is no doubt that fans are raving about Gorillaz and how much they are ready to give back to their fans. As 5-time platinum winners they have a high bar to beat but with the releasing of their new singles, it is easy to see how they will be on top again. 'Humanz' is due to release on April 28th and I could not be happier as a fan to experience the music and the culture that is Gorillaz!!!

GOSU

GOSU is a new bubble tea shop that has taken its love for EDM to new heights. The tea shop is located in San Fransico and has been getting a lot off buzz right out of the gate. There is a beautiful aesthetic to the shop with a sleek interior and T.V.s everywhere playing EDM music videos on repeat. It's a place where you can get a "treat with a beat" as I like to think of it. The tea shop opened back in December of 2016 and has been doing so well ever since their launch. Bubble tea for those that don't know is a type of fruity tea with tapioca balls inside that squish when you bite them. The teas have a mild taste and are super refreshing on a hot California day.  The Owner Tran said that being Asian, "it was hard to tell my parents that I don't want to go to school anymore, but after seeing how successful he had become they believed he'd made the right move.

Some of the best parts of the tea shop that I read about include the names of the teas and the wall of PLUR. Tran has named some of the teas after popular EDM songs that make the give the customers a great experience and offer them a more interactive sexperience. Another great thing that Tran does is incorporate the PLUR wall which he allows people to hang "candy" or rave bracelets. I have made a post about PLUR and its meaning but as a reminder, the acronym stands for Peace, Unity, Love, and Respect. I believe Tran receives all of those things from his customers on a daily basis. What is cool is that Trans keeps his tea shop modest during the day, but at night amps is up into a bubble tea night club. I was fascinated to see how Tran was able to take two things he loved so much and make them into a business. It is truly inspirational and I would love to visit this place one day.

The Ultra Experience

For those EDM heads out there like me, this past weekend was the kickoff to festival season! The Ultra festival is one of the biggest EDM festivals out there and is where most DJs feel the pressure of putting on the perfect set. Ultra music festival tours all around the world but mostly to Asian and latin American countries. Ultra music festival only has one U.S. location and it is located in Miami. The one marketing strategy that works well for Ultra is that they hold their music festival in march which is usually during spring break for most college kids. Ultra is a huge deal for the DJ community because it is a great place for up and coming DJs to get their name out and a huge experience for them.

The headliner acts included big names like GALATIS, Tiesto, DJ Snake and others that pumped out amazing setlists for the fans. The biggest thing for me was the fact that they were live streaming the festival all of the days of Ultra so people around the world could join in on the action. I thought this was relevant to bring up in my blog because Ultra executed their live stream perfectly. They incorporated their hashtag #Ultra2017 were they would post Tweets and interact on stream. It is amazing that we know have the ability to see events live streamed over the internet and feel like we are apart of the experience. My roommate and I spent hours watching our favourite DJ acts on a live stream and couldn't believe the quality of the sound and the visuals. For a company that has only been doing music festivals for a short time, they have mastered the art of social media.

LOLLAPALOOZER?

Well, it is that time of year again, and for those who don't know, it is a festival season. The beginning of summer through the end of August there will be dozens of festivals all over the nation hosting amazing talent. Chicago being one of the major cities that holds a festival of such magnitude has already started to gear up for the many eager preteens and adults looking to listen to some amazing artists. Lollapalooza is notorious for having amazing line ups and draws in a crowd that will make the city of Chicago look small. The concern for this years "main event" is the lineup. A good number of people are concerned that there are too many mainstream acts that are going to be played and not a lot of underground music. The other big thing is that the lineup has more mainstream rap and rock artists than any EDM. This is something that has made a lot of people skeptical about going to Lolla this year as it has been a great place for up and coming EDM artists to get their shot at glory. This year line up has gone back to the traditional rock/rap vibe that the festival started out as 25 years ago. The only problem with this is that the EDM fans will not have as many peopel that they will like to see so it could hurt sales on Lollas end.

The main reason this is a concern is because the music of this generation revolves around EDM. Most mainstream songs have some sort of EDM undertone and or beat which makes it unique. Another festival that happens early in June called spring awakening is held in Chicago and has all EDM music. My guess is as good as yours on where the majority of EDM fans are going to be spending their money ( it's a joke clearly Spring Awakening).

Throwing Shade

The EDM world is shaken as ZHU publicly calls out Chainsmokers, Kygo, Marshmello, Steve Aoki, and David Guetta in his new promo video for Nightcrawlers. Nightcrawlers is allegedly ZHU's new ep that will be dropping soon. This is a cocky move from the young DJ trying to show up some of the biggest names in DJing right now. Critics are still trying to find out if these were personal attacks on the from ZHU or if he is really sure that his music will take over the scene. Either way, it is a risky move to throw "shade" at some of the biggest names of Djing and the top grossing DJs of today. ZHU feels as an article by run the trap states "he is feeling like a goth gangster." ZHU's dark video that he realized about these DJ's seems less than desirable to many people in the Djing world. Most of the DJs that ZHU called out are more successful than ZHU may ever be. 

The video is a dark shoot with many people dressed in ZHU merch carrying a coffin to a burial site. The video goes on for a couple seconds till you see the names of these artists painted and crossed out on the coffin. This is alluding to the fact that ZHU will be "burying" these artists in the charts and claiming his title as the best EDM DJ. As an outside who follows the community, I believe that this is just a ploy for ZHU to get attention and hopefully become a respected DJ in the process. He has a long way to go if he believes that he will be on the top of the charts but hopefully, with his new ep he proves all of the EDM community wrong and doesn't have bad blood with the other Dj's involved. Either way, we hope for the best for this DJ but if things go wrong we can't say we didn't see it coming.