Last night was the 40th anniversary of the American Music Awards hosted at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. An interesting change this year, aside from Jenny McCarthy kissing Justin Bieber or Chris Brown painted half silver was that the AMAs had a new featured category: Favorite Electronic Dance Music Artist.
There were only three nominees for the category: Skrillex, Calvin Harris, and the winner of the award French DJ/producer David Guetta. Although this category did go towards a more pop/mainstream DJ, this is a big step for EDM in the US because electronic music is being recognized as an important part of music culture in today’s society. I’m sure it was an easy transition for people to vote for Guetta since he has huge hits with stars such as Akon, Flo Rida, and Nicki Minaj. As the years move along, we can hope to see more defined genres evolve into categories such as: Best Progressive, Trance, House, and many others.