Dance music certainly has been getting the short end of the straw recently. After decades of clawing our way out of the underground, fighting angered politicians and scared suburbanites, this genre of music has found its way back to the front of the pack. There has not been this level of mainstream clout behind any incantation of dance music since the height of disco. So considering all of this, how is that we keep getting stuck with interviews by the mainstream press that are lackluster and demonizing?
By now many of you are familiar with the infamous Major Lazer interview with former MTV VJ Kennedy. A perfect case of secondhand awkwardness, she disrespects the trio from start to finish. For all intents and purposes, lets chalk that up as a one-off.
Now lets fast forward a week. Vibe Magazine gave Daft Punk alongside “Get Lucky” and “Lose Yourself to Dance” singer Pharrell Williams the honor of appearing on their 20th anniversary collector’s issue. As part of the cover shoot, they sat down with the magazine and discussed Random Access Memories, Yeezus, and even “Drop It Like It’s Hot” by Snoop Dogg.
While the interview itself is not really a problem- it is an entertaining read- there a couple things that have us frustrated.
For starters, the opening text of the interview is both poor grammar and disrespectful. Daft Punk is famous for their secretive disposition, their whole allure is their hidden nature. So when the time comes to actually speak with the poster children of dance music, might it be wise to take care with the writing? This is especially so if this is the cover story, and twice so when it is for the commemorative 20th year issue. Starting a sentence with “and” is not entirely wrong, but if this the headline for the interview, might a better word be selected? Perhaps complaining about conjunctions is a tad nit-picky, but forgetting a period (after “lucky streak”) is ridiculous.
Grammar aside, we cannot forget the countless number of years we have been trying to distance the dogma of “dance music equals drugs”. The major media outlets have been painting a negative image of drug use in our community – drugs which are equally as prevalent in every other genre of music – as accepted fact. Is it truly necessary to continue to allude to such things? This leads to the most annoying part of all.
You have to be joking.
We are not trying to bash Vibe itself, or the writer. If anything, we applaud them for being one of the rare few who gets to speak with Daft Punk. Perhaps in the future though, show our genre of music the respect it has been desperately trying to earn over the years. We have certainly come a long way, but there is an equally distant road ahead. A road that we cannot completely traverse until the day our media decides to stop reminding us of the drugs they inescapably link to dance music.
To see the whole interview, check it out here.
It will never lose that stigma…the mainstream dance scene isn’t about drugs…but the 90s era of Psytrance and House and the ecstasy that came along with it started something that’s probably going to last…
They just never get people that truly understand or care about dance music. I feel like that is the main issue with all these interviewers that we have seen lately. Major Lazer, the whole Avicii article, and this.
Your discusiing they’re grammar? Really? And I thought you guys liked providing us plebes with information.
Your discusiing they’re grammar? Really? And I thought you guys liked providing us plebes with information.
So… you’re pissed about grammar and the fact that they compared dance music to a drug? The interview said nothing about drugs being in the EDM scene, just that its as addictive as a drug. You guys are the ones making the inference.
David this writer has made it clear that his articles express his own opinion, not an entire groups. I get his frustration. They didn’t need to say stuff about drugs in the scene for us to make the connection that they are trying to put between drug use and the EDM scene. His inference is quite spot on if you ask me. It wasn’t a professional move of Vibe’s part to let the article get printed as it is for sake of professionalism. They are only furthering the stereotype of ravers and show goers (yes there is a difference).
What’s up with Thomas’s helmet?