This month has stirred up a great amount of controversies for the EDM scene, with a lot of prominent names stepping up and putting a piece of their mind out on social media. One such episode that caught gasps everywhere was of the American Techno & Underground House stalwart Seth Troxler, who candidly dressed down all things EDM and the current state of dance music in his article published on Thump UK. This week Laidback Luke, the reputed DJ whose open-minded attitude is admired by many, replied to Troxler’s criticizm of EDM, point by point with constructive arguments definitely worth pondering over.
Luke addressed Troxler’s comments on EDM being less about the music and more about the money now (an ongoing debate in recent times), by stating how EDM is a culture that has been around for ages- “EDM crowd is a young crowd; EDM is their introduction to the festivals, they fully believe and try and live the whole PLUR thing. To not call it a culture is a very narrow-minded view.”
Apart from defending the large-scale music festivals and brushing off the worn out “underground VS mainstream” dispute, Luke also sticks up for his old pal Steve Aoki, who was termed as an “overpaid, untalented, cake-throwing cunt” by Troxler. On this, Luke had to say, “He works his ass off to be able to do this. He came from money and really doesn’t need to do this for the money. He was already throwing cakes before he got into DJing. Steve is a performer, he comes from performing in punk bands so the stage is what he knows!”. He also defended the recently risen to stardom DJ Avicii, clearing up that his success was simply earned by his hard work.
Luke concluded the article by mentioning how he actually “loves” Seth and that they might have “more in common” than they’d like to admit. At this time when the whole industry can be seen cannibalizing itself, with distinct acts seeming to be out to get one another, it’s refreshing to find a fan-favourite DJ advocating the pretty side of EDM. It’s time we move on from this preposterous war of underground & mainstream and encourage the progress of the culture rather than the industry.
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