EDM is a dirty acronym that covers everything that is considered bad about where dance music and DJing are right now, in particular the phenomenon of the superstar DJ. And when news breaks of Will Ferrell making an EDM film, and SNL in the US decides to parody superstar DJs, you know things are bad. Or should that be good? Read on.
In this skit, SNL works its magic to portray “Davvincii” (a brilliant portmanteau that’s not hard to work out) as… well you should watch so as not to spoil the surprise. But essentially the crowd is lost in hero worship, and Davvincii takes the piss to keep the disciples waiting with build after build after build until…
Now it’s incredibly easy to get dragged into yet more dissections of what’s bad about how the DJ has become a rock star with all the trappings and excesses of such a lifestyle. Indeed, @DJsComplaining take delight in highlighting DJs who used social media to complain about the most trifling of travel-based issues when they should be eternally grateful for what they have instead of chucking Twitter tantrums. But that’s been done to death and won’t change a damned thing.
Hate or Jealousy?
Instead, I’d like for you to ponder a single point that I keep coming back to — while many actively engage in hating on superstar DJs, don’t you secretly wish that you were headlining huge events, put up in penthouses, tripping over piles of money, drugs, and freebies, with the only thing you had to worry about was playing music? If your DJ career suddenly appeared to be on the stereotypical EDM DJ trajectory, would you honestly put the brakes on, “keep it real”, and play to much smaller crowds for a more intimate vibe? I cannot help but think that a lot of the time, hating really means jealousy, and people would swap a regular small club gig for the lifestyle of the superstar DJ.
To answer this question, it’ll take a lot of introspective soul searching and a huge amount of honesty. Are you up for it?