Artists seem to be going green at alarming rates recently. You know it, I know it, your grandma knows it, and now it’s time to address it. Over the past few years, artists have been recycling their sets on multiple occasions and this has caused a profound lack of creativity in the live sets we have come to love so much. What used to be a celebration of art and originality has now been reduced to a pre-packaged live mixtape being played over a professional grade sound system. Of course there are exceptions, but how did it get to this point? Who are some of the perpetrators? Why are they doing it? Who’s to blame? And more importantly, how can we get artists back to their creative roots? These are all questions which need to be answered if we want to make things right.
The point of this article is not to single out any one particular artist, but more to examine the problem as a whole. In order to do this however, we will need to lay out some examples of sets in question which exemplify the problem of recycling today. I compared the sets of five popular electronic artists who played at both Ultra and Coachella this year, and this is what I found. The following is 100% fact without the use of any bias or slant.
Who:
- Flosstradamus – Of 43 tracks played at their Coachella set, 32 of them were played two weeks earlier in their Ultra set. 74.4% of their Coachella set was recycled from Ultra, including 26 of their first 28 tracks.
- Alesso – Of the 25 tracks played in his Ultra set, 18 of them were played at Coachella. Leaving a 72% overlap in tracks played
- Dillon Francis – Of 33 tracks played at Coachella, 18 of them were played two weeks earlier at his Ultra set. Meaning 54.5% of Francis’ set was recycled from Ultra two weeks earlier.
- GTA – Of the 39 tracks played at Coachella, 21 of them were played two weeks earlier at Ultra. 53.8% of GTA’s Coachella set was recycled from their Ultra set.
- Martin Garrix – Of the 32 tracks played during his time at Coachella, 15 of them were played at his Ultra set. This leaves a 46.8% overlap.
Why:
In life, if you allow someone to take the easy way out while still allowing them the same reward as if they went about it the “right” way, more often than not that person will take the easy way out. I view this as no different in the world of DJ’ing. We have allowed DJ’s to take the easy way out. We have allowed artists to play over 50% of the same set at two major music festivals. We have been the ones responding in frenzy to “Boy Oh Boy” when it’s dropped for the 100th time that night. And for that, I place the blame solely on us, the consumers. No longer are the days of DJ’s playing to the vibe of the crowd for a particular night, we have shown we don’t care about that. Artists have been giving us exactly what we have been begging for all along; the same regurgitated songs over and over until we tell them otherwise. Well, now is the time to let our crave for the art be known. As consumers it is our job to be educated and help further the scene. It’s with our discerning judgement that we can get out of the creative rut we find our scene in today.
“Why is recycling a set a big deal?”
A common question encountered is centered around the fact that “traditional” bands will play similar sets every night, with little to no complaint being heard. So why the big deal about DJ’s doing the same? In my mind, the difference lies in the very heart of what separates the two. In a band you are very restricted to the songs which can be played at any moment in time. For instance if you don’t have a phenomenal guitarist, or no guitarist at all, your band won’t be busting out the intro solo to “All Along The Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix anytime soon. If your band doesn’t have a breathtakingly talented vocalist, you won’t be belting out “Dream On” by Aerosmith to the audience that night. A Disc Jockey on the other hand has the unique ability to play anything in the world. A DJ in the most literal sense imaginable can play any song ever made to suit the unique moment of the night you find yourself in. Picking that one song out of the sea of infinity is what separates the men from the boys. To find the one track that resonates so deeply with your audience is why we all came to love this wonderful scene in the first place. To continuously play a large amount of the same tracks set to set is inexcusable in my mind. It is laziness personified.
How:
“How can we fix this?”
As consumers, we are the ones who purchase the tickets. We are the reason the artist is playing. With every dollar we spend on a ticket we are voting “yes” that we agree with everything the artist in question brings to the table. With all due respect to artists out there pushing boundaries night in and night out (RJD2, A-Trak, Bassnectar, Craze, Pretty Lights etc.), we need to be more discerning with our dollar. It’s with our money that we tell the artist he/she is exactly who we want to see that night. They have no reason to believe that we are craving anything different if their bottom line remains the same. Don’t be shy, go see the lesser-known artist busting their butt instead of the celebrity DJ throwing in a lay-up for the night. It will be surprising just how quickly we can see results when we make it clear what direction we want the scene to go.
On a message I touched on earlier, let’s challenge ourselves to stop responding to the same track over and over again. Let’s cry out for originality over repetitiveness. Let’s see just how many songs we can rush back home to ID because we never heard them before. Imagine a scene where the crowd fails to respond to “Tsunami” and simply shows that it’s time to throw an unexpected curveball for once. The ensuing spectacle would be so profound and powerful, it would be impossible to ignore. We hold that power. We have the ability to make the change. The task may be an inconvenient one, but it’s not too late to bring electronic music back to the foundation in which it came. With effort and education on our part, we can see widespread change in the scene we call our favorite.
Recycling sets today is an inconvenient truth we need to tackle head on. With even the least bit of effort on our part we can see widespread change in the originality, or lack-thereof, in the ever expanding scene of electronic music. I urge us all to do our homework and put in just as much effort as we want to be shown in return. The first step in the process is being aware of the problem, and in the age of information we have no excuse. Let’s take this moment to realize the problem, diagnose it, and move forward with an idea of what we all want our future scene to look like. Who knows? It might just turn out for the better.
As I stated earlier, this was in no way meant to spotlight or single out any one particular artist or artists. That being said, if they didn’t want to run the risk of being singled out, they probably wouldn’t have made the conscious decision to recycle 3/4 of a set on the largest stage in electronic music.
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Néanmoins, il est toujours en contact avec Zhao Qing Li Xinmin. 28 mars de cette année, Zhao Qing à l’unité a pris quelques jours de congé pour Xinjin.
Une certaine distance de l’ordinateur de sorte qu’il ne veut pas écouter de la musique, ils n’ont pas à revenir à être ajusté à la chanson suivante, je me sens bien, je pense que le temps a juste Walkman quand je portais un casque chaque jour. Musique pour tous les goûts à-dire les deux sont très magique de lui, donc il est impossible de le fils musicale excusable..
Sociétés d’investissement ou sociétés de gestion d’actifs, de réglementer agence de financement du développement, à créer un environnement juridique favorable 13. Accélérer la formation et Chongqing financer la construction de 14 personnel.