Mad Decent Block Party – August 31st – Club Zouk (Outside) – Dallas
As the evolution of Electronic Dance Music & it’s culture expands, today I learned a very valuable lesson.
Let’s unpack things a bit first:
Today was the Mad Decent Block Party – the zenith of what said culture has become – MDBP is to dance music proper as the Vans Warped Tour is to hardcore and punk: a roving festival that offers a facile imitation of the real thing, just for younger people.
That’s not a criticism of MDBP at all—it’s a fun time for anyone, and as good an entry point as any for young people to jump into the complex universe of dance music.
While underground dance parties once drew a comparatively tight-knit, likeminded group, today’s sprawling electronic dance music scene is centered around mega-raves hosted by giant corporations.
Later tonight I’ll be playing the after-party but as part of the gig I was hired to promote one of the sponsors of the tour – Arnette Eye Wear – an high-end brand of sunglasses.
Their booth was setup right in front of the entrance so we were the first thing the attendees saw when they walked into the party proper.
Fans decked out in 2014’s version of rave gear: ironic graphic t-shirts, snapback hats, headbands, and sneakers for the guys and the tiniest of shorts and not much else for the girls.
It’s as insane (& amazing) as it looks – It’s so crazy too as when my girlfriend & I go out, of course she wants to looks good and if the weather is right and the scene calls for its she likes to show off her body too. She works hard to look good so why not right? The funny thing is we go to alot of Rawk & Metal shows and you wouldn’t believe the (disaproving) looks she gets. We thought a Metal show would be the perfect place to feel liberated. Maybe its geography but who knew the Metal community was so conservative? No wonder EDM is taking over and making converts of everyone and filling stadiums and shows are out-selling everything else, who doesn’t want to go to a magical land that attracts the hottest girls, with the most beautiful bodies that are eager to show off practically every inch of it?Think about it, if you were in your late teens aren’t the pictures below everything you’ve dreamed of and knew could never possibly be real?
Well now it is –
Madison, a super cool photographer from Brooklyn and he currently lives in my old neighborhood there would be shooting the show and interviewing the artists.
Karima and I would be manning the booth, basically just taking photos of & with the fans, running contests, & just having a good time with it.
We would switch off and take the occasional break and I would go check out some of the music from the Main Stage –
Big Gigantic
Bro Safari
Speaking of appropriatation, Mad Decent has taken Hip-Hop and rendered it devoid of context and presenting it as exotic and novel to those who don’t know any better.
Dude, their called Bro Safari –
Flosstradamus
A great pair of talented guys from Chicago that I met a few years ago at SXSW
Jack U
The current face of EDM culture is a guy named Sonny Moore who plays under the (ridiculous) stage name Skrillex – he has brought a sub genre called Dubstep that consists of little more than Transformer fart noises into the mainstream. If you haven’t heard or seen him, you surely have seen a million people (mostly girls oddly) biting his (even more ridiclous) look, that will no doubt be the go-to costume this Halloween for tweens that want to go as something “cool”.
He was joined by Diplo, label boss of Mad Decent, whose reputation as a talented producer/hipster lothario fuelled by an endless supply of detached irony – the form a duo called Jack U.
Dillion Francis
The contest we were running was to bring two pairs of fans onstage with Dillion Francis during his headlining set. This brought out an unexpected competitive nature among this group of now not-so-sober crowd. One girl spent most of the evening begging me to pick her and sending her friend over to make her case. It was odd (& disturbing) that they all just assumed the criteria for winning was based on a shallow hierarchy and somehow by not winning was a direct insult.
When I made it clear that Karima was the one doing the choosing, they backed off a bit but feeling even more discouraged.
Karima, who was young & cool, however enjoying her status on the tour & indulging the power she was weilding, did her best to pick two groups that were the most sober. She got it half right haha
Internet success such as Mad Decent’s has created a patently false metric by which success is measured: that of social reach. Mad Decent Block Party is when you take these ideas, about representation, appropriation, cultivating your own fanbase in a vacuum—ideas that live solely on the internet—and thrust them back into real life. You end up with a shitshow that resembles something like a dance party,
As night fell, the fans seemed more stoned and (somehow) even more naked as I made my was across the street to the after-party.
The After -Party – Club Zouk – Dallas, TX
I was pretty exhausted too after being outside in the heat all-day but still excited about getting the chance to play, A peek below spells out my motivation.
A crazy end to a long, hot crazy day full of bare ass as far as the eye could see. I was so ready to dismiss this crowd as a bunch of tweaked-out, underdressed hedonists, but instead found a very chill community of body-positive, sex-positive, liberated females that know how to have a good time.
Cheers to Arnette & Zouk for having me.
Photos –
Roy Turner
Jason Janik
Dustin Hollywood
