Who’s to blame?

So the other day my good friend Kieran RöuteÖne Wilson sent me over this image on whatsapp.

I started to get annoyed by the forever growing amount of ‘Celebrity DJs’. These celebrity [Gimic] DJs take a tonne of gigs away from the hard working [legit] DJs in various genres and scenes. It got me thinking who is to blame?

Its been happening for a long time now. We’ve had the likes of Paris Hilton, Danny Dyer, Elijah Wood, Steve Davis, Pauly D and a massive amount of reality TV stars stepping behind the decks, the list really does go on and on. To be fair we know what these celebrities are about, and they will jump ship to any new trend, to look ‘Cool’ and ‘Trendy’ to stay in the spotlight and stay “Relevant” [Plus the money they must be milking out of it, must be insane]. The fact DJing has become so gimmicky, along with the whole EDM thing becoming so commercially popular of recent, has seen a rise in these celebrities picking up a controller, pressing the sync button and making event appearances as a ‘DJ’ selling expensive tickets and putting on below average parties that are packed out, to get a quick and easy buck. So what gives? Who’s to blame? Is it a part of the growing underground DJ and dance music problem?

Is it the Venues?

At the top, the Venues are allowing this to happen, but who can blame them? The clubbing scene is in a really sorry state in the UK at the moment, the pound is at its lowest, people are skint, and can’t afford to go out every weekend. The venues need to pull punters in and unfortunately the reality TV watching, snapchat taking, want something to post about on social media folk are the biggest target audience. People aren’t really going for the music anymore [well 90% of people anyway]. The venues sole purpose is to make money and stay afloat, they don’t want to take risks on up and coming nights and music genres, they want results and numbers straight off the bat. So I for one can’t blame them for putting on standard gimmick, average music type of nights. Lets move on.

Is it the Promoters?

Ok, this is where it can get a bit opinionated. Promoters can get a lot of stick as a whole. Making DJs sell tickets in exchange for warming up at their event calling it “EXPOSURE!!!!” [Dick move in my eyes]. But again this is their way of making money, like the venues, they don’t give one toot about what the music genre is, who is playing, where the events being held. A lot of promoters just want large ticket sales and minimum expenditure. A large profit basically. Again, can we really blame them? They have seen a gap in the market and exploited it to make a living.

Is it US?

The Producers, DJs, Club goer, underground music lover, friends and family of up and coming nights, events, DJs. This is Us! It is our fault this has happened! We are to blame and let me tell you why. The reason venues will not take a risk on up and coming [good] nights is purely because they wont fill a place out, especially to start with. We [US] need to put the effort in if we want this to change. The more up and coming events we go to, the more chance they have of growth, and [I would guess] most venues would love to have a variety of music at their venue and not the same reality TV star playing the same top 10 tracks off of Beatport. But they will only take that risk if the upcoming promoters can pull in a crowd. We should be in this together, supporting each other and trying to bring the scene back to its heights. The amount of support Fabric has had is phenomenal, lets use that as a stepping stone to support each other and grow above this, and stop blaming the Venues and Promoters for these rubbish nights.

The movement is ours to make!