Thursday, May 30, 2013

Armin Van Buuren

Armin Van Buuren has been voted as the number one DJ in the world by many magazines and voter polls. He came so UCSD to perform on May 7, and surprisingly tickets did not sell out. He toured in LA, San Diego, and San Francisco, but San Diego was the only city that didn't sell out tickets for him. This is really interesting to me because it plays into the culture of San Diego's EDM music preference. Armin Van Buuren is defined as a trans DJ. He is described on his website as "The flag-bearer of the trance movement, one of the biggest scenes in EDM worldwide" http://www.arminvanbuuren.com/biography/
Based on my previous posts there is some sort of a discrepancy between people who love trans vs. people who love dubstep. It's interesting because I feel that in San Diego, the music is catered toward harder EDM. LED sponsors DJs that play music with harder electro sounds over DJs that play lighter more uplifting sounds. Except for this recent LED event, almost all the previous ones have sold out.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

UCSD Sun God Festival

This past Friday was the UCSD Sun God Festival. The big headliner for the EDM family was Porter Robinson. At the dance stage, this was the set list:

3:00-4:30 Indo http://sungodfestival.ucsd.edu/lineup/indo
4:35-5:35 Vikingquest http://sungodfestival.ucsd.edu/lineup/vikingquest
5:40-7:10 RAC http://sungodfestival.ucsd.edu/lineup/rac
7:15-9:15 Adrian Lux http://sungodfestival.ucsd.edu/lineup/adrian-lux
9:25-10:55 Porter Robingson http://sungodfestival.ucsd.edu/lineup/porter-robinson
11:00-12:00 DJ Geo-D http://sungodfestival.ucsd.edu/lineup/dj-geo-d

Indo is described on the Sun God website as having rock as well as classical music influences. He also learned how to play guitar. This is interesting to me because a lot of my friends that listen to EDM have previous training in classical music and/or enjoy it. One of my friends that attended EDM music events with me, told me that he used to only listen to classical music. I think what connects classical music to the  EDM world is the the different melodies used in the music. In fact, a lot of DJs actually compose their music on a keyboard.

Vikingquest is a group of student performers that just enjoy the same genre of Electro House with the subgenre of Bounce House.

RAC started their career in 2006 and have started released their latest record last year. They perform more disco type music.

Adrian Lux is an Australian native and has climbed his way up in popularity in America. He won a Grammy for his single "Teenage Crime" two years ago. He plays progressive house music.

Porter Robinson was the big craze. He is only 19, and has toured with other big DJs such as Tiesto and Skrillex. His genres include a lot of the most popular EDM genres such as electro, progressive house, and even a little dubstep.

The last DJ, DJ Geo-D probably has the most range in his style. As described on the website:

"His sets root in classic turntablism and represents the hard hitting progressive/dutch house genre – creating a unique sound bringing “old guard” techniques while obliterating the usual “press play” acts so easily found today."

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Dub vs Trans

So I was talking to a group of EDM lovers, and found out a lot about their different interests. This group was separated to particularly trans lovers and dubstep lovers. It was funny because you could see both sides rooting for their personal preference through their discussion. It really relates to the video that I found on BBC because one side understands dubstep while the other doesn't. Some people from the trans side described dubstep as "devil's music", "the evil side", or "freaky". Dubstep lovers said that trans was boring and hard to dance to. Being part of the EDM community, I decided to put in some of my input as well. I actually do enjoy listening to trans as well, but I don't enjoy it as much when I'm at a an event. I like listening to it when I'm driving or when I am cooking, not when I'm trying to dance. Surprisingly, many of my dubstep friends agreed. Additionally, it was really interesting to find out that we all enjoy the trans when it was mixed with electro. Much of the music played at venues in San Diego and sponsored by LED relate to this category. So I really want to find out more on how maybe the San Diego community plays a part in genre preference.

LED

This project has been kind of difficult because I feel like I still don't really know where to look. I've decided based on our class blog that I should really narrow my focus. So I'm going to look in LED which the head of EDM events in San Diego. I want to really focus my attention on electro-dub in the San Diego community and I think looking into the company that sponsors locally is the way to go.

These are the venues for LED in San Diego


Voyeur

Wavehouse

Petco Park

Cricket Wireless Amphiteater

Click here for info

San Diego Sports Arena (aka Valley View Casino Center)

Yost Theater

4th&B

However, I did hear that they sold Wavehouse to Insomniac. I'll have to reconfirm. I've been to most of these venues. The only ones that I haven't gone to are 4th&B and Cricket Wireless Ampitheater.