Big Business Is Nothing New In Dance Music

This is my actual ticket stub from the infamous Sasha & Digweed Delta Heavy Tour in 2002.  As you can see from the very cool pink arrow, international conglomerates were already making money from electronic music in the U.S. while most of the country's scene still relied on half-empty venues and back rooms of bigger clubs to host international DJs.  Meanwhile, the locals were "spinning Top 40, House and Breaks".  (For those of you who were clubbing in the U.S. back then, that phrase should sound very familiar.)

So it's nothing new that large-scale corporations are a huge part of this industry today.  As much as the U.S. lacked in so-called dance music culture, it apparently made up for in business savvy. Good or bad?  That's not my call to make.  

It's just funny to hear the EDM spokespeople of today boast about how they are now taking over the entire music business after "living underground" and "nurturing the scene since '88", when the reality is that the largest work for this "takeover" was done by colossal entertainment firms.