2015: EDM's End Of Days

In 2015, the bass dropped directly on EDM and dance music's dayglo moment in the spotlight passed.

We saw EDM head towards a fall in March when Puff Daddy graced the main stage at Ultra during a guest spot with Skrillex and Diplo. The rap pioneer had turned hanger-on to the coattails of EDM, the Bad Boy icon's presence a harbinger of the fall to come. Diddy's a fan of exhorting people to "take that, take that." When it comes to halting EDM's momentum it's quite possible that's exactly what he assisted in taking away from the musical movement.

And while 400,000 people attended the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas this year, it's entirely possible that much more than 50 per cent of the people in that throng were there to do everything but dance. Aware of this and also growing tired of teenagers popping molly and putting their lives in danger at other EDM festivals, seasoned scenesters raving elsewhere caused attendance to spike at events not specifically promoting EDM.

Detroit's Movement Festival - an American paean to techno lovers worldwide - grew to well over 100,000 revelers. Burning Man's popularity is now on par with Electric Daisy Carnival, a reality that came to light when the state of Nevada announced it was levying an entertainment tax on all future festival events. Noting that Burning Man is dissimilar to EDC, Burn organizers, motivated by wanting to appear in all ways different to EDC and EDM, are rumored to be moving Burning Man to the state of Utah, some 500 miles away.

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