120-674: DJ Magazine (also known as DJ Mag ) is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Latin America, China, South Korea, Brunei, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Germany, Canada, Russia, Belarus, and the Netherlands. An earlier version of
240-542: A "creative partnership" with EDC organizers Insomniac Events in 2013 that would allow it to access its resources whilst remaining an independent company; Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino described EDM as the "[new] rock 'n' roll ". US radio conglomerate iHeartMedia, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Media and Entertainment) also made efforts to align itself with EDM. In January 2014 It hired noted British DJ and BBC Radio 1 personality Pete Tong to produce programming for its "Evolution" dance radio brand, and announced
360-522: A celebrity status. Other major acts that gained prominence, including Avicii and Swedish House Mafia , toured major venues such as arenas and stadiums rather than playing clubs; in December 2011, Swedish House Mafia became the first electronic music act to sell out New York City's Madison Square Garden . In 2011, Spin declared a "new rave generation" led by acts like David Guetta, Deadmau5 , and Skrillex . In January 2013, Billboard introduced
480-399: A computer running a digital audio workstation (DAW), with various plug-ins installed such as software synthesizers and effects units, which are controlled with a MIDI controller such as a MIDI keyboard . This setup is generally sufficient to complete entire productions, which are then ready for mastering . A ghost producer is a hired music producer in a business arrangement who produces
600-529: A few headliner dudes that can play 3,000–4,000-capacity venues, but DJs play the same venues, they turn the crowd over two times, people buy drinks all night long at higher prices—it's a win-win." Electronic music festivals, such as Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Las Vegas and Ultra Music Festival in Miami also grew in size, placing an increased emphasis on visual experiences, and DJs who had begun to attain
720-481: A fistful of water". In the UK, "dance music" or "dance" are more common terms for EDM. What is widely perceived to be "club music" has changed over time; it now includes different genres and may not always encompass EDM. Similarly, "electronic dance music" can mean different things to different people. Both "club music" and "EDM" seem vague, but the terms are sometimes used to refer to distinct and unrelated genres (club music
840-907: A great night out with the "Love Groove Dance Party". He, along with others such as Judge Jules , were poached by BBC Radio 1. In the following years, Rampling continued his career in music as a DJ and producer, while forming a band, The Millionaire Hippies . In November 1994 he joined the BBC , presenting the "Love Groove Dance Party" on BBC Radio 1 until March 2002, making it the second longest running dance music show in radio after Pete Tong 's "Essential Selection". The mid-1990s also saw Rampling's DJing style diversify. While still playing house and garage sets, Rampling also began to headline at harder, trancier parties, e.g. 'South', at The Zap Club, in Brighton. Rampling himself referred to his newer style as 'Euro', and at this time showcased new Euro tracks, during
960-538: A home studio. Unlike in traditional recording studios, bedroom producers typically use low-cost, accessible software and equipment which can lead to music being created completely "in the box", with no external hardware. Afro-EDM depicts African electronic dance music genres and styles that blend elements of traditional African music with electronic dance music. It incorporates various African rhythms, instruments, and vocal styles, merging them with modern EDM production techniques. Afro EDM had existed for decades. However, it
1080-464: A new EDM-focused Dance/Electronic Songs chart, tracking the top 50 electronic songs based on sales, radio airplay, club play, and online streaming . According to Eventbrite, EDM fans are more likely to use social media to discover and share events or gigs. They also discovered that 78% of fans say they are more likely to attend an event if their peers do, compared to 43% of fans in general. EDM has many young and social fans. By late 2011, Music Trades
1200-405: A number of awards including its Top 100 DJ Poll , Top 100 Club Poll , Top 100 Festivals Poll , Best of British Awards and its Tech Awards. DJ Magazine currently includes: The magazine's biggest property is a public poll of the world's 100 most popular DJs. The poll attracted over one million votes in 2015, making it the world's biggest music poll. Danny Rampling was the first to be named as
1320-543: A partnership with SFX to co-produce live concerts and EDM-oriented original programming for its top 40 radio stations. iHeartMedia president John Sykes explained that he wanted his company's properties to be the "best destination [for EDM]". Major brands have also used the EDM phenomena as a means of targeting millennials and EDM songs and artists have increasingly been featured in television commercials and programs. Avicii's manager Ash Pournouri compared these practices to
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#17327874497881440-477: A performance instrument. They also foregrounded spatial effects such as reverb and delay by using auxiliary send routings creatively. The Roland Space Echo , manufactured by Roland Corporation , was widely used by dub producers in the 1970s to produce echo and delay effects. Despite the limited electronic equipment available to dub pioneers such as King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry, their experiments in remix culture were musically cutting-edge. Ambient dub
1560-461: A plethora of trap remixes of popular EDM songs, and 1/3 dub (low-frequency focus and strong emphasis on repetitiveness throughout a song)". Some of the artists that popularized this genre, along with several others, are producers such as RL Grime with the tracks "Core" and "Scylla" released in 2014, Flosstradamus with their Hdynation Radio album released in 2015 and Carnage with his track "Turn Up" released in 2012. Trap music in this connotation
1680-455: A process which is allowed by the magazine. Dutch DJ Hardwell once did a skydive as part of his campaign video; David Guetta regularly creates animated videos as part of his voting campaign; Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike released an exclusive mix to their fans as part of their 2015 campaign. Top 100 DJs has been criticised as being heavily influenced by the marketing power of DJs, rather than their skill or ability. An article that appeared on
1800-618: A question about being credited with coining the term New Romantic Burgess has stated that: "Initially I was using three terms – Futurist, Electronic Dance Music (the Landscape singles have EDM printed on them) and New Romantic." Writing in The Guardian , journalist Simon Reynolds noted that the American music industry's adoption of the term EDM in the late 2000s was an attempt to re-brand US "rave culture" and differentiate it from
1920-542: A recording studio with specialized equipment such as samplers , synthesizers, effects units and MIDI controllers all set up to interact with one another using the MIDI protocol. In the genre's early days, hardware electronic musical instruments were used and the focus in production was mainly on manipulating MIDI data as opposed to manipulating audio signals. Since the late 1990s, the use of software has increased. A modern electronic music production studio generally consists of
2040-571: A self-help ebook entitled "Everything you need to know about DJing and success". He has since returned to regular DJing. Rampling is a keen eco-entrepreneur and built ten eco-friendly carbon reductive houses in St Leonards-on-Sea , Hastings , East Sussex, England. Along with business partner Simon Hinton they launched 'Green Town Revolution', a reward and offset system to encourage individuals and small businesses to offset their CO 2 emissions . 'Carbon Neutral DJ' with Norman Jay MBE
2160-639: A simple and austere sound. After the breakthrough of Gary Numan in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, large numbers of artists began to enjoy success with a synthesizer-based sound in the early 1980s, including late-1970s debutants like Japan and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark , and newcomers such as Depeche Mode and Eurythmics . In Japan, Yellow Magic Orchestra's success opened the way for synth-pop bands such as P-Model , Plastics , and Hikashu . The development of inexpensive polyphonic synthesizers,
2280-488: A snare or high hat on the second, fourth, or eighth notes. In the mid-1980s house music thrived on the small Balearic Island of Ibiza, Spain . The Balearic sound was the spirit of the music emerging from the island at that time; the combination of old vinyl rock, pop, reggae, and disco records paired with an "anything goes" attitude made Ibiza a hub of drug-induced musical experimentation. A club called Amnesia, whose resident DJ, Alfredo Fiorito , pioneered Balearic house ,
2400-441: A solo artist. Such non-disclosure agreements are often noted as predatory because ghost producers, especially teenage producers, do not have an understanding of the music industry. London producer Mat Zo has alleged that DJs who hire ghost producers "have pretended to make their own music and [left] us actual producers to struggle". A bedroom producer is an independent musician who creates electronic music on their laptop or in
2520-432: A song for another DJ/artist that releases it as their own, typically under a contract which prevents them from identifying themselves as a personnel of the song. Ghost producers receive a simple fee or royalty payments for their work and are often able to work in their preference of not having the intense pressure of fame and the lifestyle of an internationally recognized DJ. A ghost producer may increase their notability in
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#17327874497882640-416: A specific EDM brand, the acronym remains in use as an umbrella term for multiple genres, including dance-pop , house , techno , electro and trance , as well as their respective subgenres, which all predate the acronym. Various EDM genres have evolved over the last 40 years, for example; house , techno , drum and bass , dance-pop etc. Stylistic variation within an established EDM genre can lead to
2760-414: A traditional verse/chorus structure. Structured vocal form in trance music forms the basis of the vocal trance subgenre, which has been described as "grand, soaring, and operatic" and "ethereal female leads floating amongst the synths". Trance music is broken into a number of subgenres including acid trance , classic trance, hard trance , progressive trance, and uplifting trance . Uplifting trance
2880-516: A wide range of subgenres. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, following the emergence of raving , pirate radio , Party crews , underground festivals and an upsurge of interest in club culture , EDM achieved mainstream popularity in Europe. However, rave culture was not as broadly popular in the United States; it was not typically seen outside of the regional scenes in New York City, Florida,
3000-505: Is Euro-trance , which has become a general term for a wide variety of highly commercialized European dance music. Several subgenres are crossovers with other major genres of electronic music. For instance, Tech trance is a mixture of trance and techno, and Vocal trance "combines [trance's] progressive elements with pop music". The dream trance genre originated in the mid-1990s, with its popularity then led by Robert Miles . AllMusic states on progressive trance: "the progressive wing of
3120-489: Is GTR's first project. In an interview with The Guardian in 2009, Rampling said that he was working in property development. While he does still occasionally DJ, Rampling said that "the lifestyle involves a lot of touring, flying around the world, spending weeks away from home and when you have kids it's not easy." Artists are nominated to the DJ Magazine top 100 list for each year the public decides who they rank as
3240-563: Is Nigerian Afro-EDM which emerged in the 2020s encompassing afrobeats, Nigerian afro-house and afroelectro. Gqom originated around 2009-2010 in Durban , through the pioneering efforts of local record producers. Gqom blends elements of techno, broken beats, and house music. Unlike traditional house music, gqom diverges by eschewing the typical four-on-the-floor rhythm. Gqom is categorized as both EDM and house music, characterized by diverse production techniques and variations. Initially,
3360-436: Is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs , raves , and festivals . It is generally produced for playback by DJs who create seamless selections of tracks, called a DJ mix , by segueing from one recording to another. EDM producers also perform their music live in a concert or festival setting in what is sometimes called a live PA . Since its inception EDM has expanded to include
3480-435: Is a form of house music characterized by a prominent bassline or kick drum and a tempo between 125 and 135 beats per minute, usually 128. Its origins were influenced by electro . The term has been used to describe the music of many DJ Mag Top 100 DJs , including Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike , Hardwell , Skrillex , and Steve Aoki . Italian DJ Benny Benassi , with his track " Satisfaction " released in 2002,
3600-471: Is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the late 1990s. It is generally characterized by sparse, syncopated rhythmic patterns with bass lines that contain prominent sub-bass frequencies. The style emerged as an offshoot of UK garage , drawing on a lineage of related styles such as 2-step , dub reggae , jungle , broken beat , and grime . In the United Kingdom,
3720-612: Is also known as "anthem trance", "epic trance", "commercial trance", "stadium trance", or "euphoric trance", and has been strongly influenced by classical music in the 1990s and 2000s by leading artists such as Ferry Corsten , Armin Van Buuren , Tiësto , Push , Rank 1 and at present with the development of the subgenre "orchestral uplifting trance" or "uplifting trance with symphonic orchestra" by such artists as Andy Blueman , Ciro Visone, Soundlift, Arctic Moon, Sergey Nevone&Simon O'Shine etc. Closely related to Uplifting Trance
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3840-421: Is defined by what is popular, whereas EDM is distinguished by musical attributes). Though Billboard debuted a "dance" chart in 1974, the larger US music industry did not create music charts until the late 1990s. In July 1995, Nervous Records and Project X Magazine hosted the first awards ceremony, calling it the "Electronic Dance Music Awards". Electronic dance music is generally composed and produced in
3960-430: Is important to note when discussing the history of drum & bass that prior to jungle, rave music was getting faster and more experimental. By 1994, jungle had begun to gain mainstream popularity, and fans of the music (often referred to as junglists ) became a more recognisable part of youth subculture. The genre further developed, incorporating and fusing elements from a wide range of existing musical genres, including
4080-597: Is it still a resemblance of the DJs talent?". The list has also been criticised for not including a more balanced reflection of artists from other electronic dance music styles and showing rankings based on less commercial mainstream DJs. A feature in The Guardian in 2010 by the journalist Ben Child entitled "What does DJ Mag's top 100 poll tell us about UK dance music? Not much" explores this further, noting that: What's surprising, at least to those of us who don't enjoy
4200-454: Is now Live Nation —re-launched SFX Entertainment as an EDM conglomerate, and announced his plan to invest $ 1 billion to acquire EDM businesses. His acquisitions included regional promoters and festivals (including ID&T , which organises Tomorrowland ), two nightclub operators in Miami, and Beatport , an online music store which focuses on electronic music. Live Nation also acquired Cream Holdings and Hard Events , and announced
4320-541: Is regarded as the UK's first Balearic rave club, Shoom . Shoom ran for three years, starting out at a gym in Southwark, London . It was a launching point for acid house culture, while contributing to worldwide dance culture. Danny 'Happy' Rampling played for the original pirate Kiss (UK radio station) with the main Saturday night slot from 7 until 9 pm in the early nineties, setting many people up for
4440-459: Is seen as the forerunner of electro-house who brought it to the mainstream. By the mid-2000s, electro-house saw an increase in popularity, with hits such as the Tom Neville remix of Studio B 's "I See Girls" in 2005 (UK #11). In November 2006, electroGq-house tracks " Put Your Hands Up for Detroit " by Fedde Le Grand and the D. Ramirez remix of " Yeah Yeah " by Bodyrox and Luciana held
4560-656: The Balearic party vibe associated with Ibiza's DJ Alfredo was transported to London, when Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold opened the clubs Shoom and Spectrum, respectively. Both places became synonymous with acid house, and it was during this period that MDMA gained prominence as a party drug. Other important UK clubs included Back to Basics in Leeds , Sheffield's Leadmill and Music Factory, and The Haçienda in Manchester, where Mike Pickering and Graeme Park's spot, Nude,
4680-491: The Mudd Club and clear the floor". By the late 1980s interest in house, acid house and techno escalated in the club scene and MDMA-fueled club-goers, who were faced with a 2 a.m. closing time in the UK, started to seek after-hours refuge at all-night warehouse parties. Within a year, in summer 1989, up to 25,000 people at a time were attending commercially organised underground parties called raves. Trance emerged from
4800-489: The Village People helped define the late 1970s disco sound. Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte produced " I Feel Love " for Donna Summer in 1977. It became the first well-known disco hit to have a completely synthesized backing track. Other disco producers, most famously American producer Tom Moulton , grabbed ideas and techniques from dub music (which came with the increased Jamaican migration to New York City in
4920-447: The raggamuffin sound, dancehall , MC chants, dub basslines, and increasingly complex, heavily edited breakbeat percussion. Despite the affiliation with the ecstasy-fuelled rave scene, Jungle also inherited some associations with violence and criminal activity, both from the gang culture that had affected the UK's hip-hop scene and as a consequence of jungle's often aggressive or menacing sound and themes of violence (usually reflected in
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5040-603: The rave scene in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s and developed further during the early 1990s in Germany before spreading throughout the rest of Europe, as a more melodic offshoot from techno and house. At the same time trance music was developing in Europe, the genre was also gathering a following in the Indian state of Goa . Trance is mostly instrumental , although vocals can be mixed in: typically they are performed by mezzo-soprano to soprano female soloists, often without
5160-414: The "Forward" night (sometimes stylised as FWD>>), which went on to be considered influential to the development of dubstep. The term "dubstep" in reference to a genre of music began to be used around 2002 by labels such as Big Apple, Ammunition, and Tempa, by which time stylistic trends used in creating these remixes started to become more noticeable and distinct from 2-step and grime . Electro house
5280-428: The 1970s) to provide alternatives to the four-on-the-floor style that dominated. During the early 1980s, the popularity of disco music sharply declined in the United States, abandoned by major US record labels and producers. Euro disco continued evolving within the broad mainstream pop music scene. Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop ; also called techno-pop ) is a music genre that first became prominent in
5400-455: The 1970s. Inspired by Jamaican sound system culture Jamaican-American DJ Kool Herc introduced large bass heavy speaker rigs to the Bronx . His parties are credited with having kick-started the New York City hip-hop movement in 1973. A technique developed by DJ Kool Herc that became popular in hip hop culture was playing two copies of the same record on two turntables, in alternation, and at
5520-540: The 1980s was shaped by the development of several new electronic musical instruments , particularly those from the Japanese Roland Corporation . The Roland TR-808 (often abbreviated as the "808") notably played an important role in the evolution of dance music, after Afrika Bambaataa 's " Planet Rock " (1982), made it very popular on dancefloors. The track, which also featured the melody line from Riot In Lagos (1980) of Ryuichi Sakamoto, informed
5640-461: The 1980s, Detroit DJs Juan Atkins , Derrick May , and Kevin Saunderson laid the foundation for a new style of music which would dubbed techno. They fused Chicago house influenced electronic and Detroit (including Motown) influenced funk sounds with the mechanical vibes of the post-industrial city, creating the techno sound of four-on-the-floor beat driven by a kick drum on the quarter notes and
5760-413: The 1990s rave scene. It has been described as an era of electronic music, being described in a MixMag article as being "the drop-heavy, stadium-filling, fist-pumping, chart-topping, massively commercial main stage sound that conquered America...possibly somewhere between electro and progressive house, directed by Michael Bay, and like many music genres, trying to pin it down exactly is like trying to grab
5880-461: The House " by Coldcut (1988) entered the pop charts. The electronic instrumentation and minimal arrangement of Charanjit Singh 's Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat (1982), an album of Indian ragas performed in a disco style, anticipated the sounds of acid house music, but it is not known to have had any influence on the genre prior to the album's rediscovery in the 21st century. In
6000-509: The Midwest, and California. Although the pioneer genres of electro , Chicago house and Detroit techno were influential both in Europe and the United States, mainstream media outlets and the record industry in the United States remained openly hostile to it until the 1990s and beyond. There was also a perceived association between EDM and drug culture , which led governments at state and city levels to enact laws and policies intended to halt
6120-618: The Top 100 DJs Award by public vote. As of 2017, Fergie holds the record for the highest new entry in the poll's history, achieved when he placed 8th in 2000. Dutch DJs Armin van Buuren & Martin Garrix currently tie the record of most overall wins with five each. The awards party for the poll was traditionally hosted at the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London. For the 2011 poll, the event
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#17327874497886240-664: The US section of the Huffington Post in July 2013, entitled "DJMag Top 100 (Marketable) DJs", explores this claim. Its author, Kevin Yu, stated that "Over the past few years, DJ Mag has been criticized that the list is not a true representation of their skills, but instead the amount of money they can put towards marketing". Yu asked, "Has the DJMag list transformed into a popularity contest or
6360-544: The World's No 1 DJ at the end of the poll. Rampling was the first winner of this award ranked as the World's No 1 DJ in 1991. The DJ Awards organizes the annual electronic music DJ awards event it is the only international ceremony for DJs and also the oldest. the awards are held once a year at Pacha club in Ibiza Spain it is one of the most important accolades an artist can win or be honoured by. Rampling has won
6480-724: The birth of electro. As the electronic sound developed, instruments such as the bass guitar and drums were replaced by synthesizers and most notably by iconic drum machines , particularly the Roland TR-808 and the Yamaha DX7 . Early uses of the TR-808 include several Yellow Magic Orchestra tracks in 1980–1981, the 1982 track " Planet Rock " by Afrika Bambaataa , and the 1982 song " Sexual Healing " by Marvin Gaye . In 1982, producer Arthur Baker , with Afrika Bambaataa , released
6600-450: The choice of samples). However, this developed in tandem with the often positive reputation of the music as part of the wider rave scene and dance hall-based Jamaican music culture prevalent in London. By 1995, whether as a reaction to, or independently of this cultural schism, some jungle producers began to move away from the ragga-influenced style and create what would become collectively labelled, for convenience, as drum and bass. Dubstep
6720-654: The commercialization of hip-hop in the early 2000s. Heineken has a marketing relationship with the Ultra Music Festival, and has incorporated Dutch producers Armin van Buuren and Tiësto into its ad campaigns. Anheuser-Busch has a similar relationship as beer sponsor of SFX Entertainment events. In 2014, 7 Up launched "7x7Up"—a multi-platform EDM-based campaign that included digital content, advertising featuring producers, and branded stages at both Ultra and Electric Daisy Carnival. Wireless carrier T-Mobile US entered into an agreement with SFX to become
6840-476: The definition of MIDI and the use of dance beats, led to a more commercial and accessible sound for synth-pop. This, its adoption by the style-conscious acts from the New Romantic movement, together with the rise of MTV , led to success for large numbers of British synth-pop acts (including Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet ) in the United States. The use of digital sampling and looping in popular music
6960-467: The development of electronic dance music, and subgenres including Miami bass and Detroit techno , and popularized the 808 as a "fundamental element of futuristic sound". According to Slate , "Planet Rock" "didn't so much put the 808 on the map so much as reorient an entire world of post-disco dance music around it". The Roland TR-909 , TB-303 and Juno-60 similarly influenced electronic dance music such as techno , house and acid . During
7080-644: The early house sound, such as the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer and minimal vocals as well as a Roland (specifically TR-808 ) drum machine and Korg (specifically Poly-61 ) synthesizer . "On and On" is sometimes cited as the 'first house record', though other examples from around that time, such as J.M. Silk 's " Music is the Key " (1985), have also been cited. House music quickly spread to American cities including New York City, and Newark , and Detroit—all of which developed their own regional scenes. In
7200-531: The editorial staff of the magazine voted for their DJ of the Year: initially this was a short list, however this was later expanded to become a Top 100 list that first appeared in the magazine's 100th edition on 21 October 1993. In 1994, the band Underworld featured on the cover due in part to their breakthrough album . Other artists featured that year included established names such as Armand van Helden , Erick Morillo , but also breakthrough DJs such as DJ Rap . By
7320-405: The emergence of what is called a subgenre . Hybridization, where elements of two or more genres are combined, can lead to the emergence of an entirely new genre of EDM. In the late 1960s bands such as Silver Apples created electronic music intended for dancing. Other early examples of music that influenced later electronic dance music include Jamaican dub music during the late 1960s to 1970s,
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#17327874497887440-488: The final thirty-minute weekly mix of his Radio 1 Show. Additionally, Rampling's Double CD Love Groove Dance Mix featured house and garage on the first CD, and 'Euro' on the second. In 2005, Rampling announced his retirement from DJing with the initial intention of running a restaurant, although he changed tack to focus on his property business and the 'low carbon economy'. In 2007 he returned to music and began making some on-off appearances at selected clubs. In 2008 he published
7560-403: The first Detroit productions to receive wider attention was Derrick May's " Strings of Life " (1987), which, together with May's previous release, "Nude Photo" (1987), helped raise techno's profile in Europe, especially the UK and Germany, during the 1987–1988 house music boom (see Second Summer of Love ). It became May's best-known track, which, according to Frankie Knuckles, "just exploded. It
7680-624: The first winner of the No 1 DJ in the World Award by DJ Magazine in 1991 and is a three-time DJ Awards recipient. He has reportedly sold over 1 million compilation albums. During a holiday in Ibiza in 1987, Rampling, along with fellow DJs Paul Oakenfold , Nicky Holloway and Johnny Walker, attended Amnesia , a then open air nightclub in San Rafael . At the club the group were introduced to
7800-615: The first-ever Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart. By 2005, the prominence of dance music in North American popular culture had markedly increased. According to Spin , Daft Punk 's performance at Coachella in 2006 was the "tipping point" for EDM—it introduced the duo to a new generation of "rock kids". As noted by Entertainment Weekly , Justin Timberlake 's " SexyBack " helped introduce EDM sounds to top 40 radio , as it brought together variations of electronic dance music with
7920-599: The headline moment of the Amsterdam Music Festival. Over 40,000 guests witnessed the crowning of 2015's winners Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike . Following the Amsterdam event, the winning DJs were flown to London, where they performed to a sold out Brixton Academy for the Top 100 DJs London show. Top 100 DJs is considered to be hugely important to DJs as an influencer of booking fees and their current level of popularity. DJs regularly campaign for votes,
8040-528: The innovative techniques of electronic dance music onto the American pop charts" By the mid-2000s, Dutch producer Tiësto was bringing worldwide popular attention to EDM after providing a soundtrack to the entry of athletes during the opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics — an event which The Guardian deemed as one of the 50 most important events in dance music. In 2003, the influence of dance music on American radio resulted in Billboard creating
8160-551: The late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock , electronic , art rock , disco . Early synth-pop pioneers included Japanese group Yellow Magic Orchestra , and British bands Ultravox , the Human League and Berlin Blondes . The Human League used monophonic synthesizers to produce music with
8280-410: The magazine appeared towards the end of the 1980s when it was then known as Disc Jockey Magazine. The name was then changed to Jocks Magazine, however, the publication underwent re-branding shortly afterwards. After this process the first issue of DJ Magazine launched in the middle of 1991; it was initially produced as weekly publication with Chris Mellor as its first editor. The magazine at this point
8400-452: The magazine started to expand its publication overseas to include places like Central and South America, Germany, France and Spain. In 2006 the magazine was sold to Future plc , one of the largest UK media companies. Since 2008 the title has been owned and operated by independent publishing company Thrust Publishing Ltd. In 2011, the magazine was launched in the USA. After 10 years at the helm of
8520-491: The magazine would feature DJs on its front page exploring the rise of Trance Music . The publication wrote extensively about the use of drugs and their prevalence within the dance music scene. Beginning in late 2000, the magazine launched its first pilot website. By November 2000, Highbury House Communications had bought Nexus, the magazine's publisher, and the magazine moved its editorial offices to Kentish Town , North London . In 2001 dance music journalist Lesley Wright, who
8640-427: The magazine's journalists selected their top 100 DJs of the year. 1993 saw the poll expand to a top 100 poll where the journalists would decide their top 100 DJs in the world. In 1997, the magazine opened the top 100 list to a public vote which has remained the used format to this day. DJ Magazine also runs an annual poll called Top 100 Clubs used to decide the worlds number one club, which began in 2006. The 2021 poll
8760-650: The magazine, editor Lesley Wright left and was replaced by Carl Loben. In 2012 the publication switched production to a monthly format. Currently the owners of the publication are looking to expand into new markets through licensing deals in the Middle East, Australia, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan and China. The current format for the magazine includes sections on dance music industry news, regular features, reviews covering clubs, EDM/dance music, technical equipment; it also includes current Top 100 lists as well as coverage of up and coming EDM events. DJ Mag runs
8880-548: The margins of the US industry . In 1998, Madonna 's album Ray of Light —heavily influenced by club music trends and produced with British producer William Orbit —brought dance music to the attention of popular music listeners. In the late 1990s, despite US media interest in dance music re-branded as electronica, American house and techno producers continued to travel abroad to establish their careers as DJs and producers. According to New York Times journalist Kelefa Sanneh, Aaliyah 's 2000 single " Try Again " "helped smuggle
9000-567: The market, and the first in their influential Technics series of turntables. The most influential turntable was the Technics SL-1200 , which was developed in 1971 by a team led by Shuichi Obata at Matsushita, which then released it onto the market in 1972. In the 1980s and 1990s hip-hop DJs used turntables as musical instruments in their own right and virtuosic use developed into a creative practice called turntablism. In 1974, George McCrae 's early disco hit " Rock Your Baby "
9120-578: The mid-to-late 1980s, house music became popular in Europe as well as major cities in South America, and Australia. Chicago House experienced some commercial success in Europe with releases such as "House Nation" by House Master Boyz and the Rude Boy of House (1987). Following this, a number of house inspired releases such as " Pump Up The Volume " by M|A|R|R|S (1987), " Theme from S'Express " by S'Express (1988), and " Doctorin'
9240-462: The more mainstream genres, is the paucity of artists from outside the house and trance scenes in the top 100. This has pretty much always been the case, with the odd Drum 'N' Bass or Breakbeat acts occasionally making it into the lower reaches in years gone by, but this year's situation is particularly extreme. There is just one artist Andy C whose music is not based on the standard four-to-the-floor beat pattern adopted by mainstream dance music in
9360-539: The music industry by acquainting with established "big name" DJs and producers. Producers like Martin Garrix and Porter Robinson are often noted for their ghost production work for other producers while David Guetta and Steve Aoki are noted for their usage of ghost producers in their songs whereas DJs like Tiësto have been openly crediting their producers in an attempt to avoid censure and for transparency. Many ghost producers sign agreements that prevent them from working for anyone else or establishing themselves as
9480-481: The number one DJ in the world by the magazine's journalists in 1991. In 1992 Smokin Jo was named the number one DJ by the magazine editors and is the only female DJ to have ever earned the top ranking. In 1993 to celebrate the 100th edition of DJ Magazine, the magazine introduced a Top 100 list that was still compiled by its staff until 1996. For the previous five years, the system for nominee selection and voting to determine
9600-689: The number one and number two spots, respectively, on the UK top 40 singles chart. Since then, electro-house producers such as Feed Me , Knife Party , The M Machine , Porter Robinson , Yasutaka Nakata and Dada Life have emerged. Trap music originated from techno , dub, and Dutch house , but also from the original off-shoot of Southern hip hop in the late 2000s and early 2010s. This form of trap music can be simplified by these three features: "1/3 hip hop (tempo and song structure are similar, most tracks are usually between 70 and 110 bpm) – with vocals sometimes being pitched down, 1/3 dance music – high-pitched Dutch synth work, hardstyle sampling, as well as
9720-427: The official wireless sponsor of its events, and partnered with Above & Beyond to sponsor its 2015 tour. In August 2015, SFX began to experience declines in its value, and a failed bid by CEO Sillerman to take the company private. The company began looking into strategic alternatives that could have resulted in the sale of the company. In October 2015, Forbes declared the possibility of an EDM " bubble ", in
9840-653: The oldest, held once a year at Pacha club in Ibiza , Spain. It is one of the most important accolades. The IDMAs is a major event which is part of the Winter Music Conference , a weeklong electronic music conference, held every March since 1985 in Miami Beach , Florida, United States. DJ Magazine has won the award for Best Music Publication 14 times, winning every year this category has been awarded. Electronic dance music Electronic dance music ( EDM ), also referred to as club music ,
9960-606: The origins of the genre can be traced back to the growth of the Jamaican sound system party scene in the early 1980s. The earliest known dubstep releases date back to 1998, and were usually featured as B-sides of 2-step garage single releases. These tracks were darker, more experimental remixes with less emphasis on vocals, and attempted to incorporate elements of breakbeat and drum and bass into 2-step. In 2001, this and other strains of dark garage music began to be showcased and promoted at London's nightclub Plastic People, at
10080-454: The point where a track featured a break . This technique was further used to manually loop a purely percussive break, leading to what was later called a break beat . Turntablism has origins in the invention of the direct-drive turntable , by Shuichi Obata, an engineer at Matsushita (now Panasonic ). In 1969, Matsushita released it as the SP-10 , the first direct-drive turntable on
10200-621: The popularization of electronic dance music was associated with European rave and club culture and it achieved limited popular exposure in the United States. By the mid-to-late 1990s this began to change as the American music industry made efforts to market a range of dance genres as " electronica ". At the time, a wave of electronic music bands from the United Kingdom, including The Prodigy , The Chemical Brothers , Fatboy Slim and Underworld , had been prematurely associated with an "American electronica revolution". But rather than finding mainstream success, many established EDM acts were relegated to
10320-559: The post-disco era include dance-pop , boogie , electro , Hi-NRG , Italo disco , house , and techno . In the early 1980s, electro (short for "electro-funk") emerged as a fusion of synth-pop , funk , and boogie . Also called electro-funk or electro-boogie, but later shortened to electro, cited pioneers include Ryuichi Sakamoto , Afrika Bambaataa , Zapp , D.Train , and Sinnamon . Early hip hop and rap combined white European electropop influences such as Giorgio Moroder, Dan Lacksman (Telex) and Yellow Magic Orchestra inspired
10440-670: The post-disco era that followed the backlash against " disco " which began in the mid to late 1979, which in the United States lead to civil unrest and a riot in Chicago known as the Disco Demolition Night , an underground movement of "stripped-down" disco inspired music featuring "radically different sounds" started to emerge on the East Coast . This new scene was seen primarily in the New York metropolitan area and
10560-1023: The same year. The early 1980s were electro's mainstream peak. According to author Steve Taylor, Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock serves as a "template for all interesting dance music since". In the early 1980s, Chicago radio jocks The Hot Mix 5 and club DJs Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles played various styles of dance music, including older disco records (mostly Philly disco and Salsoul tracks), Italo Disco, electro funk tracks by artists such as Afrika Bambaataa , newer Italo disco , B-Boy hip hop music by Man Parrish , Jellybean Benitez , Arthur Baker , and John Robie , and electronic pop music by Giorgio Moroder and Yellow Magic Orchestra . Some made and played their own edits of their favorite songs on reel-to-reel tape, and sometimes mixed in effects, drum machines, and other rhythmic electronic instrumentation. The hypnotic electronic dance song "On and On", produced in 1984 by Chicago DJ Jesse Saunders and co-written by Vince Lawrence , had elements that became staples of
10680-413: The seminal " Planet Rock ", which was influenced by Yellow Magic Orchestra (Ryuichi Sakamoto - Riot In Lagos 1980) and had drum beats supplied by the TR-808. Planet Rock was followed later that year by another breakthrough electro record, " Nunk " by Warp 9 . In 1983, Hashim created an electro-funk sound with "Al-Naafyish (The Soul)" that influenced Herbie Hancock , resulting in his hit single " Rockit "
10800-431: The singer's R&B sounds. In 2009, French house musician David Guetta began to gain prominence in mainstream pop music thanks to several crossover hits on Top 40 charts such as " When Love Takes Over " with Kelly Rowland , as well as his collaborations with US pop and hip hop acts such as Akon (" Sexy Bitch ") and The Black Eyed Peas (" I Gotta Feeling "). The music sharing website SoundCloud , as well as
10920-402: The spread of rave culture. Subsequently, in the new millennium, the popularity of EDM increased globally, particularly in the United States and Australia. By the early 2010s, the term "electronic dance music" and the initialism "EDM" was being pushed by the American music industry and music press in an effort to rebrand American rave culture. Despite the industry's attempt to create
11040-481: The summer of 1995, the magazine began to regularly feature Ibiza due its increasing popularity as a clubbing destination; the magazine also set-up stall at the Winter Music Conference held in Miami, United States. In 1997, the magazine featured new British house duo Basement Jaxx on its front page. Artists appearing on the cover of the magazine towards the end of the 1990s included Jeff Mills , Deep Dish , Orbital , Laurent Garnier , and Danny Tenaglia . In 1999,
11160-569: The synthesizer-based disco music of Italian producer Giorgio Moroder in the late 1970s, and the electropop of Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra in the mid-to-late 1970s. Author Michael Veal considers dub music , a Jamaican music stemming from roots reggae and sound system culture that flourished between 1968 and 1985, to be one of the important precursors to contemporary electronic dance music. Dub productions were remixed reggae tracks that emphasized rhythm, fragmented lyrical and melodic elements, and reverberant textures. The music
11280-526: The top 100 – and he has been around for more than a decade and a half. In 2021, fans expressed their displeasure with the ranking by promoting a fake DJ in the DJ Mag Top 100 list. The ranking perceived biases have also left fans in other cities asking why their clubs were no longer amongst the top ranked clubs. DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJs is an annual poll run by DJ Magazine to decide the worlds number one DJ. The poll started in 1991 and for first two years
11400-488: The trance crowd led directly to a more commercial, chart-oriented sound since trance had never enjoyed much chart action in the first place. Emphasizing the smoother sound of Eurodance or house (and occasionally more reminiscent of Jean-Michel Jarre than Basement Jaxx ), Progressive Trance became the sound of the world's dance floors by the end of the millennium. Critics ridiculed its focus on predictable breakdowns and relative lack of skill to beat-mix, but progressive trance
11520-489: The unique eclectic style of DJ Alfredo , playing, among other genres, the new house music that had been exported from the USA. The group also discovered the music's powerful combination with the drug Ecstasy ( MDMA ), that reduced inhibitions and created a sense of Oneness on the dance floor. Upon his return to England, Rampling, along with his then wife, Jenni, attempted to recreate the Ibiza experience by promoting what
11640-455: The use of digital sampling in popular music, as the first album consisting of mostly samples and loops . The album was produced using Toshiba-EMI 's LMD-649 digital PCM sampler , which engineer Kenji Murata custom-built for YMO. The LMD-649 was also used for sampling by other Japanese synthpop artists in the early 1980s, including YMO-associated acts such as Chiemi Manabe and Logic System . The emergence of electronic dance music in
11760-496: The video sharing website YouTube, also helped fuel interest in electronic music. Dubstep producer Skrillex popularized a harsher sound dubbed " Brostep ", which had drawn comparisons to the aggression and tone of heavy metal . With the increasing popularity of electronic dance music, promoters and venues realized that DJs could generate larger profits than traditional musicians; Diplo explained that "a band plays [for] 45 minutes; DJs can play for four hours. Rock bands—there's
11880-468: The wake of the declines at SFX Entertainment, slowing growth in revenue, the increasing costs of organizing festivals and booking talent, as well as an oversaturation of festivals in the eastern and western United States. Insomniac CEO Pasquale Rotella felt that the industry would weather the financial uncertainty of the overall market by focusing on "innovation" and entering into new markets. Despite forecasts that interest in popular EDM would wane, in 2015 it
12000-464: The winners was similar to that of current Grammy Awards and the Brit Awards in that dance music industry specialists (in this case music journalists) decided on who was nominated and who won the award. However, in 1997 the decision was taken by the publication to let the readers of the magazine decide who they thought was the world's top DJ, and in 1997 British DJ Carl Cox was the first winner of
12120-626: The world's number one festival. No poll was held in 2018. In 2019, the DJs themselves voted on their favourite festival in a top 50 format similar to the DJ and club poll run by the magazine. In 2020, the format was changed to a 20% DJ vote and 80% public vote, and was increased to a top 100 format, however results were never published. 2021 had no poll with the poll returning in 2022 but in October as opposed to February which it had been in previous years. The 2022 results were chosen entirely by DJ Mag readers. It
12240-461: Was already the UK's top-selling disc jockey magazine and was widely regarded as one of the magazines of choice in the burgeoning house and rave music scenes. The first edition featured artists such as Frankie Knuckles and the Ragga Twins . In 1992, the magazine decided to switch to bi-weekly publishing due to increasing workload which would remain in place till 2008. During its first two years
12360-554: Was also confirmed ahead of the 2022 poll that 2020 and 2021 did not occur due to the COVID-19 pandemic , despite the 2020 results being collected before the pandemic started. The Best of British Awards was launched by DJ Mag in 2007 to celebrate dance music talent and platforms within Great Britain. The DJ Awards organises the annual electronic music DJ awards event. It is the only international ceremony for DJs and also
12480-512: Was an important proving ground for American underground dance music. The success of house and acid house paved the way for Detroit Techno , a style that was initially supported by a handful of house music clubs in Chicago, New York, and Northern England, with Detroit clubs catching up later. The term Techno first came into use after a release of a 10 Records/Virgin Records compilation titled Techno: The Dance Sound of Detroit in 1988. One of
12600-604: Was caned by the hottest DJ." By the early 1990s, a style of music developed within the rave scene that had an identity distinct from American house and techno. This music, much like hip-hop before it, combined sampled syncopated beats or breakbeats, other samples from a wide range of different musical genres, and, occasionally, samples of music, dialogue, and effects from films and television programmes. Relative to earlier styles of dance music such as house and techno, so-called 'rave music' tended to emphasise bass sounds and use faster tempos, or beats per minute (BPM). This subgenre
12720-492: Was characterized by "soulful synths, 808s, the pan flute, sharp snares and long, syrup-slurred vowels" which created dirty and aggressive beats resulting in "dark melodies". Trap is now mainly used to create remixes of already existing songs. In 1980 English producer Richard James Burgess , and his band Landscape , used the term on the sleeve of the single "European Man": "Electronic Dance Music... EDM; computer programmed to perfection for your listening pleasure." In response to
12840-413: Was describing electronic dance music as the fastest-growing genre in the world. Elements of electronic music also became increasingly prominent in pop music. Radio and television also contributed to dance music's mainstream acceptance. Corporate consolidation in the EDM industry began in 2012—especially in terms of live events. In June 2012, media executive Robert F. X. Sillerman —founder of what
12960-401: Was estimated to be a £5.5bn industry in the US, up by 60% compared to 2012 estimates. Danny Rampling Danny Rampling (born 15 July 1961) is an English house music DJ and is widely credited as one of the original founders of the UK's rave /club scene. His long career began in the early 1980s playing hip-hop , soul and funk around numerous bars and clubs in London. Rampling was
13080-471: Was hosted outside of the UK for the first time in its history, being staged at the 2011's edition of the Amsterdam dance event . The 2012 and 2013 award shows were both held on 19 October at the same event. Up until 2002, the top three had consisted of at least one British DJ, since the next year (2003) at least two Dutch DJ's have featured in the top three. In 2015 the Top 100 DJs Awards Party took place as
13200-535: Was initially led by the urban contemporary artists that were responding to the over-commercialization and subsequent demise of disco culture. The sound that emerged originated from P-Funk the electronic side of disco , dub music , and other genres. Much of the music produced during this time was, like disco, catering to a singles-driven market. At this time creative control started shifting to independent record companies, less established producers, and club DJs. Other dance styles that began to become popular during
13320-455: Was known as "hardcore" rave, but from as early as 1991, some musical tracks made up of these high-tempo breakbeats, with heavy basslines and samples of older Jamaican music, were referred to as "jungle techno ", a genre influenced by Jack Smooth and Basement Records, and later just "jungle", which became recognized as a separate musical genre popular at raves and on pirate radio in Britain. It
13440-416: Was like something you can't imagine, the kind of power and energy people got off that record when it was first heard. Mike Dunn says he has no idea how people can accept a record that doesn't have a bassline." According to British DJ Mark Moore , "Strings of Life" led London club-goers to accept house: "because most people hated house music and it was all rare groove and hip hop...I'd play 'Strings of Life' at
13560-805: Was one of the first records to use a drum machine , an early Roland rhythm machine. The use of drum machines in disco production was influenced by Sly and the Family Stone 's " Family Affair " (1971), with its rhythm echoed in McCrae's "Rock Your Baby", and Timmy Thomas ' " Why Can't We Live Together " (1972). Disco producer Biddu used synthesizers in several disco songs from 1976 to 1977, including "Bionic Boogie" from Rain Forest (1976), "Soul Coaxing" (1977), and Eastern Man and Futuristic Journey (recorded from 1976 to 1977). Acts like Donna Summer , Chic , Earth, Wind & Fire , Heatwave , and
13680-778: Was only with the advent of 21st-century technology that African EDM truly began to thrive. Popular contemporary millennium Afro-EDM genres and styles can be found within the gqom ( South Africa ) and Afrobeats ( Nigeria ) genres. Music scenes in other African countries exist such as in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (tekno kintueni). Pon Pon (also ADM or African Dance Music) emerged in Nigeria circa 2018 denoting EDM influences intermingled with Afrobeats, Nigerian Afropop, dancehall and highlife . A variant
13800-471: Was pioneered by Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). Their approach to sampling was a precursor to the contemporary approach of constructing music by cutting fragments of sounds and looping them using computer technology. " Computer Game/Firecracker " (1978) interpolated a Martin Denny melody, and sampled Space Invaders video game sounds . Technodelic (1981) introduced
13920-446: Was pioneered by King Tubby and other Jamaican sound artists, using DJ-inspired ambient electronics, complete with drop-outs, echo, equalization and psychedelic electronic effects. It featured layering techniques and incorporated elements of world music , deep bass lines and harmonic sounds. Techniques such as a long echo delay were also used. Hip hop music has had some influence in the development of electronic dance music since
14040-402: Was pioneered by studio engineers, such as Sylvan Morris, King Tubby , Errol Thompson , Lee "Scratch" Perry , and Scientist . Their productions included forms of tape editing and sound processing that Veal considers comparable to techniques used in musique concrète . Dub producers made improvised deconstructions of existing multi-track reggae mixes by using the studio mixing board as
14160-609: Was postponed from its usual dates in March to August due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The 2022 vote was also delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however only to May in this instance. DJ Mag announced that the poll would return to normal rules as in 2021 club scenes outside of the previous 12 months could be considered aimed many closures due to the pandemic. Since 2015, the voters of the DJ Magazine's top 100 clubs have also voted on
14280-611: Was the center of the scene. Amnesia became known across Europe and by the mid to late 1980s it was drawing people from all over the continent. By 1988, house music had become the most popular form of club music in Europe, with acid house developing as a notable trend in the United Kingdom and Germany in the same year. In the UK an established warehouse party subculture , centered on the British African-Caribbean sound system scene fueled underground after-parties that featured dance music exclusively. Also in 1988,
14400-455: Was then editor of Scottish dance publication M8 magazine was hired to replace Chris Mellor as editor-in-chief after 10 years running the editorial staff. In 2002, Fatboy Slim was featured in the July issue after his free event held in Brighton , England attracted approximately 250,000 clubbers. In 2003 the parent company of the publication merged with the magazine publisher WVIP. From 2005
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