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GRiZ’s Guide to the Best Emerging Producers in Electronic Music
If there’s anyone who can foreshadow the immediate future of electronic music, it’s GRiZ. EDM’s de facto Funkmaster General has long been championed as a tastemaker in the genre. Having released seven albums and helped usher in the careers of countless artists over the course of his illustrious decade-plus career, GRiZ has had a bird’s eye view of the dance music scene—and what lies ahead. We’ve joined forces with GRiZ to highlight seven artists who he believes are riding a wave to electronic music domination at the moment. In his own words: Moore Kismet “I found their tunes a while back and was instantly impressed. Such a fresh sound, and a lovely human to boot. Bound to continue to star status! And seriously, we know you know, but I just wanted to...
The Reality Behind AR and VR
For the last decade at least, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have been touted multiple times as hot, emerging technologies on the cusp of going mainstream. They were supposed to become part of our everyday lives and a staple of our entertainment consumption. Except somehow they never did cross that magical threshold to become ‘must have’ experiences. But now, finally, massive advances in headset/glasses in terms of both weight and design, plus the arrival of LIDAR as standard on some top-end phones could be game-changers. LIDAR is a method for determining distance by targeting an object with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. Lidar can also be used to make digital 3D representations of objects. On top of that, thanks to artifi...
Has the Met Gala Peaked?
In Vogue’s video coverage of last night’s Met Gala, the YouTube star Emma Chamberlain was filmed speaking to the tennis star Naomi Osaka, as they stood beneath the entrance to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. “I, like, forgot that there’s art in there,” Chamberlain said. It has felt, in recent years, that the media dominance of the Met Gala — which takes place annually to raise funds for the museum’s Costume Institute — has threatened to overshadow the significance of the museum itself. The days and weeks after the event (which typically occurs on the first Monday in May, but was postponed to last night due to COVID-19 lockdowns) are a glut of outfit galleries, fit rankings, and ‘who wore it best’ polls. This year, though, it felt like something didn’t quite click. Sure, there were t...
1996: The Year the Alternative Bubble Burst
If the first half of the ‘90s were alt-rock’s boom years — when formerly unknown bands were turning into multi-platinum sensations every few months — then 1996 marked the beginning of its flop era. Weezer’s Pinkerton, though now remembered as a career-defining classic, sold so poorly compared to the band’s triple-platinum 1994 debut that Rivers Cuomo wouldn’t regain the confidence to release another album for nearly five years. Other acts like Bush, Counting Crows, Gin Blossoms, Sheryl Crow, the Presidents of the United States, Better Than Ezra and Sponge all released their second albums in 1996. And while some still sold respectably, each registered less than half of what their debut sold, according to SoundScan. But it wasn’t just younger bands hitting the dreaded “sophomore slump.” Esta...
“No One’s Ever Been Able to Do This”: An Oral History of the First Governors Ball Music Festival
One decade ago, a couple of untested twenty-something best friends set out to create a little music festival just off the island of Manhattan, putting on a one-day event on June 18th, 2011. In the 10 years and nine iterations since, Governors Ball has become an indelible part of the East Coast’s music landscape, morphing into New York’s answer to Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza; a place where the buzziest acts in music and its biggest fans converge into one memorable weekend. Here, founders, staff, and artists who played the very first Governors Ball reflect on how everything came together without nary a hiccup. This is the oral history of the first Governors Ball Music Festival. HUMBLE BEGINNINGS: A BALL IS BORN It all begins with two best friends with a dream: Tom Russell and Jorda...
NBA Fans React to the LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade Reunion
In what might feel like a lifetime ago, superstars LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh once dominated the court as a trio in Miami. The three recently made a public appearance in support of Chirs Bosh’s Hall of Fame Induction last week. The reunion was a wholesome moment for NBA fans everywhere, bringing back a sense of nostalgia for that particular era of basektball. In particular, the Miami Heats community seems to be escatatic about the reunion. This year’s Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inducted a starstudded group that included Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce and Bill Russell. Of course, James and Wade showed up to support their former teammate. Bosh and Wade played six seasons in Miami, while he suited alongside James for just four seasons. Ray Allen, who also played with Bos...
We Surveyed Dance Music Fans On Which Iconic Early 2010’s Single Deserved a 2021 Rework
Fans are yearning for the soaring, euphoric riffs characteristic of the iconic house music singles that dominated the early 2010s. At least, that’s one interpretation of a new EDM.com social media poll. When we asked the fans which classic dance music single needed some 2021 remix magic, nearly 20,000 nostalgic respondents weighed in. By a wide margin, electronic music fans felt Swedish House Mafia‘s swan song, “Don’t You Worry Child” could use a resurgence. The single was among the first dance tracks at the time to land on major metropolitan pop radio stations, unifying fans across the globe in the process. Simultaneously, we sullenly counted down to the conclusion of the group’s One Last Tour, which felt like the definitive end to an era. Li...
Artists Reflect on 20 Years of The Strokes’ Is This It
The release of The Strokes’ landmark debut album, Is This It, was anything but smooth, but once it made its way into the hands of rock fans, its impact was profound. After a staggered international release of the album beginning in August 2001, Is This It was set to arrive in the United States on September 11th on vinyl and September 25th on the then-more-popular CD format. For the US release, the cover artwork was changed from a woman’s naked hip and rear end to the less-risque image of subatomic particle tracks. While the vinyl did come out on September 11th as planned, that day’s horrific terrorist attacks forced the New York band and its label to rethink the release of the CD. The scathing tune “New York City Cops” was dropped from the tracklist of the CD version in the wake of the her...
Song of the Week: MUNA and Phoebe Bridgers Keep it Easy and Breezy with “Silk Chiffon”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, MUNA and Phoebe Bridgers paint a pop portrait of September bliss. After over a year, MUNA has returned with a bright, addictive pop anthem. “Silk Chiffon” employs the help of beloved and perpetually-in-her-feelings Phoebe Bridgers, for whom the band will opening on tour this fall. Bridgers, for her part, arrives with perhaps the most Phoebe Bridgers line imaginable: “I’m high and I’m feeling anxious inside of a CVS.” (It’s called having a brand — look it up!) The members of MUNA have always embraced their identity as a “quee...
Rap Song of the Week: AZ Performs a Rhyming “Ritual” with Lil Wayne and Conway the Machine
Rap Song of the Week breaks down the essential rap and hip-hop tracks released each week. Check out the full playlist here. This week, AZ teams up with Lil Wayne and Conway the Machine on a cut from his highly-anticipated album, Doe or Die II. After more than a decade in the making, New York hip-hop royalty AZ has finally dropped Doe or Die II, the sequel to his mafioso rap classic debut. Lyrical exercises like “Ritual” ensure the album was well worth the wait, as The Firm member tag-teams with Lil Wayne and Conway the Machine over a grimy beat by The Alchemist to remind fans and fellow MCs alike that he’s been a force to be reckoned with since the mid ’90s. Using an effortless multi-syllabic flow, AZ raps about not needing the spotlight to prove he’s been one of the best rappers over...
30 Artists Reflect on Metallica’s Black Album Turning 30
These days, Metallica’s self-titled fifth LP (aka the Black Album) is hailed as a bona fide classic. Quite admirable, considering how upon its 1991 release date, diehard fans spread buyer’s remorse faster than COVID. In this writer’s tenure as a surly clerk for a mall-based record-store chain, he remembers the true believers complaining about everything from the shortened song lengths to James Hetfield’s lyrics to uber-producer Bob Rock’s framing of their heavy metal hellions. Back then, insufferable customers got their cash refunds while others continued to bitch like mad with the subtext that “maybe it would grow on me.” Now 30 years and approximately 35 million sales later, the Black Album is downright canonical. Sure, the Bay Area thrash-metal mavericks were indeed architects (alongsid...
30 Artists Reflect on Metallica’s Black Album Turning 30
These days, Metallica’s self-titled fifth LP (aka the Black Album) is hailed as a bona fide classic. Quite admirable, considering how upon its 1991 release date, diehard fans spread buyer’s remorse faster than COVID. In this writer’s tenure as a surly clerk for a mall-based record-store chain, he remembers the true believers complaining about everything from the shortened song lengths to James Hetfield’s lyrics to uber-producer Bob Rock’s framing of their heavy metal hellions. Back then, insufferable customers got their cash refunds while others continued to bitch like mad with the subtext that “maybe it would grow on me.” Now 30 years and approximately 35 million sales later, the Black Album is downright canonical. Sure, the Bay Area thrash-metal mavericks were indeed architects (alongsid...
