Embracing Innovations & trends is a key characteristic of the human society. Every now and then, a disruption changes people’s perception & lifestyle. Same has been observed with music & the people who make it. The early era saw pop & rock thrive globally. India too got caught up with plethora of Bollywood, rocks, pop & other music forms. To be fair, live music here in India was a space enjoyed by Bollywood and Indian music forms. It was only accessible to those who listened to it or were connected to it. Apart from this, a generation of youngsters who grew up listening to Linking Park & Backstreet boys, was longing for concerts like they had in the west. This was a demand that was not catered and mostly neglected. Enter Electronic Dance Music.
Dance music has always been present and its influence on Indian music has been very impactful. However, the biggest disruption to how people enjoy & experience music came when the Indian Dance music prodigy – Nikhil Chinappa along with Percept started ‘Sunburn Festival’ in Goa. It was instant an Hit. It was India’s first dedicated music festival for all sorts of electronic music. Goa, which already was known for its psy & trance scene, united in unison to celebrate the sunburn culture. India was new to this feeling and it got soaked in this atmosphere and vibe. Both Artist & People connected easily to it.
Well know dance music artists like, Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Carl Cox started doing rounds of the festival. Soon to highlight the scene were the pre & after parties. Slowly, the news of a westernized music festival fluttering its wings in Goa started spreading. The Goa Obsessed youth of the country heard people enjoying the music festival and the news spread like a wildfire. It was new, it was exciting and it was filled with awesome music that people had never heard off. The scene was expanding to different cities. Northern Suburbs like Noida hosted Sunburn festivals and the ‘bhaiya’ dominated NCR got bitten by the EDM bug. These cities later on went to produce India’s finest EDM acts such as Sartek, Zaeden and Nucleya to name a few.
Lost Stories
Suddenly, EDM was ‘The thing’. A global explosion powered by artist like Avicii, Armin Van Buuren, Hardwell, Tiesto ensured that clubs played EDM 24×7. Established musicians like Will.I.Am, Madonna started collaborating with EDM artists as they knew the future belonged to EDM. This led to a massive 10 fold increase in EDM scene here in India. DJ’s now started taking the front seats in clubs & festivals. What followed was the name & recognition. EDM promoters were the flag bearers of the scene as DJ’s became the new Gods, Festivals the newest destinations & Bollywood a thing of past!!
Social media also played a big role in EDM’s spread. Facebook, twitter & Instagram accounts of DJ’s & producers were posting songs, remixes, covers and lots EDM content. The youngsters consumed it and spread it. Like & retweets continued to soar as DJ’s made to Grammy, billboard & Forbes. Both artists & their fans connected easily to the music. Festival promoters were onboarding young talent in the hope of catching them young. The number of record labels grew. Almost every artist had its own record label and booking agencies turned green.
On top of that, massive stage, big artists, exceptional lights & sounds were taking things to a next level. A thrill parched India’s youth accepted this culture with open hands. The idea of boozing with friends with new age music caught everybody’s attention. Town like Dehradun, Indore, and Lucknow started getting their own small music festivals. NH7 weekender was already a success and musicians like Nucleya, Anish Sood, Lost stories were churning out hits regularly. The future was clearly visible as influential figures like Shailendra Singh raced to create India a Global Dance music hub.
With exceptional numbers to support demand, India’s young population was raving for more EDM. Sensing this, players like Vh1, twisted entertainment setup their own festivals in Goa & Pune respectively. The inaugural vh1 party saw Steve Aoki perform to a packed crowd under the Dome in Mumbai. While Vh1 continued bringing sensational international & homegrown artists, other smaller festivals started setting up their shops. All of this buzzing festival scene did not remain hidden to the bigwigs of the global dance music companies. With the western economy going down and the music markets saturating, global dance companies set foot in India.
First in the scene was the arrival of Armin Van Buuren’s Flagship Radio show – A state of trance in Mumbai. This shocked the Global Dance music community as India propelled out of nowhere. This defining moment launched India as the Next EDM destination. People started recognizing India’s EDM potential. ASOT 600 Mumbai was a huge success. And its triumph had a ripple effect. Riding high on ASOT’s success, Armin only Intense was put up at Dome Mumbai and people were bedazzled for complete 6 hours. The event went without any glitch and set the bar really high. The following year, Major lazer, Krewella, Above & Beyond, Dead Mau5 and others toured India. The very start of 2015 saw Shaan releasing his single ‘Light up the world’ on Armada. Artists like Zaeden, Aerreo, Aceaxe, Sartek, Progressive brothers, Nucleya, Mojojojo made the cut with their singles & albums.
Tomorrowland Unite Mumbai 2015
2015 was big for the EDM scene. While the Goa government denied ID&T – promoters of Tomorrowland to setup a Tomorrowland Goa, they put a direct broadcast from the Tomorrowland Belgium to Dome Mumbai under the brand ‘Unite’. Later that year, Awakenings, Armada, Spinnin and Revealed setup their separate stages in Goa. While Indian artists were doing exceptionally well, the biggest surprises of the year was a Shivv (Shiv Magotra). He collaborated with Mykris (UMF resident) and waved the Indian flag at Ultra music festival’s main stage.
With Sensation, Don’t let daddy Know & Mad Decent block party to start this year, 2016 already seems like a good year. The mother of all Dance music conferences; Amsterdam Dance Event will take place this June in Mumbai and we are confident that this is just the beginning of India’s Rise as a Dance music powerhouse. On this note, we also need to give our local artist & talents a chance so that they can also learn and reach the height attained by the Dutch DJ’s.