Opinion

Picture this... It’s 2030, and the DJ Mag Top 100 has just been topped, for the first time ever, by an artist created with artificial intelligence. The furore is palpable. The DJ community and scene at large are up in arms.

Future Shocks

Beats, the new film from director Brian Welsh, tells the tale of two Scottish teenagers attending their first rave in 1994, just as the Conservative government are cracking down on the free party scene. It’s set on the brink of passing the Criminal Justice & Public Order Act — which infamously banned large gatherings around “sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats”.

And for dance music fans in particular, the film could be a reflection of moments in countless lives — those nights when you’ll do anything and everything to get to the party.

From South East Asia to the Western US, North to South Africa, people can’t get enough of synths and syncopated rhythms. Electronic beats are officially the global sound of now, and we couldn’t be happier.

According to the latest IMS Report, the dance music industry was worth $7.3bn by May of this year. By 2021, it could be closer to $9bn. As physical and digital sales continue to fall, and streaming fails to plug the void, live events are becoming ever more important sources of revenue for everyone involved.

OFF-SETTING

To blame festivals alone for the rise in the number of techno nomads would be unfair, of course. Regular clubs have long-since relied on high profile guests rather than local talent to sell out. Those guests often come from other countries and, particularly in Europe where cheap airfares and short journey times are the norm, so do many in the crowd.