Two of the top DJs and EDM music producer/artists are at it again. Skrillex and Deadmau5 are now at odds over the future of electronic dance music, otherwise known as EDM, and whether it will last or is just a current trend.
It all started when Skrillex, otherwise known as Sonny John Moore, did an interview with Rolling Stone last week in which, among other things, he discussed the state of EDM. When asked about the future of EDM, Skrillex equivocated, making the important distinction between a certain type of mass market EDM and "computer music" in general.
"Are you asking me how long people are going to make EDM?", he said. "Like what David Guetta's making? Avicii? Or are you asking how long people are going to make computer music? Because people won't stop making music on the computer until computers go away. But as far as a certain culture and aspect of EDM, yeah, I do believe that it will go away, because the ratio of businesspeople is trumping the ratio of actual artistry."
DJ Magazine picked up the article and asked its readers via Twitter whether they agree with Skrillex that EDM will go away. That led Deadmau5 to respond in a since deleted tweet with his trademark snark that "@DJmag @Skrillex would both just shut the f*** up already. EDM isn't going anywhere, unfortunately neither is pop. WHO F***** CARES."
Skrillex and Deadmau5, once close friends (Deadmau5 helped give Skrillex his start in the industry) have been going at it via Twitter since 2015, when Deadmau5 harshly criticized Skrillex for selling out his music by working with Justin Bieber as part of his Jack U project with Diplo. Skrillex responded by calling Deadmau5 an "a**hole," and the two have been at it on social media ever since.
Skrillex was questioned about their beef in the Rolling Stone piece, and responded that if Deadmau5 was a real friend, he would have confronted him privately about his collaboration with Bieber rather than blasting his criticism to the world via Twitter. He also defended the move, asking pointedly if a producer (read: Deadmau5) was asked to work with the world's biggest artist, would he really decline?
The irony of this latest exchange, however, is that Skrillex and Deadmau5 may not actually disagree on the question of EDM's longevity, as the argument appears to be more a question of semantics. Skrillex was very clear in distinguishing between a specific commercialized aspect of EDM that he thought would eventually implode, and "computer music" in general.
Meanwhile, it seems as if Deadmau5 is referring to EDM as the broader definition of music made by computers that Skrillex actually agrees isn't going anywhere, as long as computers are around.
