The 14th edition of the
Ultra Music Festival is currently taking place in Miami, FL. Until
the end of the weekend, the most popular DJs and electronic band will
be playing live music. The show can be watch live on YouTube –
don't think about getting tickets at the last minute, the festival
was completely sold out only a couple of weeks after tickets went for
sale. The lineup is exceptional: pretty much every DJ who had a hit
song in the last year or so will perform.
Can this kind of festival really be
considered as live music? Most performers are only pushing buttons on
a sound deck. Culturally speaking, a live musical performance is a
gathering of people sharing a same experience through the message the
performer is conveying in the lyrics and the connection they are
establishing with the audience by adapting their rendering of a song
and through body language. This artistic form can be found in a local
blues festival as well as in a shock rock concert. These are the
unifying characteristics that have defined music until the early
1990s.
Over the past decade, rhythms have
become more repetitive, leaving a narrow range for interpretation or
alternative renderings of a song. The message behind the lyrics is
much simpler and sometimes even missing. Live performances have
changed too. Using a sound deck instead of instruments does not allow
the performer to put on a dynamic show, to use body language or to
interact with the public. The audience has changed too: an increasing
numbers of spectators are taking pictures or recording the
performance instead of dancing or cheering. We have a much more
controlled form where the interaction between the performer and the
audience is limited.
Perhaps electronic music fans see more
in these performances than I do – but I cannot see this kind of
music standing the test of time.
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