Was 2016 the Year Dance Music Finally Grew Up?

2016 was our 1968. It’ll be remembered by everyone involved as a tumultuous, polarizing year, defined by its demoralizing US election, ongoing wars, and the gradual retreat toward more conservative views. Even dance music—the hedonistic, apolitical retreat for the flamboyant and the fragrant—has been forced to take stances on certain adjacent issues, being dragged into the political arena over its culture of drugs and the future of clubs.

Just as I pulled the ripcord on 2016 and started this retrospective feature, news of the tragic warehouse party fire in Oakland came through. At least 33 of our fellow clubbers were killed on December 2 while they attended an underground event in a space without necessary permits. The tragedy put the spotlight on the obvious problems of having large swaths of the scene lingering in unregulated spaces, but it also exposed the debilitating effect the Bay Area’s housing crisis is having on the arts community.

“It’s been a monumentally shit year, but there were a lot of truths and, if you squint hard enough, a lot of silver linings.”

It’s been a monumentally shit year, but there were a lot of truths and, if you squint hard enough, a lot of silver linings. We’ll likely remember this year as one in which the electronic music scene was forced to grow up. Ours is a young scene, barely 30 years old. If it were a human, it would be staring nervously into the abyss of adulthood. We’re quickly realizing the true impact of those mistakes we made when we were younger, starting to panic about our health, and generally trying to present a responsible image of ourselves and pray that we can fool everyone long enough to actually learn how to be responsible.

fabric’s debacle in the latter half of the year was an example of us reacting with maturity and unity to a problem that immaturity led us into. The London club’s license was revoked in September after the drug-related deaths of two clubbers and a subsequent undercover police report stating that drug use at the club was ubiquitous. After getting 160,000 signatures on the #savefabric petition, as well as raising hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund an appeal, the club settled out of court, promised to step up its security efforts, and is scheduled to open on January 5. It was a huge win for a club community that organized itself well and deployed its key voices to lobby for change. But we wouldn’t have had to do any of that if the UK scene could adequately address its profoundly unhealthy relationship with partying.

Time Warp Argentina saw five clubbers die in April after they took the notorious PMMA-heavy red Superman pills that had been widely written about in Europe, following the deaths of four people in late 2014. The documentation and alert system in Europe showed an advance in public safety, but the pills presumably being shipped to South America, where such systems don’t exist, shows that we’re still a long way from solving this.

The sainted White Isle of Ibiza seemed to officially pledge its allegiance to bottle service in 2016, after years of gradually eroding the music and vibe-focused values that it held paramount in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Space’s longtime owner Pepe Roselló—considered by many to be a stalwart of a now bygone era in Ibiza—handed the keys to his club over to the unpopular and all-encompassing Matutes Group, who allegedly have plans to go full VIP. But while Ibiza is selling out and going corporate for the cash, the news of police raids on Ushuaia, Pacha and Amnesia for not paying their taxes shows that they haven’t quite grown up yet.

But enough about the culture—what about the music? 2016 felt like the “EDM sound” was just about over. The Chainsmokers hauled the genre out of the clubs and festivals and into the Beats buds of basics everywhere with their mega-hit “Closer,” while Mike Posner’s inspiring confession that he took a pinger in Ibiza made a mockery of our once-prized subcultural status. These are the chart-topping dance parody songs that heralded the decline of the genre in the early ‘00s (see Eiffel 65’s “Blue”). So, hold your nose. We’re going back underground.

In house and techno, the Tale of Us–patented “Mantrance” sound seems to have run its course, so expect to see the once-loyal Hot Creations K-hole crowd searching for something equally tedious in 2017. The UK and the Netherlands are fostering a beautiful, nuanced house scene at the moment, led by the likes of Church Records, Rush Hour, and Phonica. It’s not festival music—which seems to be an unfortunate requisite in dance music at the moment—but hopefully a renewed interest in intimate clubbing will help this sound make some kind of impact in the US next year.

2016 has been a slog, and recounting everything we’ve faced in this article didn’t have the purging effect that I’d hoped it would. But watching everyone rally together in support of fabric gave me faith in our ability to fight for ourselves, and conversations happening at every conference and industry get-together convinced me that we’re ready to face our demons and at least try to become a grown-up, responsible scene next year.

So, in the spirit of looking forward, here are some predictions for 2017:

We’re going to talk about drugs. It has to happen, so saddle up.
fabric will reopen, and people will complain about the increased security, because people in dance music like to pretend things were better in their day. You were better back in your day, you old fart; shut up.
Drum & bass will come back. Yeah, yeah, bassPOD kids, it never went away. But it did. I reckon you’ll start hearing DJs dropping rogue jungle tracks into house and techno sets in 2017, like they did with acid in 2015, and breaks in 2016. Get ready to skank.
Meaningless, politically inspired yet infuriatingly directionless parties will be thrown in opposition to President Trump and his administration. Techno Trumps All? Hardstyle Loves Hillary? Fuck off—no thanks.
Every DJ is going to have “(Live)” written next to their name on lineups as they frantically try to differentiate themselves and board a life raft rather than a floating door. Playing loops on Ableton isn’t “live,” mate. Try harder.