The Evolution of EDM: A Decade Of Skrillex
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Source: Rukes
By Ryan Hayes
June marks the tenth anniversary of Sonny Moore's Skrillex project. On June 7th 2010 Sonny released his 'My Name Is Skrillex' EP as a free download on My Space. That same year Sonny signed to Deadmau5's Mau5trap label where he released the game changing 'Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites' EP, and subsequently went on tour with Deadmau5 as a special guest opener. The rest history...
'Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites' namesake track revolutionized, and reinvigorated, the modern dubstep scene in North America, popularizing the genre with an entirely new generation of impressionable minds looking for a fresh sound to connect with. Up to this point dubstep has been a largely underground sound in North America. The bass driven genre had already begun to rise in popularity in the UK in the early 2000's. Evolving out of the garage scene acts like Caspa, Rusko, Skream, & Sub Focus sparked a the genre's popularity within the British club scene. Despite it's rising influence overseas it took Skrillex' reinterpretation of the genre to catapult the sound on to a global stage. Overnight he became the poster boy for electronic music's newest craze; with media outlets placing the weight of the entire scene on his shoulders.
By the time Skrillex' 2011 Mothership Tour had begun his star power was undoubted, and he was attracting diverging fringe groups of music lovers unaccustomed to the world of electronic dance music. Skrillex united legions of fans in a unified state of bass ushering in an entire new wave of DJ focused popularity—playing a pivotal role in the scene's transition to the 'EDM era.' A unprecedented run where DJ's dominated the world's festival/club circuits for the better part of a decade.
During EDM's decade prominence Skrillex storied career has been anything but straightforward. Taking countless twists and turns Sonny has continually defied expectations and kept fans guessing. Now that we are at the ten year mark and eagerly awaiting—still—his next body of work, we thought it was the perfect time to take a look back at Sonny's journey through dance music's varied landscape.
2010: Humble Beginnings
October 30th 2010 Skrillex, who at this point in time was very far down on the billing, played Meltdown festival in Dallas Texas. Only eight days after dropping 'Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites' his burgeoning dubstep sound was higher tempo, and bouncer—with clear electro/glitch influences.
2011 (January-July): Meteoric Rise
Shambhala 2011 took place August 5-8; it was Skrillex first year on the roster, and he was already holding down on the Pagoda stage. Less than a year after Meltdown Skrillex sound had evolved. Garnering more of a hard edge, his live sets dropped in BPM and cranked up the grinding bass he had become famous for.
2011 (August-December): The Mothership Takeover
By October of 2011 Skrillex had begun his first Mothership Tour. The show featured 'The Cell;' a massive stage that integrated 3D projection mapping and real-time motion capture. Travelling around the country Skrillex sold out massive crowds, and routinely added second nights in the same cities. For many of his more mainstream fans this was their entry point in to the world of electronic music. Torrents of bass swept over audiences opening them up to a whole new world and solidifying Skrillex' place in the pantheon of game changing producers—and all within a year of releasing his first EP.
2012: Global Prominence
At Ultra 2012 Skrillex went back-to-back with veteran bass/dubstep producer 12th planet. The duo laid down a now iconic hard hitting dubstep set on, arguably, dance music's most important stage. Unrelenting, it was a headbangers paradise; and the set still holds up today playing like a greatest hits album of dubsteps heyday.
2014: Established Industry Icon
By 2014 Skrillex was an established icon and bass music auteur, with an army of fans who expected nothing but the best from ever release. Although he had previously released four EP's, March 14th marked the release of Skrillex debut album 'Recess'. Packed with now classic beats—and brazen potshots at his haters, see All Is Fair in Love and Brostep—Skrillex cemented his legacy and seemed unstoppable. That June his Mothership tour held down two sold out night at Denver's renowned Red Rocks, and it was all captured in glorious HD.
2015: Pushing The Mainstream Boundaries With Diplo
Later that same year Skrillex and Diplo released their debut single as Jack Ü’s Take U There featuring Kiesza was released on September 17th 2014 and went on to become a mainstream radio hit. Throughout the year Skrillex and Diplo tested out their new material at various secret sets, including eight at Burning Man. By February of the next year they were ready. The duo celebrated the release of their debut album with a twenty four hour live stream...unfortunately the stream got shut down by local authorities eighteen hours in, only increasing the hype for duo's future performances. Jack Ü closed Ultra 2015 with special performances from the likes of Kiesza, P. Diddy K-Pop star CL, and Justin Bieber. It was, and remains, peak Ultra.
2012-Present: The Freedom Of A House Alias
Jumping back in time, Skrillex formed Dog blood with prestigious house music producer Boys Noize in 2012. The alias allowed Skrillex to branch out from his more traditional heavier style and explore new sonic inspirations. Their debut EP featured two tracks Next Order and Middle Finger. In 2019 Skrillex and Boys Noize revived Dog Blood for the release of a new four track EP, and a string of rare live appearances. One such performance took place during last year's Miami Music Week at the Brownies & Lemonade showcase. The night included a string of unique back-to-back sets, but Dog Blood stole the show.
2019: Reclusive Powerhouse Legacy Act
By 2019 the world of EDM was presented with a very different Skrillex. His days of electro/glitch influenced dubstep were far behind him, and his game changing, slow grinding, Nice Sprites era brostep production style was sequestered mainly to the 'classic' segments of his sets. Since the 2016 release of his debut album Skrillex has released a handful of high profile remixes and collaborations; and his sets have evolved to include heavy trap/rap influences—however, much of what modern Skrillex would/could be remains a mystery. Live sets have become a rarity for the artist who once played hundreds of shows a year, and his often rumoured sophomore album is nowhere to be seen. EDC Mexico 2019 is one of the last high resolution sets we have from Skrillex...and who knows when we will get the next.
Here's to hoping the now dual album rumours are true. And the hype that has been building since a new project was first teased in mid 2018 can finally be proven, and was worth the wait.
