Found this Diplo quote that had him talking about Zedd and his latest album True Colors from a recent post on Your EDM:
“I’m actually not enemies with Zedd by any means. I just think that he came from such a cool place, and now he’s been pegged as a money-maker for a major label to do EDM, which to me isn’t even a genre. But they’ve pegged him for that, they’ve marketed him, even the fake relationship with Selena Gomez, all the things to sell records took away from the music. He’s an amazing producer and good songwriter. I just feel like… I was hoping he’d come out of the scene and do something. He had some pop records and I think he was learning how to make great songs through that. So to just kind of like not care and make an album that’s just stereotype… there’s nothing really there for anybody. He’s got a really loud space right now in this culture, there are a lot of people paying attention to him, he can do this awesome music, and to just come out with something so flat and expected and easy for people… When Skrillex and I came out with the Jack Ü album, we came out with the weirdest s–t we could think of. We’re not about to put out the same songs we did over and over again. You only live once, you know what I’m saying?”
I don't necessarily agree or disagree with Diplo's thoughts on Zedd's new album, but found this quote thought provoking enough to post. Some of our biggest artists have a huge stage to work from where their music has the possibility to influence millions of fans. Are our biggest stars helping to move dance music forward to a new level?
Are mainstream fans that are discovering electronic dance music for the first time through artists like Zedd, Calvin Harris, David Guetta, and even Diplo are intrigued enough to dive deeper into the scene? I would hope that the answers to all of these questions are yes, and I am hopeful those are issues that EDM's biggest artists are thinking about as well.
