Electronic Dance Music - Mainstream Appeal in The United States

Mainstream Appeal in The United States

Electronic dance music achieved limited popular exposure when it was marketed as electronica in America during the mid 1990s. At that time, a wave of dance music acts from the UK, including the The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and Underworld, had been prematurely associated with an "American electronica revolution." But, instead of EDM finding wider mainstream success, it was relegated to the margins of the industry. Despite the domestic music media interest in "electronica" during the latter half of the 1990s American house and techno producers were still forced to travel abroad if they wanted to establish their careers as DJs and producers.

Some 15 years later, in 2011, Spin magazine reported that the American dance music scene had finally reached critical mass with a "new rave generation" of mainstream consumers having emerged. Both domestic and foreign artists no longer viewed America as the "final frontier" when it came to EDM and the market was now wide open. Today it has become common for established Top 40 artists and producers to infuse elements of popular EDM styles in their music. According to Time Out Chicago, EDM has "become the driving beat behind pop music and product sales, the soundtrack of choice for a new generation."