Since we made our return as Ears To The House back on May 23rd, our audience has been steadily growing. This, of course, is something we appreciate a lot – we believe there is an appetite in the dance music world for outlets which dare to ask questions about the culture and people in it, rather than meekly accepting the press release version of culture perpetuated elsewhere.

And it appears others are coming round to our point of view – thanks to every one of you, and you are very welcome. But along with new fans have come new people who, if we’re honest, don’t really understand what we do or what we’re about. Worse than that, they make bizarre claims that we are somehow hating on the culture – so we thought we’d take some time to explain our philosophy.

Let’s make one thing clear from the outset. Ears To The House loves dance music and dance music culture. We believe that even though it’s been around for nearly four decades now, it still has much to offer the world – indeed, we think dance music and its culture’s role in many aspects of our society is yet to be fully grasped.

But equally, we believe it’s crucial to ask questions about the culture – because it’s utterly idiotic to pretend everything about it is good. We, for example, intensely dislike the bro culture which infests dance music like a plague – locking good, talented people out. We dislike the inequality, where rich white men at the top continue to get rich off a culture which they profit from – all whilst pioneers who changed the world die without a penny to their name.

And we abhor the idolatry within dance music. This idea that those big name DJs must somehow be worshipped and not held to the same standards which apply to the rest of us has repeatedly allowed many people to get away with truly awful behaviour – some of which would have them in prison if they held any other type of career.

We don’t think it’s unreasonable, for instance, that clubbers are able to go out and enjoy themselves safely. We don’t think they should have to worry about being spiked, being sold drugs which are not what they claim or being the victims of crime in its many forms. The mere idea that anyone asking questions about the safety of the dance music scene is somehow a hater is simply preposterous.

We believe that the dance music scene, for its own health, needs to have people examining it with a critical eye. This happens in other areas of life, such as sports, politics and social matters – so why not music too? Those people should make an effort to be fair – and we generally believe we are at Ears To The House – but should also be unafraid to ask questions without fear of reprisals from those elsewhere with an opposing agenda.

And whilst we believe people are individuals capable of thinking for themselves, we also believe that who they choose to associate themselves with in their public – and sometimes private – lives tells us much about their character. We also think it’s fair to ask questions about their beliefs and behaviour, especially when you have the likes of Danny Rampling using his position to peddle Covid related misinformation throughout a pandemic.

Ears To The House loves the dance music scene and its culture – but love must never be blind to fault. The culture owes it to both its idealistic pioneers and future generations to always aim to do better – and we will never make any apologies for expecting so.