It’s about time that we faced an unescapable truth – the dance music press has never been up to scratch. Even during the supposed heydays of the 1990s, much of the output of the then magazines wasn’t much good – the odd bit of decent journalism hidden alongside articles about how great it was to be on drugs.
Yet whilst the dance music press never had a golden age – this myth has about as much truth in it as the Belleville Three fairytale – standards have never been lower than they are now. Part of it reflects the more general decline in the media – obsessed with easy non-stories trying to cancel people for holding opposing views – but part of it reflects the biases of those working within the sector.
The team here at Ears To The House holds a variety of political views. What binds us together is the determination to make dance music a better place for everyone – and if that means asking uncomfortable questions at times, so be it.
With that in mind, why is the dance music press being so utterly one-sided in their coverage of the Israeli Palestine conflict latest flare-up? Yes, they state they wish to see peace in the region – and whilst Ears To The House certainly agrees, we wish the territorial dispute could also be resolved.
But our view is simple – it’s not the job of Ears To The House, nor any other dance music outlet, to take a side on this. The dance music press, for example, had little to say on the Supernova rave tragedy – which saw hundreds die, including twin brother organisers Michael and Osher Vaknin. And we can’t help but wonder why.
The dance music press frequently pushes the line that this scene is about love and respect for your fellow human beings. Yet they seem curiously reluctant to share this sympathy when it came to this story – and no, not everyone who died out there was an Israeli. Quite simply, the job of the likes of Resident Advisor is to report on how the dance music world is being affected by the conflict.
But you wouldn’t know that given their coverage recently. An article called “Palestine: How to help, resources, messages of solidarity” was first published on Monday – with literally no attempt to be balanced in their coverage. Mixmag, in the meantime, have published an article attempting to argue that people not going to work will somehow bring peace to the region.
And now Annabel Ross – the dance music press doyenne who doesn’t like being called a dance music press doyenne – has posted on X, formerly Twitter, about her “respect” for NTS Radio deciding to change their playlist a bit last Friday…
So why are the dance music press being so utterly one-sided in their coverage? Ears To The House reached out to a person who has previously worked in a number of senior positions within dance music magazines – and he agreed to talk on condition of anonymity.
He told us “The dance press has always been pretty biased towards more what they call left wing opinions. It’s mostly because a lot of people working in it have those views. It’s gotten worse in recent years as more experienced staff left and were replaced by juniors. What these people don’t seem to realise is their own privilege when it comes to these things.”
“They also don’t seem to understand that they’re polarising their own audience. The dance music community holds a lot of different views, but the whole point is that none of that matters on the dancefloor. Judging by the way the dance press is behaving right now, you’d think they only want you on the dancefloor if you agree with them. It’s creating an echo chamber effect, and it’s not healthy.”
“This situation dates back to at least the 1940s, probably even further. There are some subjects which the dance press shouldn’t get involved with, and if they absolutely have to, they shouldn’t take any sides.”
We couldn’t agree more…
