Last week, this blog ran an article about Pioneer getting into the remote DJing game – where people can collaborate with each other on a DJ set and never actually meet. I mentioned it was likely we would see more of this from the Metaverse and that DJs needed to seriously think about its implications.
I happen to think all this is part of the future. I don’t think the technology is entirely there for all the possibilities, but I believe anyone who tries to pretend this isn’t coming soon is deluding themselves. The truth is there could be large swathes of the next generation coming into dance music who have never stepped foot in a nightclub – and maybe even have no desire to.
That in itself poses very difficult questions for the scene. Togetherness and unity in dance music was traditionally formed on the dancefloor and record shops. The second of those is gone due to the rise of digital technology – and if nightclubs don’t work out their next move, they could be heading the same direction.
A serious music press would be interested in discussing this subject. Yet I see very little taking place – so far, the most Mixmag can conjure up is an article dismissing one such event as “the worst rave of all time”. They also seem to conflate it with other issues, such as NFTs and cryptocurrency.
Yes, some of the events held online are going to be rubbish – in much the same way some nightclub excursions will be. But no one dismisses all nightclubs because they had a bad experience at one, because that would be ridiculous. Yet here are Mixmag hinting at precisely this.
In the early 2000s, the world discovered the internet couldn’t be stopped. And it still can’t now – we are where we are. The rise of working from home also raises interesting questions in this regard. Will people basically become hermits doing most of their social interaction in a virtual world, or will there be an offline backlash where people go out more often as a result?
These are important questions which deserve to be debated. I will, of course, do what I can to help thrash out the arguments – but one person talking isn’t a debate, it’s a monologue…
