In a new piece for Pitchfork, Phillip Sherburne chronicles the rise—and demise—of EDM. Like capitalism, he suggests, EDM was “predicated on limitless growth—ever bigger main stages, ever fatter paychecks for the DJs, ever brighter sparklers jutting from the jeroboams in the VIP section. But as everyone knows, that shit can’t go on forever. The bursting of the EDM bubble was a foregone conclusion.”
Sherburne plots out a timeline that starts in December 2011 with the coining of the catchphrase “Where’s the drop?” (in relation to Skrillex promoting Aphex Twin on Facebook) and ends in spring 2016 with Avicii’s retirement and Mike Posner’s ghastly ballad “I Took A Pill In Ibiza.” Read it and rejoice.