The tag of “most hated” gets a fair bit of use in dance music: in 2011 the Guardian asked whether the irrepressible Skrillex was the most hated man in dubstep, while Chuckie mask-wearing EDM-peddler DJ Bl3nd has accumulated his own share of detractors. Controversy-stirring Israeli brostep producer Borgore is the latest to attract the label, in a new long-form feature on Buzzfeed that unambiguously declares him “The Most Hated Man in EDM.”

The source of Buzzfeed’s contention is the overt misogyny and sexual objectification of women at the heart of Borgore’s brand, from the ‘Ratchet Pageants’ at his shows to the #bootyforborgore hashtag and, most conspicuously, his explicit and at times sexually violent lyrics. There’s no denying that Borgore’s lyrics swing from off-colour to wildly offensive, with the article quoting two tracks in particular, Act Like a Ho (“Girl, take example from these bitches/In bed, act like a ho but first, do the dishes!”) and Glory Hole (“Oh my god, it’s a whale/Wait, that’s your sister/Just take her to the glory hole/You wouldn’t have to kiss her/Nah, sea mammals are not on my fuck list/Man, it’s a glory hole, fuck if she’s obese”).

Bassnectar and BT have made no secret of their disdain for Borgore on Twitter (BT even accused him of being a crackhead as well as a misogynist), and Buzzfeed finds plenty of other dance music figureheads with a bone to pick with Borgore. “What a wanker. He’s an embarrassment,” declares underground house and techno star Nicole Moudaber. Kathryn Frazier, owner of dance music PR company Biz3, believes that, “Borgore is certainly a misogynist,” while dubstep pioneer Rusko says scathingly, “There’s not that much respect for him in the industry because [his lyrics] are kind of a gimmick, and gimmicks lack musical integrity. Though I don’t think he’s meant to be taken seriously.”

Dance music stalwart and spokesperson Tommie Sunshine had some more considered words, saying, “This music and culture doesn’t create an environment of misogyny. In fact, we really can hope and believe that it’s the one place where everyone can be themselves. When you dig a little deeper into it, yeah, there’s the economic consideration of people using misogyny to achieve commercial success, and then you have them using creative expression to justify any and all of their actions. That’s where it gets really hazy.”

For his part, Borgore vigorously denies that he denigrates women, insisting that his lyrics are intended as a joke. “I’m the only artist in EDM that goes and says crazy things, so it’s kind of easy to pick on me,” he tells the Buzzfeed interviewer. “If I don’t cause any reaction, there’s no point of what I’m doing.”

Australian EDM duo Nervo also speak in favour of Borgore, with Miriam Nervo saying, “I think he’s a woman lover, not a woman hater. He’s been nothing but a gent to us.” Head over to the full Buzzfeed feature to make up your own mind.

Posted by David Miller (Via In The Mix)

Yesterday, Radio.com posted an interivew with Tom Petty where the rocker made the following comments about EDC and dance music:

“Watch people play records? That’s stupid. You couldn’t pay me to go. I’m not oversimplifying it. That’s what’s going on. I don’t think it would be any fun without the drugs. It’s a drug party. You take that many kids to Vegas in the summer, what could go wrong? I knew it as soon as I saw the ad. I went, ‘Ooh, dead people.’ Do you need the money so bad that you’ll put some kid’s life at risk?”

This is Insomniac Founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella’s response:

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about records, DJs and dance music, including Tom Petty. We’re living in a very electronic era with constantly evolving forms of entertainment, which may be a daunting thing for a classic rocker in search of contemporary social relevancy as he starts promoting new music. But I would think that someone who played shows with Dylan and the Dead—someone who lived through and actively contributed to the counterculture era of the ’60s and ’70s—wouldn’t be so quick to drink the overhyped media Kool-Aid about our festival experience. If he wants to come to EDC Vegas next year and see what it’s really about, we’ve got a ticket with his name on it. If he doesn’t want to wait that long, Nocturnal Wonderland is right around the corner. My Mama Irene would be stoked to meet him! Who knows? He might just have a “Change of Heart.”

Posted by David Miller

More names have leaked from the SLS Las Vegas nightlife roster: Dirty South, formerly of Light Nightclub, makes his debut at the new north-Strip property’s Foxtail on August 30, one week before Erick Morillo opens Life Nightclub. Vegas DJs Five and Joe Maz have upcoming gigs at Foxtail as well, while CLA announced her new residency with both Foxtail and Life party spots. All three locals have DJ’d for Hyde Bellagio, which, like the venues at SLS, falls under Sam Nazarian’s SBE Entertainment group.

Krave will throw its last party at Tommy Wind Theater on July 26. Original owner/founder Sia Amiri says he’s shuttering the pioneering, oft-shuffled LGBT party not because of increased competition, but a new concept that may revive the brand (at a new venue), to be announced in the future.

Insomniac Events has uploaded a few video sets (from DJs like Destructo, Borgore and Laidback Luke) and highlights from its EDC Curated footage to its website and EDC Curated YouTube page.

Hakkasan Group hasn’t revealed what’s going into the former Pure location, but it’s already filling some positions for the hotspot’s next incarnation. Visit hakkasangroup.com/hakkasan-careers for more info.

Posted by Mike Prevatt (Via LV Weekly)

Statik Selektah unveils a new record with Action Bronson, Royce Da 5’9″ & Black Thought entitled “The Imperial.”

As far as lyrics-first rappers go, you can’t really hope for much of a better trio than Action Bronson, Royce Da 5’9″ and Black Thought, all of whom guest on Statik Selektah’s new track. Kicking off with Bronson declaring himself the “rap Scott Disick,” the song goes on to include thrilling verses from all parties present.

“The Imperial” is taken from Selektah’s upcoming album What Goes Around, which comes out August 19th on Showoff/Duck Down Music.

Posted by Dennis Blaze

After showcasing it as a ‘concept product’ during international music fair Musikmesse earlier this year, Pioneer has now revealed its highly-anticipated PLX-1000 professional turntable to the DJ community at large.

The new product, which is expected to be available in August with a ‘suggested price’ of USD$699, has already got DJs talking (and debating) about how it measures up to the ubiquitous Technics SL-1210.

The PLX-1000 turntable features “a high-torque direct drive system,” plus enough sturdiness and sound quality that it’s ready for use in clubs. The official introduction video, which you can watch below, features two turntable maestros – DJ Qbert and DJ Shortkut of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz and Beat Junkies – trialing the new product.

“When I touched the Pioneer turntables, I thought, ‘OK, I feel at home,’” Qbert says. “I like the pitch control to be super-wide, and it has that. Everyone has a different fingerprint. Everyone’s going to create something special. There’s advantages on the digital and there’s advantages on the analogue.”

We then see a snippet of Apollonia member Dyed Soundorom working the turntables at infamous marathon party Circo Loco. Check out the video below to see all those features put to use, then head to Pioneer’s website for a closer look.

Check out DJ Qbert and DJ Shortkut having a go on the new PLX-1000 professional turntable.

Posted by David Miller (Via ITM)

Whenever Calvin Harris is on the mainstage closing out a festival, there is going to be a huge crowd. When that main stage act is accompanied by royalty, well, then you have something real special. Calvin returned to Scotland this weekend for the T in the Park music festival and was one of the top ‘must-see’ acts, along with Arctic Monkeys, Steve Angello, Imagine Dragons, Biffy Clyro and Ed Sheeran. But what set apart the superstar DJ on this night was his guest hype man, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air himself Will Smith. Smith appeared on stage to introduce Harris, saying “I said to Calvin Harris, I have two weeks free and I want an experience.

Calvin said, ‘Come home with me, come to Scotland…’ Ladies and gentlemen, Scotland’s own Calvin Harris!” This was met with thunderous applause and was followed by a powerhouse set that saw his latest single “C.U.B.A.” get situated among his others hits like “Summer” and the “Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat” remix. This also adds more fuel to the fire about the ‘EDM Sitcom’ news that has been circulating since January. While we wait on more news on the sitcom, check out this video from Calvin’s Instagram of Will Smith on the stage.

Posted by James Brannigan (Via EDMTunes)

Breaking records last evening Eminem marked history as the first rapper ever to headline the iconic Wembley Stadium (90,000 people) in London last night for the first of two shows. Opening talent consisted of Odd Future and Danny Brown setting the tone for Em to offer quite a legendary performance.

The earth froze mid way through his set when Dr. Dre was brought out on stage for a surprise reunion that no one saw coming. The living legends kick off with “Still D.R.E”, followed by “Nuthin But A G Thang” into and finally “Forgot About Dre”. We can only hope this is not a one time performance and we can hopefully see more Dre in the current future.Skip to about 1:36 in the vid.

Posted by Nick (Via ThisSongIsSick)

SoundCloud is going fully legit, with the company rumored to be selling the three major labels a 9-15% total stake, according to sources cited by Bloomberg. The deal has yet to be announced due to certain parties being closer than others in signing, Bloomberg’s sources say. The deal would make it possible for the audio streaming company to continue letting its users stream music from the majors under licensing deals that would form a part of the overall deal.

Two sources confirmed to Billboard that the details of the report are accurate, and that the deal will be signed imminently.

Details of the deal, including licensing rates and each major’s exact ownership percentage were not available.

The three majors also hold a minority stake in streaming music service Spotify. Universal Music Group held a 14% stake in Beats Music, netting the company around $420 million following its acquisition by Apple.

Earlier this year the company was rumored to being circled by Twitter for an acquisition rumored to be $2 billion; the company’s Series D funding round earlier in the year brought in $60 million, valuing the company at $700 million. Around the time of that Series D, rumors were already swirling around the majors taking a stake in the service.

SoundCloud was criticized earlier this month for its increasingly hard-line tack on copyright, though much of the controversy was business-as-usual for major content destinations like YouTube or Vimeo.

SoundCloud and Warner Music Group refused to comment on the deal. Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment did not immediately return requests for comment.

Posted by David Miller

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Just when you thought the star-studded celebutante and heiress to the Hilton regime has crawled back under her diamond encrusted bridge, she resurfaces as if to climb one step higher in the popularity polls upon the corpses of a thousand long-forgotten internet trolls.

And after the release of last year’s ‘Good Time‘, with executive production assistance from Afrojack, Paris is back with her latest dance-music-tvrnt-pop-music single. ‘Come Alive‘ is much more on the pop side of music than EDM, with a classic verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure that can be seen across almost every popular music tune in the last decade or more. If you look at the song through these lens, something more similar to her ‘Stars are Blind‘ that rocked many a high school dance back in our very own heydays, instead of a DJ friendly banger where you’re constantly waiting for the drop, then maybe the track can be justified as passably alright.

Yet if the song was indeed meant for dance floors and clubs, then it may seem as no wonder what drove this Ibiza Resident’s club goers to take bath salts…

Posted by William Vance (Via EDMTunes)

Jimmy Fallon is the realest—even when he’s impersonating Neil Young! On Monday’s Tonight Show, the late-night host brought back back brought his impersonation of the Grammy-winning singer for a cover of Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” with Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Fallon was all decked out in his Young getup, which included the hat, the hair, the button-down and trademark brown suede jacket. With the brim of the hat pulled forward to cast an obscuring shadow above his eyes, it was easy to mistake Fallon as being the real “Southern Cross” singer at first glance!

The folk supergroup teased Monday night’s appearance on Twitter, touting a tune-in to to their Tonight Show performance as part of a CSNY (David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Young) reunion. And while the real Young wasn’t able to be there, Fallon did a pretty good job filling in for one of music’s greatest.

Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” has been No. 1 on the pop charts for six weeks now (the longest reign for any hit by a female rapper). So it was probably inevitable that Jimmy Fallon would spoof it on The Tonight Show. Fallon has broken out his Young impersonation a time or two before, like when he performances Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” and Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair.” Gotta keep the music fun!

Posted by David Miller

For the third year in a row – dating back to when it expanded to two consecutive weekends with identical lineups – the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif., set an all-time Boxscore record for gross ticket sales. The festival is produced by Goldenvoice Presents, a division of AEG Live.

The total combined sold-out attendance for both weekends at 96,500 per day for a total of 579,000 and a gross of $78,332,000, according to numbers reported to Billboard Boxscore. The festival took place April 11-13 and April 18-20, with headliners Outkast, Queens of the Stone Age, Arcade Fire, Skrillex, Beck, Pharrell Williams, Lorde, the Replacements, Chromeo, and many more. Last year’s event grossed $67.2 million.

The weekend following Coachella, Goldenvoice produced the Stagecoach country music festival, which drew 63,400 per day for a total attendance of 190,200. The total gross for Stagecoach was $18,615,000, with headliners Eric Church, Jason Aldean, Luke Brian, Brantley Gilbert, Hunter Hayes, and Florida Georgia Line.

The combined three weekends at the Empire Polo Grounds saw a total of 769,000 paid, resulting in a gross of $96,947,000.

Posted by Ray Waddell (Via Billboard)

Club Killers Radio host & co-founder returns with his follow up to his 2013 EDC Road Trip mix that had well over 115,000 downloads making it our most popular DJ mix of all time.

This past week Alex dropped his latest offering just in time for EDC week with exclusive mash ups and edits such as his hard hitting mash up of “Latch” by Disclosure, “Summer” by Calvin Harris, & many other CK exclusives which have only been released to members of our MP3 pool till now. For full track list click Continue reading →