EDM Report June 2021

With 3 David Guetta records and a Calvin Harris record currently in the Top 40 it seemed the right time to do an update on the state of EDM in the charts.

To recap, back at the end of 2018 Liam Howlett said the charts were in a better place now EDM was dead. Calvin Harris had a Top 40 hit at the beginning of 2019 and the next time he appeared in the Top 40 was September 2020 with an R&B record. None of David Guetta's singles in 2019 or 2020 made the Top 40. The charts weren't completely free of EDM music during this period but there was notably less of it than in previous years.

This year though it appears to be on the rise again and both David Guetta and Calvin Harris have returned to the Top 40. After rap it's the 2nd most popular genre in the Top 40 this year in terms of quantity.

It's now 12 years since David Guetta topped the charts with "When Love Takes Over". Historically you'd expect a dance genre to have 12 months at the top before the world moves onto something new. The records currently in the charts by David Guetta and Calvin Harris could just as easily have been written in 2009.

The main difference now in the case of 2 of the David Guetta records in the Top 40 is that instead of being David Guetta featuring random singers it's David Guetta featuring other producers and random singers. It's often been questioned whether David Guetta actually writes any of his music. Here it looks like David Guetta is simply allowing his name to be used on the record for promotional purposes. 

The question though is why has it lasted so long? I think its to do with the fact it's not music for music lovers. It's for people who are influenced by Instagram influencers or people who watch "The Only Way Is Essex". The music is secondary, it's all about the image. 

I'm not going to pretend that sort of thing wasn't there before. House music has always been a bit up it's own backside in my opinion evident by the fact that at almost every event I went to you'd get people in the queue being turned away for not meeting the dress code requirements. 

But EDM is the music of what's considered cool in the modern world. Its music to dance to in the club or to work out. I've never watched "The Only Way Is Essex" or any of those other reality TV shows but I get the impression it's people going to the club and working out. As long as that sort of thing is popular then so will EDM.