Case Study Intro

At Dance Music Addicted you will stumble upon a few case studies that demonstrate how the use of social media tools like twitter and YouTube have influenced the world of electronic dance music. 

Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey in 2006, is a revolutionary tool where anyone can contribute facts, opinions and (as you will soon find out) talents. 
YouTube on the other hand is the internet’s premier video sharing service and was founded by former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim and Steve Chen. The site launched in February 2005 and has drawn billions of viewers since then according to ComScore.

Photo taken from the Atlantic 

Photo taken from the Atlantic 

Case Study: The Veldt

‘The Veldt’ is a 2012 dance track produced and released by Joel Zimmerman under his stage name deadmau5. This track is especially unique because of its social media element. The song was created during a live stream which meant that fans had a rare insiders look at how the mau5 made his magic happen. 

Here, a young musician by the name of Chris James takes note of Joel’s work and sends him a rendition of the song with his own vocals. James’ covered vocals were highly recommended by fans by way of retweets and shout outs. Zimmerman caught onto this positive trend and decided to check out the vocals for himself. The rest is in the EDM history books. 

deadmau5 ecstatic over Chris James’s vocals. Originally a deadmau5 live stream, this video was uploaded to YouTube by OverKillGaming101

Joel Finds a Vocalist! (actual tweets)

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The Veldt. Official single from deadmau5 

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Case Study: Gangnam Style

It’s quite clear how social media has affected this next case study. The popularity of Korean rapper PSY has skyrocketed over the past 5 months and his music video for Gangnam Style has reached almost 600 million views on YouTube. 

How has the k-pop video become so popular? Just ask other musicians like Katy Perry and T-Pain who have both shared the video through their personal twitter accounts. Trending topics associated with Psy and Gangnam Style include #GangnamStyle #horsedance #PSY and a few others. The video on YouTube has earned the Guinness World Record for most ‘likes’ on the site according to the Huffington Post. 

Psy interview with Ryan Seacrest. Uploaded on Seacrest’s YouTube Channel. 

OPPA GANGNAM STYLE. The official MV on PSY’s YouTube Channel

Case Study: Emerging Subgenres

Without social media tools like facebook and twitter, many fans would be left in the dark in regards to the new emerging subgenres of dance music. In recent years, dubstep has begun to see mainstream popularity outside of its UK birthplace. Much of the popularity stems from young listeners since the genre of EDM is the rock and roll of our generation according to the Atlantic 

Without the tools to share the music (twitter, Facebook, YouTube) one would have a very hard time keeping up and would probably have to rely on HMV imports just to hear what new sounds dance musicians are coming up with overseas.

The reliance on these tools is massive and they have greatly contributed to the development and growth of dance music subgenres such as dubstep, electro house, moombahton and several others.