The death of two
^ partiers this past weekend at
Electric Zoo Festival in New York City brings back bad memories of one of the main reasons the EDM scene died-off the last time in the 90's. Unfortunate as it is and unfair as it is, the Electronic Dance Music scene is associated with the recreational drug Ecstasy (street name molly). One had hoped that 90's memories had faded by now but when new incidents continue to occur, it brings back the association once again. Rampant use of the drug in Orlando back in the day led the city to ban so-called Raves, the all-night parties that were taking place on Saturday nights with clubbers the following morning spilling out onto the streets in front of shocked Sunday church-goers. The scene fled to downtown Gainesville but ultimately it was the State and it's
anti-Rave statute that did it in. Twenty years later the Dance scene has resurfaced bigger and better than ever and you can hardly find a store or restaurant that isn't playing EDM; television commercials feature it too. Hip Hop artists are the vocals to many big hits. But then you got Madonna yelling out at
Ultra, "Has anyone seen Molly?" And you have big name DJ's like Cedric Gervais (F) making an entire Dance anthem about Molly.
Electric Daisy Carnival had to flee Los Angeles for Vegas because of underage deaths at their event. I attended
EDC-Chicago earlier this year and I later saw in the Joliet newspaper (home of the event) that city officials were debating whether they'd allow a return engagement next year because of drug overdoses. Now we have the very major
Electric Zoo cancelled mid-event because of these deaths. Hopefully the DJ's are shocked. I've read too many times that greedy DJ's and promoters are going to cause EDM to die because they've become way too overpriced. No, that's an ECON 101 lesson in Supply and Demand. What is going to do EDM in.....again.....is this glorification of drug use. It's not fair because put 100,000 people in a stadium for a large Rock concert and there will be overdoses there too. But this drug connection to the EDM scene just won't go away. Either the scene makes an all-out effort to break the connection once and for all or EDM is going to die again.
