It's a question that really comes into focus during Winter Music Conference and Miami Music Week.
If the end game of capital-D Dance music is supposed to be getting everybody grooving together, why are there so many divisions? Why do some DJs always end up playing for the bottle-service crowd in their best button-ups and sequin mini-dresses while others spin for hipsters clad in buffalo plaid?
Sure, we were at Mamushka's, sipping on cheap (for Miami, anyway) PBRs last night. But we couldn't help thinking that the lineup at Embrace, The Overthrow, and Karma Loop's Pyramid Club party was worth way more than the price of a bottle.
We walked out to the patio just as Fred Falke, the French DJ who's put his remix spin on everyone from Ke$ha to Grizzly Bear, was finishing up the latter half of his French house-tinged set. We were kind of bummed to hear that we missed him spinning his version of Robyn's "Dancing on My Own." But it was hard to stay mad when Tensnake was on next.
The Hamburg DJ laid down a set heavy on Italo and '80s house influence. Of course, he made sure to please the kind of indie-inclined crowd that typically gathers at Mamushaka's, dropping a raved-up re-edit of Radiohead's "Everything in Its Right Place" followed by a remix of Friendly Fires' "Hurting."
Meanwhile, inside the club, Arthur Grant (the producer on Afrika Bambaataa's seminal "Planet Rock") was dropping a wide-ranging set, highlighted by another song he produced, Rockers Revenge's "Walking on Sunshine."
Outside, Jeremy Glenn eventually relieved Tensnake from the decks, and added his own vocals to his set. We can't blame anyone who sings along to The Source's "You Got the Love," but it might have been a bit weird if Glenn didn't follow up with his own single "New Life."
Sure, the DJs were playing in a Midtown-adjacent dive bar (and we mean that with all love and respect), but the accessible sets could've made the crowds at any of Miami's superclubs move.
Not that we're complaining. We'd much rather stick to paying for our $4 beers than shelling out for a bottle, even if the beats would've been worth it.
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