Our country's divided. However, it's not President Obama's failed promises or Mitt Romney's tired rhetoric that's causing this nation to feud; it's electronic dance music.
On one side of the proverbial aisle, we have the disciples of mainstream electro giants like Tiësto and Swedish House Mafia. Across from them, there are those who value traditional musicianship and write-off contemporary dance music as just another fleeting wave of pop -- folks like Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and electro megastar Joel "Deadmau5" Zimmerman, an unlikely detractor.
"Everybody's all up on the EDM bandwagon now because it's another viable conduit for traditional pop music to ride for a bit so that they can get out of their little stagnant pool and make a dance hit," Zimmerman tells Rolling Stone. "I'm not really in it for that."
The Canadian DJ is on the cover of the venerable music mag's Summer Special issue, a sort of glossy tribute to electronic music. Unsurprisingly, Deadmau5 is as blunt about the current state of EDM as he was about festival ticket prices and Madonna's designer drug-inspired, attention-grabbing publicity stunt at this year's Ultra Music Fest.
"I understand she has millions more fans," Zimmerman says, "and is way more successful than I'll ever be. But [referencing ecstasy is] like talking about slavery at a fucking blues concert. It's inappropriate."
The outspoken producer is also critical of DJs who make a fortune by simply pressing play on their laptops, calling out some of dance music's biggest names.
"David Guetta has two iPods and a mixer and he just plays tracks--like, 'Here's one with Akon, check it out!'" Zimmerman says. "People are, thank God, smartening up about who does what. But there's still button-pushers getting paid half a million. And not to say I'm not a button-pusher. I'm just pushing a lot more buttons."
Deadmau5's biggest criticism, however, is electronic dance music itself, arguing that most of today's hits are obnoxiously formulaic and admitting that he wants Dave Grohl to remix his tracks.
"Because fuck dance music, you know?"
The Rolling Stone Summer Special issue is on stands Friday, June 22.