Music Predictions 2020 and Beyond

#1

Hey All,

Was hoping we could start up a discussion we had last year here about where we think things might be going in music, culture, venues, festivals and distro/media.

Trends of all kinds are open for discussion

Whose output are you enjoying?

What have you been blown away by?

What sounds are you sick and tired of?

What’s the best show you went to last year?

What’s the festival you’re hyped on this year?

Where do you think production trends in techno, house, club, DNB, gabber, IBM, jungle, rave, or anything else are headed?

Also, I’d love some questions you are interested in adding or asking to me or anyone else.

Hope this works…looking forward to hearing what folks have to say

#2

@weirdoslam @criminiminal @Yung_Dave @str_apx @spceboi @bths80 @kid_kozmoe @umn @Lliesse @adnhnrt

#3

@euth @zurkonic @prince_edward @Simonmosimon @spiro

#4

I’m looking forward to junction 2 festival this year, I think it’s the loudest festival in London due to it being under the m4 motorway.

The Electronic music scene is more experimental here in london than I’ve ever seen before where once people were identified by genres I think it’s much more open now, this probably goes for music in general these days.

As a producer I’ve personally been lured by the modular synth world. It’s taking things back to how electronic music used to be made it’s mulch more fun than staring at a computer screen and yields very interesting results. I hear more and more acts experimenting with new ways of working.

#5

I’m from Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia so I will be bringing that to the table.

In the past year, 2019, we have had a huge shift in public mindset regarding music events, a change mainly led by the government. We had the MDL Beast event, which was the biggest of its kind in the region, which I was part of so AMA.

While everything looks good on the surface, I feel music/art/or dance music culture have become so commercialized.

Most, if not all, DJs in my region seem to care more about festivals and big events and non care about experimenting and connecting with people.

I really hope to see more DJs in my region doing their own thing and not following short trends.

On a different note, I have been noticing a lot of vinyl labels appear on bandcamp. Seems like bandcamp just keeps growing and growing.

I bought tickets two see andrey pushkarev in Spain, but my cousin is getting married on the same weekend :frowning:

Any cool events you guys recommend this year?

#6

thanks for reminding me that this forum exists.

i dont know. ive been away from doing music publicly for a while for uh, a few reasons. id rather not get into it. im not rlly doing stuff as weirdoslam no more. i do stuff as nerdbeep now. and my only prediction is that i think the music stuff might actually work for me in making an income now. and i can finally move out of my parents house and maybe move to detroit and maybe be happy for once. i hope. ;w;

and uh. i think drum n bass is gonna be a thing in mainstream american edm circles now. it will just be simple jump up stuff but, its a start.

i love u <3

btw @555-5555 pls enable username changes here that would be great thanks

#7

Putting some personal stuff in this post -

I spent 2018-2019 reconnecting with the UK hardcore continuum (don’t know how much I’ve said that through various platforms) which has encouraged me to start DJing 140 tracks. I remember late 2018 I was starting to get into avant-garde electronica a la PAN, Yves Tumor, etc (mostly cause of the Mono No Aware comp) until that was completely sidetracked by me being a super huge fan of Brockhampton after seeing them live.

2019, for whatever reason I decided not to listen to Bladee or Drain Gang at all, despite being fans of them since 2017. I decided to check up on their recent stuff at the tail end of the year, and it’s all incredible stuff. Really looking forward to whatever they have in store for this year. As much as my brother hates it (which is kinda understandable) it’s supposed to be fun music imo. Even though Bladee’s stuff leaned too much on depressive aesthetics it still helped me thru a bad time.

Too much good 140 stuff is releasing, especially dubstep, but that also means more and more 140 stuff I could care less about is being put on the shelves. Outside the context of dubstep, personally I’m waiting for some curveball of a track to hit me and I’ll be hooked on it.

#8

Cool, we’re gathering speed now. Hope more folks chime in. Here’s what’s on in my world. I haven’t gone to a festival since 2016 cus I save my money for European Clubs now, so couldn’t tell you much about that scene. I get to Seattle, SF or Los Angeles about 4-5 times a year and usually have a night out in each. I’ll get to those cities later.

I spent 17 days in London / Amdam this Jan. Loved E1 and De School. Proper fucking clubs, great sound, good space for conversations, and good crowds that got loose as the night progressed.

I swung by Fabric, Pickle Factory, Corsica, and Mick’s Garage as well, enjoyed all those spaces. Was my first time in both cities and at all these venues. Definitely got the younger crowd at Fabric, the posh cliques at Corsica, and in general saw the RA Pick effect make a night somewhat blah and annoying in terms of posers (like, literally, they all take photos instead of dancing now :man_shrugging:t2:) and cool chasers. But that’s what you get as a techno tourist in 2020 with little to no network in each town.

Ok, having got my gripes out of the way, I had an amazing time dancing to Young Marco at Pickle, Roi Perez at Mick’s and Stingray at Fabric. Based on what I heard (really small sample size bear in mind), here’s a few predictions.

People want a bit more cheery sounds. We’re burning out of the 2016 oh fuck fascist dystopia freak out phase and we want to feel hopeful, if only off a pill for 3 hours. People also are ready to recycle some nostalgic sounds they burned out on 5-7 years ago. So, Japanese Space Disco and UK Dubstep is coming back around. Also Rave music, which we’ve seen through the Trance / Acid / Deconstructed Everything lens.

My best time of the trip was melting to some Gabber / Hardcore in De School. I really hope it doesn’t become over rinsed like Electro, but some great sounds could come out of a resurgence of it. But I’m really sick of deconstructed club music I can’t groove to. Stop playing cerebral music in the club. I want to move.

As far as my lens of LA, I’m not connected to the warehouse scene lately so I always go to the desert or the drum n bass monthlies. Scenes strong but halfstep is getting boring. Nobody’s innovating it, I think they’re either gonna go back to Dirtybird/Dubstep or call some folks out of retirement or both, which has been happening. I want to see more Jungle in LA, really hope I do, but the scenes not rough. Not raw. Not like London.

SF dosent have a local scene for me anymore, everyone moved to LA or the Pacific Northwest. I hope I find good things at Grey Matter, but we’ll see how techbro and vanilla it is.

Now if you’re in SF and do shows I’m not trying to bash your gigs, just speaking my experience. Tell me what you’ve seen. I’m very interested in things in Portland too, it’s just such a cliquey town I rarely meet folks open to having a chat at a night out. Lived there for 5 years btw.

Kremwerks in Seattle is the shit. Go there. Berlin guy owns it and when it’s on, it’s on.

Production, labels and digging I’ll save for once a few other (probably more qualified than I ) people add their two cents…

#9

I certainly felt this, but don’t have any history to base it on as it was my first time out. Exciting times!

#10

Not sure how different things may be where you are, but sometimes the commercial scene plays a big role in helping people make enough money to fund weird experimental underground shit. Hopefully this begins to happen as well.

#11

Around me there’s been a surge in Djs and people wanting to become an artists. A lot of these people are just wanting the money and lifestyle, but there’s a few out there who really enjoy the shit they make/play.

I think the majority of peoples music tastes are starting to lean away from the norm and the commercial route.

With the current situations on the planet people may be feeling more lost and feeling emotions they haven’t before. The standard pop and commercial chart music isn’t cutting it for them anymore so they’re starting to look elsewhere.

Been fucking with a lot of trip hop, chilled tech and obscure sounding half time among other stuff.
Kind of hoping trip hop makes a return to 2020, that shit is depressingly uplifting.

I’m starting to get tired of the same tech sounds getting pumped out. The same drops and builds the same sounds and styles. For me. I feel like I’ve been scrolling down a news feed for years without actually refreshing it. Seeing all these new old sounds/stories. Getting boring for me.

Been listening a lot to a guy called Dwig. I want to see more stuff like this. Unique obscure sounds with simple addictive rhythms.

Also think streaming platforms are going to be steadily less used. People are getting sick of big corps and businesses taking their money and life from them.

@nickecks

What aspect in music do you think is going to blow up this year?

#12

i think breaks are done for a bit, just like 303 acid everyones burnt out. what will replace them…its really hard to say but i wouldnt be surprised to see some detuned bass / 808 sounds that are warmer, less granular and grating, and sorta ethereal/dubstep/trap-like. but in a new fresh way. maybe. just throwing a wild guess out there.

#13

i think we’re going from maximalist to minimalist music again. the pendulum swings…

#14

Remember when Red Bull Music Academy closed up late last year? It was a very mixed reaction on social media (at least from what I saw), some were praising its support of the underground and the resources it gave, from lectures to opportunities, others slagged them for the corporate nature and commercialization of niche scenes, as if they were a gentrifying force more than anything. Regardless of what people think, IMO what they gave in terms of actual help / opportunities / concrete evidence of them contributing were more than enough to make them legitimate. Regardless, decentralization is key for music culture and music in general to remain real and human.

#15

Yeah, I keep saying this and I’ll say it again, IRL spaces, studios, labels and platforms are necessary to support a healthy ecosystem. All the better if that’s outside of corporate influence, but sometimes you gotta fertilize the soil with Shit to grow Roots, Stems, Branches, Leaves n Fruit.

#16

the difficulty of what we’re trying to predict here is multiplied by how fragmented everything is re: feeds, streams, and the good old fucking algorithm. we’re silo’d up. in real life spaces break those walls.

#17

Another really important aspect of where music culture in clubs and festivals goes has to do with drugs and what’s in peoples systems on the dancefloor, and i’ll leave it there unless anyone wants to bite.

#18

Lol… that’s one way to put it.

Also - I found an incredibly important tweet about streaming… Spotify is super guilty af.

#19

i mean you have a choice to not listen to fake shit, right? I don’t get their point?

#20

Because these fake ones take up valuable spots in official playlists that could be used to uplift ‘genuine’ artists. And because Spotify is creaming off the profits from a lot of these songs there’s less money in the pot to go around to everyone else.