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Festivals

Perry Farrell, Lollapalooza Founder, Hates EDM, Wants a New Festival Without the Darned Thing

"I hate EDM. I want to vomit it out of my nostrils."

Photo via Perry Farrell on Twitter

The debate over the EDM and its value seems like a throwback to 2010 now. If you'll remember, back when Deadmau5 and Skrillex were rising up the charts and taking coveted headline slots away from guitar bands, the old guard got all mad and pissy at having to share their stage with DJs that they saw as lazy and pointless. Legacy musicians like Dave Grohl got all sarcastic about the genre, Arcade Fire shouted out “all the bands still playing actual instruments” at Coachella, and on SNL Andy Samberg adopted the role of DJ Davvincii, hovering over a big red button with the word “BASS” written on it, being handed bags of cash as he went along. God, what a simple time that was. Take me back.

Annoncering

But while we may have forgotten all this as EDM softened and bled into chart hits, Perry Farrell, the founder of Lollapalooza and frontman for Jane’s Addiction, has not. He’s mad that EDM acts still get a platform at his festival and, damn it all to hell, it stops here. “I hate EDM,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “I want to vomit it out of my nostrils. I can’t stand what it did to what I love, which is house music, which was meditative, psychedelic — it took you on a journey. I sometimes cringe at my own festival.”

Instinctively, you might be inclined to roll your eyes at Farrell, here. Another middle-aged rocker, mad at the kids with their plinky-plonky music. But he’s not exactly saying that he just wants to fill his sets with guitar bands: he loves house music and thinks EDM is a bastardization of everything he adores. Fair enough.

Better still, he’s trying to change things himself rather than bitch from the sidelines, hinting at a new “scene-making” venture. “The only way to change things is by changing things myself,” he said. “At my new project, there will be great house music. I hope I will keep EDM at the door. They will be turned away.”

Lollapalooza starts next weekend and there's a whole bunch of EDM on the bill. Good luck, Perry.

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