The Underground Is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America

by Michaelangelo Matos

Overview

Joining the ranks of Please Kill Me and Can’t Stop Won’t Stop comes this definitive chronicle of one of the hottest trends in popular culture—electronic dance music—from the noted authority covering the scene.

It is the sound of the millennial generation, the music “defining youth culture of the 2010s” (Rolling Stone). Rooted in American techno/house and ’90s rave culture, electronic dance music has evolved into the biggest moneymaker on the concert circuit. Music journalist Michaelangelo Matos has been covering this beat since its genesis, and in The Underground Is Massive, charts for the first time the birth and rise of this last great outlaw musical subculture.

Drawing on a vast array of resources, including hundreds of interviews and a library of rare artifacts, from rave fanzines to online mailing-list archives, Matos reveals how EDM blossomed in tandem with the nascent Internet—message boards and chat lines connected partiers from town to town. In turn, these ravers, many early technology adopters, helped spearhead the information revolution. As tech was the tool, Ecstasy—(Molly, as it’s know today) an empathic drug that heightens sensory pleasure—was the narcotic fueling this alternative movement.

Full of unique insights, lively details, entertaining stories, dozens of photos, and unforgettable misfits and stars—from early break-in parties to Skrillex and Daft Punk—The Underground Is Massive captures this fascinating trend in American pop culture history, a grassroots movement that would help define the future of music and the modern tech world we live in.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062271792
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/05/2016
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	630,043
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.08(d)

About the Author

Michaelangelo Matos writes regularly for Rolling Stone, Red Bull Music Academy Magazine, and NPR. The author of an acclaimed volume (about Prince’s Sign ‘O’ the Times) in Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series, he lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Author's Note xv

1 The Power Plant (Chicago, Illinois)-Early 1983 1

2 The Music Institute (Detroit, Michigan)-November 24, 1989 23

3 Stranger than Fiction (Los Angeles, California)-September 7, 1990 45

4 The Finale of the Gathering + UFOs Are Real (San Francisco, California)-April 11, 1992 63

5 Grave (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)-October 28, 1992 79

6 Storm Rave (Staten Island, New York)-December 12, 1992 101

7 Rave America (Los Angeles, California)-December 31, 1992 121

8 See the Light Tour (Thirteen North American cities)-October-November 1993 137

9 Spastik (Detroit, Michigan)-August 8, 1994 163

10 Even Furthur '96 (Blue River, Wisconsin)-May 24-27, 1996 183

11 Organic '96 (San Bernardino, California)-June 22, 1996 205

12 Woodstock '99 (Rome, New York)-July 22-25, 1999 227

13 Detroit Electronic Music Festival (Detroit, Michigan)-May 26-29, 2000 249

14 Phuture Phat Hong Kong Phooey (New Orleans, Louisiana)-August 26, 2000 267

15 Electroclash Festival 2001 (New York City)-October 10, 2001 289

16 Coacheila (Indio, California)-April 29-30, 2006 313

17 Electric Daisy Carnival (Las Vegas, Nevada)-Jun 24-26, 2011 339

18 Random Access Memories (Los Angeles, California)-January 26, 2014 367

Acknowledgments 383

Mixography 389

Bibliography 401

Index 405

About the Author 427