Image via Complex Original
One of the constantly-hated on artists within the EDM scene is David Guetta. Over the last four years, his name has been synonymous with what people consider to be mainstream EDM because, well, he is. His formula of working with pop artists (ranging from Lil Wayne to Jennifer Hudson), giving them obvious dancefloor jams for them to soar to the top of the club charts with, tracks that have netted him a Grammy and found him racking up almost eight million downloads of a "I Got a Feeling," the single he produced for the Black Eyed Peas. It's a proven formula, and it works. It also breeds hatred for Guetta.
We're driven to balance playing devil's advocate and representing the culture properly, and wanted to present a question: Is hating David Guetta fair? He's been DJing for years, practically living on the road, and seems to be genuine about making music for people to enjoy. Yet with anything that's constantly pushed in the mainstream, there's a huge resentment to David Guetta, his music, and the way he's operated within the both circles. He's not the thinking man's EDM producer, he's the feeling man's muse.
Through looking at the different sides of David Guetta's career thus far, we hope to determine if the hatred truly is warranted, or if the anti-Guetta contingent is blowing smoke unnecessarily.
He's Been Making "Pop" For A While
While Guetta's only been releasing albums for the last 10 years, he's been regularly DJing popular nightclubs since the 1980s. That's three decades spent spinning tracks for people to dance to. If his bread and butter is making popular dance music, what would you expect him to produce? And if someone's job is to create the kind of dance music that will get EVERYONE dancing, and not cater towards niche sounds, wouldn't you expect him to take whatever jobs available?
If your beef with Guetta is that he's commercial, why would you even bother listening to him in the first place? And don't give us that "it's on all the time" stuff, there are far too many options for listening to music in 2013 to be shackled to one source.
Hating on What's Popular
Let's just say you are shackled to one source of listening to music, be it radio or your MTV. We can understand you being stuck in 1995 and tethered to your local, popular mainstream radio station, having to hear the new Guetta song a few times a day. That's a legitimate beef, but that isn't Guetta's fault. Did Guetta pay for his music to be played 20 times a day on every mainstream station in America, or was that a label decision?
Guetta's popularity is a by-product of America's fascination with EDM. Maybe you need to turn off the radio - or get hooked on some satellite or streaming options. Diversify your playlist.
Originality (Or Lack Thereof)
Another point of contention with David Guetta is not that he makes pop music, but he makes the same pop record, over and over. How many artists within the mainstream are coming with a truly diverse, unique sound with each single, or each album? People go to artists for a certain sound... be it because they don't have to think, or they'll constantly make them think. There's no rule saying a producer HAS to scrap everything and come with something new.
Guetta shoots himself in the foot with these haters, though. He will make full albums of huge collaborations, then make an album like Nothing But the Beat, where he packs in an additional disc with 45 minutes of new tunes that are outside of what thew mainstream knew him for, but because they have been trained to expect one thing from him, they won't bother with checking that side of him out.
It's Not All Big Pop Hooks
Nothing But the Beat was a double disc release, with one disc featuring big name collaborations with Lil Wayne, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, and Nicki Minaj, while the second was more about the instrumentals. Afrojack and Avicii made cameos, but he also crafted tracks that were a bit to the left of what people think when they hear his name. Are these tracks getting as much recognition as the more obvious pop tracks? Of course not, but they do let us know that he's not solely aiming for the top of the Billboard charts when he hits the studio. He's even started his label, Jack Back, to cater to just letting people grab hold to dope beats and not worry about some big pop impact or deeply emotional hooks.
The Fame Chase
Guetta has spoken before about feeling like an "idiot" in the pop world; you get the sense that, instead of purposefully trying to "sell out" or "cross over," he's just making music that he genuinely wants to translate to everyone, from fans of EDM to those who just want melodies and music that tugs at their heart. It just so happens that he's very good at that style of music, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's chasing fame. You can't fault a man if that's just what he does. And does well. And has others that want him to continue to do it.
All of this begs to question: if Guetta was putting his more beat-heavy work up front first, would he be attracting the same hatred for his music?
He's Opened Doors For Today's EDM Artists
Think about it: If Guetta hadn't been as successful in 2009, would the 2011/2012 dance music resurgence in America have even happened? Direct or indirect, Guetta as a bankable act in the mainstream helped pry open the major label purse strings that have bankrolled this new phase of dance music within America. Plus, for those artists who don't operate in Guetta's circle, there's a prime opportunity to ride the "we're not Guetta" sound (think Richie Hawtin). Again, if you do hate on Guetta's sound, now is the time to discover artists who are operating to the left of what he's doing.
He's Popular Because of His Collaborations
In a livestream with his fans, Deadmau5 once spoke about the need to have producers and artists collaborate, and how that business model can be very viable. Guetta obviously fits in that structure, and we definitely understand if you hate on him for that. This is yet another result of having success within the music industry: everyone wants to work with you. Scratch that, everyone wants you to produce a hit for them because you're seen as the go-to producer. And that can be frustrating for music lovers because all of the "big hits," be they songs that Guetta produced or music produced by imitators, end up sounding the same, and will continue to sound the same until a new sound becomes popular.
As we said earlier, that's not really something you can blame on Guetta; anyone who is trying to make money and has a niche to fill is told to work it until they can't work it any longer, which is based on records sold. You might want to hate the public for still buying it, not Guetta for making it.
Concerns About His Live Gigs
Guetta showed up on our "DJ Fails" feature for faking his way through a morning show performance. And that was funny. There have been serious allegations, with pictures and video for proof, showing what appears to be Guetta performing with all of the volume levels turned down, yet the music playing with no problem. Does he have a phantom set-up, or is there an explanation for this?
If it's true, that Guetta has ghost-DJed before, that's a legitimate beef. Especially since he's been voted by DJ Mag as the Best DJ in 2011. We don't want to know how the sausage is made all of the time, but we can't condone someone paying to see you perform and you mime your way through a set. This isn't DAD saying that Guetta is faking his live performances, but if he has, we would understand hating him for that.
The Verdict?
We're back and forth on the Guetta situation. DAD is always trying to highlight the spectrum of sounds within the EDM scene, and our constant pursuit of quality beats means that we don't get hung up on one producer in particular. We follow his career, but we're not chained to his albums, just like you shouldn't be - unless you want to be. And while we totally understand why you, the consumer, would be pissed about Guetta's name constantly being mentioned when it comes to Joe Pop Star wanting to appeal to the EDM crowd (yes, we're talking about you, Ludacris), we can't outright say we hate the man. Maybe that comes with understanding the pop scene.
You have to realize that pop radio and what appeals in the mainstream isn't an accurate representation of the best in music out there. You can't judge EDM by what Ryan Seacrest might play, just like you can't base what's great about EDM on who gets nominated for a Grammy. Hating David Guetta because he's making money churning out formulaic tracks for the highest bidder sounds like something we could get behind, but with so many EDM acts out there in the mainstream and on the underground, there's no reason to fret over what VH1 might consider to be quality EDM.
Guetta's not done enough to make you truly hate him, aside from doing what he loves (and make a wad of cash while doing it). If you hate that, you're hating the American Dream.