In 2004, a 16-year-old named Sonny Moore left Los Angeles to play guitar for a band called From First to Last. Somehow he wound up becoming its lead singer instead. The group recorded for Epitaph Records, played the Warped Tour, opened for Fall Out Boy. They were a “scene” band, part of that realm of black-and-pink, mess-headed emo and hardcore acts—a world that’s never entirely been embraced by the mainstream rock press. Magazines might put a big name like My Chemical Romance on the cover, for the copies it would sell; then they’d slink back to arm’s-length joking about studded belts, Hot Topics, bad haircuts, kid stuff, malls, commercial rock.
These days, Moore is a black-clad producer called Skrillex; vocal-cord problems helped steer him out of the singing game. He records electronic dance music, and is lately experiencing a pretty massive flush of notoriety—a storm of interest in his new EP, Bangarang, will surely extend. A month ago, he was nominated for five Grammys, including the one for Best New Artist. WhenFacebook counted the most-played pieces of music on the site in 2011, two of the top 10 were by Skrillex. Kanye West spent New Year’s Eve tweeting about him, including the allegation that his remix of Benny Benassi’s “Cinema” is “one of the greatest works of art ever made.” He draws massive crowds at festivals like the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, where the Lollapalooza-sized attendance numbers positively dwarf those of rock fests you read about more often. His asymmetrical side-cut hair inspires blogs and novelty songs. The guy is rapidly becoming the face of something: a big American groundswell of love for buzzy, populist dance music.
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