The announcement of Avicii playing the TD Garden was suppose to be one of the biggest announcements to hit Boston's Electronic Dance Music community in history. The thought that Boston even had 20,000 EDM fans, that would gather in one place was unimaginable two short years ago. Then came the Pop House revolution lead by David Guetta. Everything changed. Top 40 artist in the US joined the revolution in force and started releasing mainstream versions of house music. Snoop Dog, Rhianna, Black Eyed Peas, Chris Brown, and Flo-Rida all made synthesized beats a focal point of their hits in 2011. Then came Avicii, with his melodic dynamite track Levels. It was like a supercell virus that infected not only every college campus, but Top 40 radio waves and the people that didn't care for what they called "techno music".
Fast forward passed 2011, and 2012 has continued the House revolution in Boston at a death-defying rate. The city has had A-list Djs in town almost every week since January 1 and often times up to 3. Clubs such as Bijou on Stuart Street have played host to DJ Chuckie, The Manufactured Superstars, Thomas Gold, and will be hosting Tiesto this Sunday and Massive duo The Bingo Players on Tuesday. In addition, titan Avicii has visited the likes of Worcester and Quincy over the last year and has dates coming up in Rhode Island and in Amherst, MA. Artists like Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, that were never thought to ever venture to Boston, were here. The underground house community for once was almost content, besides the trance peeps that receive little love because the genre never transitioned well across the pond. (Trance peeps have no fear you have armin coming in May!)
Then this tuesday it was announced Avicii would be playing the TD Garden. Facebook blew up with all kinds of mixed messages. There were the people uber excited to see the pop house wonder child and then there were those that said why Avicii? The nay sayers claimed fatigue of the artist, the non plur crowd he cultivates, his lack of dj skill, and outright resentment for his popularity. When MASS EDMC, said on facebook
"BOSTON: so no big deal, but... the BIGGEST EDM announcement in Boston history is coming at 5PM. Stay tuned."
We feel this statement caused a lot of backlash. Were people expecting God to DJ? For Daft Punk to make their Triumphant World return to the stage in Boston? Were people expecting Electric Daisy Carnival Boston? I'm not really sure. However, if you consider the magnitude of having an event at the TDGarden thats pretty massive. Considering we are only the 3 city outside of LA's Homedepot center and Madison Square Garden to host such an event. For Boston that is massive, relatively speaking.
Nevertheless, we are rooting for a sell out at TDGarden. YES WE ARE SICK OF LEVELS. However, this show sends a HUGE message to all the artists' booking companies in the world. This event single handedly has the ability to green light Artists coming to Boston every week if its a success. Artist's management, in turn will hear the noise that Boston filled a 20,000 person stadium and will be more open to sending their talent to our city with more frequency. This means being able to see massive super producers come to boston more then once a year and most importantly smaller acts that previously would skip town because there was no EDM fan base here. Not to mention the Avicii Garden show has the ability to transform a lot of house new comers into members of the house community. Avicii will show them what a packed dance floor is like and the peeps will leave the show craving more and exploring the genre. In turn they will check out other artists coming to the area. Think about it, you don't start of listening to the dirtiest of beats in a new genre. you slowly ease your way in. Avicii is just that, an opening door to our Community. The Snowball potential here is limitless.
PS MASSEDMC's follow up:
"To those unhappy with our Boston announcement: we said the event was huge because what it means for the region's electronic scene, not because Avicii is our number one artist of all times and we need everyone to love him.
Having a massive EDM event in one of the most influential, cultural cities on the east coast only does more to further the entire regional movement. It gets more people involved in the music we like, creates potential financial incentive for others to attempt shows in your area and most importantly it continues put us on the map as an important market for international artists to pay attention to.
PLUR brah"
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