Given that stuff from the '60s onwards is still relevant to electronic musicians, then I’d say yes. Whether its relevant to the general population I can’t say other than that aspect doesn’t really matter to me. I’d guess they’ve generally moved on though to whatever is the latest corporate-pushed product.
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He did a great job of bringing lower “t” techno/EDM to the masses. He helped get a new generation interested. But I really don’t see anyone screaming for Deadmau5 these days. A lot of the underground hated Deadmau5 to begin with (fair or not, its true…he got as much hate as Skrillex). It is probably even old news to say this but–“the kids” are into like Dirtybird and Desert Hearts Tech House these days.
I do see Deadmau5 is touring by himself (his website didn’t list any opening acts if there are any)…it seems the last festival he played was with Vampire Weekend and Chance the Rapper which isn’t exactly part of the dance community.
A “problem” with Deadmau5 is you can’t fit him into a line up unless he is headlining something big as his shows are about the total experience (lights, video etc). I don’t see him on those fliers anymore. This isn’t a slight against him but he really isn’t even a proper DJ (I get that he does a full on show with lights, video and pyro so you can’ really do an improv set). Has he ever done a set with other people’s music along side his own? I’ve never seen him personally so I don’t know, but he has never really “fit in” with the DJ/dance scene that came from the ashes of Disco in NY, Chicago and Detroit.
Mega star of pop music. Sure. Darling of the dance scene…eh…debatable. He will almost certainly be remembered for a while yet as a good businessman and he was great at selling himself with the helmet and logo and all.
If you can’t show up with a crate of other peoples’ records (metaphorically speaking) and make the crowd dance you aren’t really part of what we do.
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He is super DJ. I like him a lot. I defend him.
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Who was attacking him that he needs defended?
You said he isn’t even a proper DJ. like wtf ??? 
I don’t understand all the words you said but c’mon. wtf
No At least to me a DJ is a performer that uses turntables, CDJs or a laptop and controller to blend/beat match their own music and others’ in real time.
My understanding from reading industry articles is that isn’t what Deadmau5 does. I know part of the reason his shows are…scripted…is because of the lights, video and pyrotechnics. It’s fine. Nothing wrong with it. People obviously like it. I think he has some good tunes. But I don’t care for that kind of show.
I just don’t consider him a DJ because he doesn’t meet my definition. If you or he want to call him a DJ I’m not going to lose sleep over it or make any more of an argument than this but he just isn’t a DJ to me.
I later found out that some other big electronic acts I like pantomime playing gear on stage to a prerecorded show because of lights, video etc. I still like their music but I don’t go to the shows bc that isn’t interesting to me as an audience member.
If that makes me a hater I guess I’m a hater lol and if I am making any errors in fact let me know
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Do you think noisia is a real DJ? Or are they the same as deadmau5?
As far as I’m aware what they do on stage is different from Deadmau5 in that Noisia are mixing and blending songs in to a DJ mix in the moment on stage. As far as I’m aware Deadmau5 isn’t doing that (or at least not live on the stage while the audience watches).
Is that answer to your question, not quite.
edit: again if I’m making an errors in fact about how any of these artists perform I’m all ears
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I think Afrojack explains what I’m getting at really well (also if you don’t know Laidback Luke, great DJ to know of who has been doing it forever).
(I’m the 10% whining about people not DJing lol)
omg slander, you’ll be hearing from lawyers, no doubt
But seriously, I think the problem is the very broad definition of “DJ” these days. Twenty years ago it meant showing up with a couple of technics and a crate of records, then it was iPods with a mix done, now it’s…like, whatever. People performing electronic music live is “DJing” to the masses. Sometimes it’s a full band trigging things, sometimes it’s literally a dude that presses Play and then dances and spits beer on the crowd. And everything in between.
Part of the issue is the ease of access to production - decades ago DJs weren’t producing anything, they were live mixing. Now it’s guys like Mau5 that are playing 100% their own produced music. They’ve certainly got an audience for it, but I agree it’s not DJing in the traditional sense. To the topic, it seems like there’s a divergence between DJing (festivals, parties, raves, etc) and guys like Skrillex and Mau5 doing that big performance of their own stuff. People not deep into a scene call it all DJing, but it feels like two very different things to me that are really only connected by the fact that there isn’t a full band on stage making the music with acoustic instruments.
I’m more in your camp on this than not, but what do you call an electronic music performance that isn’t actually mixing (especially other people’s music)? What is it when you’re just performing your own stuff as a live mix/remix?
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He is mixing on the fly without headphones you know . It is not pre recorded. There is a bunch of videos on youtube with him where he is djing.
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I believe he can do it. I never said he couldn’t. When that’s what he does on stage, charging whatever he does for a ticket, I’ve no interest in paying to see him perform : ) Next time he comes to Ohio as Testpilot I’ll make an effort to go see him if it isn’t outrageous : ) <3
FFS. LOL. I’m not hating on Deadmau5.
I’m just saying some of these big acts CANNOT mix live for a lot of reasons. Did you watch the Afrojack video? I figure Deadmau5 can probably mix records, he is a well known old school raver. But 90% of his fans are pop music fans that show up for “THE SHOW” and want to hear his hits with a lot of “extras” synced to the music, him wearing his mouse helmet etc.
My points:
- Deadmau5 became more than a DJ and transcended to a pop artist.
- because of that he doesn’t mix live on stage.
- He is POPULAR AND SUCCESSFUL
- I like some of his tunes.
- But…I’m not paying to see him on stage because what he does there doesn’t interest ME.
- I DON"T DISRESPECT HIM.
- Least important of all and my first and main point, I don’t think most diehard dance scene fans care that much about Deadmau5 anymore because he doesn’t really perform in a way that interests us.
I luv u all. I’m sincerely not yelling or meaning to be argumentative. He doesn’t do the old school rave DJ thing and that’s what I want. That’s literally the end of my opinion 
This is literally all I’m saying lol (plus I’m a whinny old bitch who likes what you describe as a 20 years ago DJ).
And yea. I don’t know what you call it when something is “more prepared” That’s why a couple messages above I said I wouldn’t lose sleep over Deadmau5 or anyone else billing themselves as a DJ. I’m 100% in the middle of prepping a bunch of pop music remixes on sampler. When I “play” these “live” in my DJ sets it would be as if someone else was doing it in Ableton. All I’ll be doing is launching what amounts to 64 step clips, muting/unmuting tracks, using some beat repeat and filter FXs live.
We used to call performing your own music live from the gear it is made on a “Live PA” which is an ridiculously inaccurate term my today’s standards. But as I said before…it turns out some acts I love are just play-acting when they do these kinds of “live” shows they bill.
Probably not going to pay to see the Chemical Brothers or the Crystal Method “live” again because of this. I don’t dislike them or Deadmau5. I’m just not paying $100+ to see pre-recorded “live” set.
The experience that maybe ruined this all for me was I went to the World Electronic Music Festival (the last one that Destiny in Ontario, CA put on as far as I know) and Skrillex trainwrecked a fucking Ableton Live “DJ Set” multiple times during his performance.
Maybe he had a sub-par crew working with him. Maybe he just had a gear issue. Maybe he is a fxcking cxnt. I’m not sure. But it was really lame to have the flow of the party broken because your LAPTOP took a crap multiple times. Like come on man lol. He definitely made enough money to affrod a backup Mac Book…at that point…
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Yeah, I agree across the board. I mean the reason I go see live music is to see what the artist does with it in a live setting, and the ‘danger’ (for lack of a better term) of watching them pull off a thing at that moment…like how do they do it, how do they make it interesting. Which is exactly not pre-recorded sets and pressing play.
I guess the reason that Skrillex and Deadmau5 still attract live shows is the same reason people still go see The Rolling Stones (another thing I can do without) - they’re there for the spectacle of it, the ‘big show’, etc.
Another way to put it is that I’d guess 90% of the people at a Skrillex show don’t care what he’s doing, they’re just there to dance and say they saw it. Just like 90% of the people at a Rollings Stones show. Conversely, 90% of the people at an Autechre show are there to see what they do, how they do it, and to stare raptly at their hands and gear and computers. It’s a nerd’s wet dream.
And along those lines, there’s nothing interesting about a Deadmau5 performance, insofar as what he’s actually doing. The music he produced sitting in his studio is pretty amazing and requires some impressive creativity and talent, him performing it live isn’t once you strip away all the lights and smoke and huge PA and whatnot.
So are those guys relevant to modern electronic music? Sure, in the same way The Rolling Stones are to blues-rock.
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There we go. Perfection. Exactly how I feel. I’ll probably never make a song as cool as some of Deadmau5’s best. He just has a knack and an ear for it. And as stated, brilliant marketing etc. I’d happily play a mostly recorded set if people dug my music that much and just wanted “the show.” You could still choose to do different gigs and do a different kind of performance if you really wanted to.
Yes, I watched the video with Laidback Luke, and Afrojack. I would say that i hate all the people making music because it’s all secret and very hard and no one will help you. So them hating on pre recorded sets is nothing for me. All people in music business are bad.
Btw deadmau5 shows are amazing.
I understand that you don’t like pre recorded sets because it’s not fun and lame and you just want to party @relic. 
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His shows totally look amazing! Top notch everything. I bet the sound systems at some of his shows are unbelievable.
Again, I apologize, I got really fired up over this for no reason.
As for making the music. Yea I dunno what the secret is. I will say your tracks probably sound better next to “commercial” tracks than you think. I’ve played some of my own tunes on sizeable sound systems next to pro level tunes and they sounded decent at a matched volume level as far as clarity etc.
In my experience, this isn’t so much the case. I see how it can feel that way. Looking back at some of the more difficult lessons I learned, I was told the same thing by lots of different people when I asked for help over and over again before I finally listened and did something to fix it in my music. For instance, I had to be told for close to two years by dozens of people on multiple songs that I really needed to do something about the timing of my drums because they were too robotic before I even started to think about it. Now it’s taken me another two years of messing around with various solutions and I haven’t come up with the right fix, but if I listened to the first person who told me that was a problem for my music I’d probably have it fixed right now. Do that times a decade of working on music and I can’t help but wonder how much better I could be if I listened sooner.
That said, my semi-pro tip based on what I’ve heard in your productions: less reverb. Doesn’t have to be a lot less, just try less and see how it goes.
midas heel from deadmau5 and you’ll see if he is still relevant hehe
omg i can’t keep up- so little time being an actual adult, not just a “new adult”- uuummmm… i just wanted to say that the “dj’s” of today’s dance scene, not the real ones, the top40 ones- all they do is press play, get up on the table, and wave their hands in the air. then smoke cannons shoot out and confetti or glitter or bubbles fly around. the crowd mainly drinks alcohol in these big festival i believe, but i may be completely wrong. i had to say it.
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