TBH there are a lot of watered down version of dance tracks which are virtually pop dance doing the rounds but many of them are there because “youth” radio stations have a very wide target age range (which they used to pitch for the ads what keep the station going) of 12-45. Thats what Kiss in UK, C-Dance in BE and 538/SLAM in NL tend to go for.

12-17 year olds can’t usually get into EDM events, and many 30-45 year olds don’t go to them because they have 12-17 year old kids and don’t want to set them a bad example, but these youths can usually spare a euro or two to get a track for their smartphone.

Also out of these kids, at least some will grow up to be the next lot of DJ’s and promoters when they are 18+. I confess that at my youth I probably did listen to some ropey pop dance (and chaps like Tiësto and David Guetta who are a bit older than me played it as mobile DJs) – believe you me there was far worse cheese than today. If you are too young to remember Europop just count yourself lucky.

Tiësto unashamedly works with pop artists and goes for the charts, he does actually produce some OK tunes in the longer versions (not the ones what get played on daytime radio stations). I’ve never seen him perform (and I’ve never heard anything by David Guetta) I do get the impression they go a bit more for the ego/image (Tiësto apparently has his own fashion label). but thats perhaps due to the age group. They are both quite smart though and shrewd in business and competitive.

The other big time trance producers who are about my age like AVB, Ferry Corsten etc seem a bit more down to earth – AVB’s fashion sense (when not at some photocall) is no better than mine, he also still dresses like he’s in the 80s/90s (though that does have benefits as it can make folk think you are way younger). Similarly Ørjan Nilsen, I saw a film of them at Hotel 538 (this outside broadcast from the lobby of a large hotel in S’Hertogensbosch) and they do both look about 19.. :laugh_at:

Because of this and that their relatively clean cut image means they get respect worldwide (Ferry was in Malaysia recently and there is still censorship there, and he was then off to Beiruit afterwards) they simply don’t try to be “underground” or street. You don’t catch them using swear words in their tracks, (or if they do there are warnings) making controversial poltiical statements or “clever” comments about drugs or playing at unlicensed events because they want their name to get get the airplay and into the robot DJ system and come up on peoples equipment when they listen to online radio

Also they don’t even take drugs which is good for the health and long term image, but they might not want to be DJ’ing every weekend when they are 45 or 50, or at least only do it in their home towns – hence trying to keep the younger generations interested.