What Coachella 2017 Will Mean For Dance Music Moving Forward

2016 saw electronic music at an all time high at Coachella. It was the first time the festival featured two electronic acts as main headliners, while dance music artists were evenly sprinkled throughout not only the lineup but the stages as well. Jack Ü, Flume and Zedd closed out Coachella’s final night at the Outdoor Theater, a symbolic nod to how prevalent this culture has become within the festival scene. We expect this trend to continue with next year’s lineup, as influence from the electronic scene continues to seep into the mainstream music continuum.

Coachella’s relationship with dance music has come a long way since the fest’s first outing in 1999, with rock and indie holding dominance over the lineup over the years despite the regular presence of electronic music. The EDM boom of recent memory had an explosive effect on the genre’s representation at major festivals like Coachella, while the current trends seem to point towards a more refined vision for dance music audiences moving forward.

The festival circuit has served as the driving economic force behind the EDM boom over the last seven years, and the monumental cultural impact of dance music is something the major organizers simply can’t ignore. Predictions about the impending EDM apocalypse grew in tandem with the scene itself, but what we’ve seen is that dance music has proven more resilient than anyone expected. Just as one subgenre of the EDM spectrum loses its cultural footing, another emerges to replace it, and a market thirsty for the next “it” sound of the moment has created demand for an ever evolving lineup of sonic tastemakers pushing the scene forward.

While EDM has certainly experienced its fair share of ultra-commercialization, the scene is evolving to counter growing weariness to the overuse of the same big names on every lineup. The performance scene is becoming more diverse than ever, with a number of live electronic acts surfacing over the last few years to shake up the DJ dominated dance arena. We’re also seeing a blurring of lines as electronic music expands its influence into other genres such as pop and hip hop, with The Chainsmokers’ recent work serving as the latest example of EDM leading the mainstream.

While the doom and gloom predictions seem to be a fixture of the dance music scene, as Kaskade recently noted, there’s little reason to believe we’re entering a period of decline. The Atmosphere producer stated earlier this month that as time goes on, the stage productions have only continued to get bigger and better, and he’s not seeing any signs that growth will cease anytime soon.

With Coachella serving as one of the most significant indicators of music industry trends each year, it’s safe to say that January’s lineup reveal will act as a glimpse into what to expect from dance music in 2017 when it finally arrives. While we have some reasonably reliable predictions to obsess over for now, the fact of the matter is that nothing is set in stone until the first phase of the lineup is announced. But we’re confident that dance music will take up plenty of space on Coachella’s roster for next year, and we’ll be waiting patiently for the big reveal to arrive.