Is clubbing radical and revolutionary Observing the narratives pushed by its press and creative agencies, the electronic dance music industry seems to be overwhelmingly convinced that the answer to this question is yes. Club activism seems shallow. The dance music media defends the idea that performative representation of marginalised performing artists is activism. But what does “activism” stand for in electronic dance music, besides being a keyword to enhance ticket sales? Reflecting on the recent social reckoning around the dance music industry’s anti-Blackness problem (which followed George Floyd's death in 2020), I outline the pitfalls of an industry which only seeks to tame social progress and profit from Black artistry. I discuss how cultural discourse (around marginalised communities) is produced, and therefore influences the capital valuation of artworks from marginalised artists. In the particular context of the Black performing arts, especially electronic dance music, this creates a cultural landscape in which it is not enough to be Black to be perceived as such. Blackness as an identity has to be performed in a palatable and marketable way. I argue that those dynamics are symptomatic of Anglo-pessimism, a burgeoning ideology in cultural industries which promotes social justice, but in name only.
Mathys Rennela is a Paris-based computer scientist, who moonlights as a dance music writer and club culture critic, as part of the Black collective Technomaterialism. He analyzes socio-economic conditions in the dance music industry, with a particular attention to the way those dynamics affect marginalized communities.