WMC Blog: A letter from the editor

WMC Blog: A letter from the editor

24 March, 2009 | 8.13AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: wmc 2009

It is no coincidence that dance music springs to life each year at Miami’s Winter Music Conference, which occurs the week directly following the Vernal Equinox (beginning of spring).

For the start of better times, is a concept that is far too deeply embedded into us for even the commercial instincts of the music industry to compete with. Instead it has to work with it.

Symbolically, new beginnings have been associated with this season since the ancient Mesopotamians celebrated the cutting of barley with ‘Akitu’. Afghanistan, India and Vietnam all have spring festivals, and May Day, Chinese New Year and Easter each recognize some form of regeneration during spring.

Dance music has its WMC; a week long gathering of DJs, dance music industry insiders, party people and electronic music fans who converge on Miami and South Beach like a swarm of recently hatched butterflies, each displaying their brightest colours.

DJs will have worked months in their studios creating music and new rhythms that they hope will inspire people to dance, be it the thousands in front of their main stage, or the four people left standing at an afterparty.

Record label owners will have built their entire year of releases around WMC, plotting a record’s rise to the top with strict promos to the DJing elite, and a fair few fingers crossed behind their backs.

Promoters and club owners will have scrambled at the last minute to get artwork done, guestlists filled and flyer teams on the streets.

Technology manufacturers will have finished tightening the last screws in their prototypes in the hopes that all of their R&D and marketing will have led to a product that changes the face of DJing forever.

Magazine editors, bloggers and media people will have a fresh batch of pens and paper at the ready, eagerly awaiting the next WMC track, DJ gossip and inspiring club moments.

And the music fans and clubbers will have spent weeks mentally and physically preparing for WMC, be it booking tickets online, researching hotel and flight deals, saving spending money, and checking out party calendars.

A fair few might even have done stints on the treadmill, sessions on the sunbeds, shaved unsightly bodily hairs and bought new threads (I’ll admit, I did it too).

But how many of us have ever asked ‘why?’. Why do we come to Miami at the beginning of spring each year?  Why is WMC a focal point for the global dance music industry?

These questions are unfortunately far too complex to answer here, however, beyond the rigmarole there is a broader, life affirming fact behind dance music that might help when you’re feeling guilty about the excess or of the simple pleasures dance music affords you.

Dancing celebrates life in a way that is pure and conciliatory to the soul, and it is something that only those who are dancing can understand. Sure, the right DJ and the right record can make a crowd much greater than the sum of its parts, but beautifully so, the catalyst for the perfect dance music party lies not solely in the hands of the DJ, but on the wings of the participating butterflies.

There’s an infectious, exponential energy behind dance music that every single one of us can contribute to, and herein lies its power.

Freidrich Nietzsche the German philosopher once said, “I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance”, and in these darker, recession-ridden times we’re all probably in need of some form of a dancing god, or at least a damn good dance. So dance we must, and through our bleeding feet the once wilted roses of winter will bloom once again.

I hope you enjoy our WMC live blog this week.

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