EDM Keeps Shining At Coachella

When Coachella unveiled its lineup last week, dance music seemingly appeared to be more prominent than in previous years, the genre making up 39% of this year’s lineup. However, while the genre takes up a large share of slots, that’s not anything particularly new for the festival.

Dance music has long held a strong presence in the desert, with two stages (Yuma and the DoLab), and last year even launched a new concept: the Quasar stage, which finds DJs performing three-hour-long performances. Instead, the trend of dance music’s prominence at Coachella only continues with bigger marketing.

In fact, dance music has had strong roots in Coachella since its inception, with festival founder Paul Tollett having his own roots in the underground rave scene dating back to the 1990s. One of the major moments for the genre was when Daft Punk played Coachella in 2006, debuting their pyramid stage, and the festival has since continued playing a strong hand in dance music gaining mainstream appeal.

“Dance music is ever growing at Coachella and feels bigger than ever, but it’s also always been there,” says Alex Becket at CAA (with the agency’s roster making up the second-largest share of this year’s lineup at 19%, according to Rostr). “Daft Punk’s iconic performance in 2006 is the moment dance music arrived in popular culture in America; EDM owes its monstrous success to the Sahara Tent; Burning Man became visible for the first time to wide audiences at the Do LaB; and “underground” house and techno music emerged into the mainstream under the dark cover of the Yuma Tent.”

Lee Anderson, President of Wasserman Music (which holds the highest share of booked acts at this year’s Coachella for the fifth year in a row, clocking in at 22%), theorizes the large share of dance music’s current popularity stems from the pandemic. While the mid-2010s brought a more mainstream appeal to the genre, intersecting with pop music, the lack of social interaction throughout 2020 and 2021 led to younger audiences craving a connection with their peers.

“Due to Instagram, the role of clubs in electronic music has changed,” Anderson tells Pollstar. “It used to be you got a table at the club and you were there to be seen. Now, it’s all on social media, so you want to be at these cool places. The Burning Mans or these unique geographic locations. I think dance music provides that, while also getting the music. So, it checks both boxes. What also happened was a big emergence of techno, tech house, house. Which is less, ‘Look at my stage.’ It’s about being there and going there and about the music again, and not even facing the performer but about dancing.” 

The genre continues to sell well with artists such as Zedd, who frequently lands on Pollstar‘s LIVE75 chart while touring. He sold 138,987 tickets for his “Telos Tour” running Sept. 6 through Oct. 15, and sold more tickets during the first three days of the onsale than he ever sold in his whole career by the time the shows played, according to Anderson. Other big money-makers in the genre include Sara Landry, Chase & Status, Amelie Lens and Sammy Virji.

“Dance music is right there and healthy,” Anderson says. “If you are a large promoter and are looking at what’s selling well,  and what people want to see, and you see it’s electronic, you are probably going to lean into that.” 

Over the last few years, there’s been a trend of dance music taking center stage – John Summit headlined Madison Square Garden in June, and appeared at the Kia Forum for three nights in November. Fred again.. performed a pop-up at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that was announced just days before it took place – and the show sold out. The genre’s been steadily making money over recent years, proving there’s hunger in the market.

A variety of dance music’s subgenres will be appearing at Coachella this year, from Zedd’s progressive house to Sara Laundry’s industrial techno to Chase & Status’ drum and bass.

“Chase & Status performing at Coachella is a major milestone for drum and bass music, signaling its growing acceptance by the global music scene,” WME’s Ben Yekuel says. “For a genre traditionally associated with underground clubs and niche festivals, this performance uniquely positions Chase & Status to bridge the gap between sound system culture and mainstream music. The genre itself has always been respected for its ability to blend sounds from dubstep, hip-hop, reggae, etc; this performance now affirms the sound’s acceptance by the masses.”

The underground exploration of dance music comes as no surprise for frequent Coachella attendees, as the genre has always been an essential part of the festival’s experience. While that has grown more apparent in recent years – largely attributed to better marketing for the dance music-specific stages, it is nothing new.

“Coachella has always been underpinned by electronic,” Anderson says. “Yuma is a real destination, the tent has grown a lot and has a bigger stage than it used to, and it’s packed. There’s always a line to get in, and you can be on there at 1 p.m. and play to 10,000 people. Then you look at Quasar, their newest experience of where they’re going and presenting, and they’re doing that in a different way that’s super important to them. I did notice last year Coachella leaned into the marketing efforts of their electronic acts. I think you see that again right now. I wouldn’t say there’s more electronic acts on Coachella than there’s ever been, they’ve been there, but then you go look at a Yuma-specific flyer that’s a marketing asset clearly directing you to what that looks like.”