Why Does America Love Skrillex?

In 2004, Sonny Moore left Los Angeles California to play guitar for a band called "From First to Last". He somehow wound up to be the lead singer instead. Sonny and his band recorded for Epitaph Records and opened for Fall Out Boy. This band was never entirely embraced by the mainstream rock press. Now-a-days Moore goes by the name of Skrillex (vocal problems helped steer him out of the singing game). He records electronic dance music, and lately he has been experiencing notoriety. A month ago, Skrillex was nominated for five Grammys, including one for Best New Artist. According to Nitsuh Abebe, "when Facebook counted the most-played pieces of music on the site in 2011, two of the top ten were by Srillex". He has the ability to draw massive crowds at festivals, such as The Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas.


Just by looking at the Billboard charts, its easy see, that the American population as a whole have taken an interest in the electronic/dubstep sounds. Lately, there's been a boom going on, one which can be traced down from hit producers such as David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, to the rave-style events that take place in this country form other artists, such as Deadmau5, Aviici and Kaskade. Those who are in the business of noticing what makes money move around the industry seem to have plenty of eyes on these up-coming electronic artists.


American's, mostly the males, have traditionally had some weird reservations when it comes to electronic music. It has been considered to be silly, trashy and all-out weird. Dubstep seems to change their perspectives just because of the gut-punch it delivers when you listen to it, taking away whatever reservations anyone had about electronic music. This style of music is essentially like heavy metal with its distorted sound that throws the frequency of music all over the place. Skrillex's music is another species of that rare and lucrative beast: a form of electronic music that does not threaten anyone's masculinity.

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