Sunday, September 7, 2014

Illinois Bans EDM in Bloomington

In yet another case of governmental ignorance, the state of Illinois placed a ban on Electronic Dance Music events in the city of Bloomington earlier this week. This was apparently in an attempt to fight the growing popularity of this genre of music that is sweeping the entire globe. The ban was set into place just before well known DJ/Producer Bassnectar was scheduled to preform for the 4th consecutive year in the city. According to Bassnectar, who is up in arms about the ban, Bloomington was one of his favorite venues to preform at. In an effort to make it up to his local fans, he is organizing an event on Halloween in nearby Peoria.

As an avid listener of many sub-genres of EDM and someone who planned on attending the show, I am outraged. Mainstream media has made a huge effort to falsely stereotype the listeners of new-age-dance-music. The state of Illinois is afraid of being looked down upon as a state that condones drug use due to several recent deaths at EDM headlined events. What people fail to realize is that there have only been more arrests at these concerts because of the much heightened security. I would be hard-pressed if somebody had evidence that showed there is less drug use at non-edm festivals and events. There are no more deaths at these events then there were during the grunge/metal concerts in the 90's. 

Illinois is not the first state to take action on somewhat illegitimate grounds; Florida, California, and New York are just a few other states to crack down on the 'raves'. It is important to know that the ban does not affect privately owned venues and theaters. 
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5 comments:

  1. UnknownSeptember 8, 2014 at 6:24 PM

    Bahahahaha! This is filled with so much misinformation and bias. It doesn't even make any sense. The government didn't have anything to do with anything. One place decided not to bring back Bassnectar. The end.

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    1. AdamZelinskySeptember 8, 2014 at 6:49 PM

      http://www.youredm.com/2014/09/06/bassnectar-edm-banned-bloomington-il/

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    2. PDFSeptember 10, 2014 at 6:47 PM

      Clearly you don't have any idea what Adam was talking about and YOU are simply biased against EDM. It has everything to do with government: the city of Bloomington banned EDM acts from playing publicly owned spaces. While I'm not a fan of EDM, I agree with Adam that it is, frankly, unconstitutional for a city to ban a specific type of music. This is not only harmful because it's local government succumbing to stereotypes that EDM is somehow dangerous, it also hurts the Bloomington EDM scene and many young artists who want to play in public spaces. Before accusing someone of being misinformed and biased, get your facts straight and think about the cultural implications a ban like this can have.

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  2. frankSeptember 8, 2014 at 7:49 PM

    Adam I think you raise a really good point with media labels and stereotyping, as well as the fact that this sort of drug use isn't confined to EDM concerts and how it isn't fair to take action only against them.

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  3. AnonymousSeptember 28, 2014 at 11:18 AM

    I believe that people should be allowed to do what they want and in this case if they chose to attend an EDM concert that is their choice. People should be allowed to do what they want!

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