EDM and Las Vegas go hand in hand. After taking a huge gamble on EDM in the early 2010’s, Vegas cashed in big. The city’s shift towards dance music-focused entertainment turned Sin City into the ideal destination for those looking to enjoy a particularly bombastic strain of pop-orientated dance music dubbed EDM.
DJ’s became hero’s, their faces were plastered on every billboard across Vegas, ushering in a new, exciting era for a city which was once known for just gambling, comedians and pop-star residencies.
The new EDM trend brought in a younger audience, an audience that was prepared to spend a truckload of cash to enjoy the new scene. Personality driven, brand name artists like Deadmau5, Diplo, Tiësto, Calvin Harris, and Steve Aoki pulled massive paychecks to play residencies in nightclubs built exclusively to house EDM audiences. Artists, promoters, club and hotel owners enjoyed massive success from the new EDM trend.
However, EDM’s appeal seems to waning with three of the men who helped define Las Vegas as a dance music mecca rejecting EDM’s excesses in favor of the next big trend.
So what might that be? I hear you ask!
In an article posted on Page Six by Sean Christie, the Wynn’s COO who brought in a legion of big name DJs to the property, discussed Intrigue, the hotel’s newest venue. As the name suggests, the new concept is focused towards a more intimate experience where an air of exclusivity, rather than a marquee artist and gaggle of bottle service babes, is the draw. “The DJ,” Christie said, “is no longer the most important part of the recipe.” The club, opening on April 28, will feature a VIP room where social media is banned, as to help foster engaged conversation, which can be difficult over the deafening blare of trap sirens.
Meanwhile, Christie’s former partner Jesse Waits, another Vegas nightlife impresario, left the Wynn for Alon, a new resort and casino opening soon on the Strip. Waits was blunt about the crowds who swarmed to XS and the Wynn’s other clubs Encore and Tryst, telling Page Six that, “People who just want to see DJs don’t dress up, they don’t have style, they don’t even want to be in a nightclub—they want to see a concert.”
“They’re not cool,” said Waits. “Nightclubs are cool-people clubs…I’ll be creating a club for the cool people.”
Victor Drai, who owns Drai’s nightclub, where the current calendar includes dates by Ghastly, Mija, and Zeds Dead, went on to say that, “People are sick of the DJs in Vegas. It’s ridiculous to have the same five or six guys, pay them a fortune and lose money. It will reach a point where DJs are totally irrelevant.”
So, as you can see, Las Vegas is on the cusp of yet another exciting revolution where the DJ no longer takes center stage, but service, intimacy and an air of exclusivity does.
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