By EVELYN McDONNELL, For the Associated Press 52 minutes ago
MIAMI - When Tom Holkenborg, the artist and producer known as Junkie XL, decided to launch the tour for his new album, he picked the biggest, maddest place he knows for dance music to kick it off: the Winter Music Conference.
Beginning Tuesday, Holkenborg will be one of hundreds of DJs and artists — and tens of thousands of enthusiasts — who come to this annual beach bacchanal to get the year of party music started right.
“It’s hard to find a lineup that has the same insanity that Miami has,” says Holkenborg, a Netherlands native whose latest album, “Booming Back at You,” was released this month. “When it comes to gathering so many well-known DJs and live artists, for the music fans it’s an absolutely thrilling opportunity.”
Over the last 23 years, Miami and Miami Beach have become the gathering places for global clubbers and the industry that caters to them during the week of WMC. For five days, dance fanatics will take over hotels, restaurants, nightspots, and concert venues with a slew of parties, industry mixers, panels, and awards shows — some of them officially part of the festival, some of them not (Ultra, the two-day outdoor festival, began 10 years ago as one of WMC’s parasitic, satellite events/competitors and is now the official closing party).
WMC is where DJs, producers, artists, and their hangers-on come to break new records, in preparation for the summer parties in Ibiza, Spain, and elsewhere. Years ago, it was one of the first places where you could catch Fatboy Slim, Roni Size, Basement Jaxx, and the Brazilian Girls. This year’s big names include Erykah Badu, Moby, and the Bravery.
WMC has a reputation both cheesy and essential. When Xavier de Rosnay thinks of the WMC, a slick, vintage disco image comes to mind.
“It has a bit of a reputation of being for corporate concerns, with lots of guys with suntans and tanktops and muscles, and the equivalent of this for girls,” says half of the hit French duo Justice, as if the fabled electronic dance music gathering were Miami Vice come to life. “And it’s kind of true, but it’s cool. This is what makes it exotic for us.”
Around 50,000 fans from dozens of nations are expected to attend Ultra on March 28 and 29 alone. Many of them are teen- and college-age spring breakers for whom acts from dance music’s heyday, like headliner Underworld, are the equivalent of classic rockers, yet who continue to relish electronic beats. For its tenth anniversary, Ultra — which in recent years has incorporated rock acts in its billing — is honing in on its historic strength.
“With this year what we’ve done, we focused in on what it’s been since day one, which is an amazing electronic music festival,” says Ultra co-founder Russell Faibish.
In the ’90s, when pundits were proclaiming electronic dance music the next big thing, WMC became world renowned as a glittery, subtropical, all-night party — where, sometimes, deals got signed the next day over poolside hangovers. The organizers struggled to keep up with their own success: Many attendees complained that the convention was unfriendly and out of touch, and didn’t bother to register for it. Instead of giving registrants free admission, clubs charged exorbitant door fees — up to $100 at peak hours. WMC’s organizers in turn intimated they would take their conference elsewhere, like to Las Vegas and Puerto Rico.
With registration costing $440 at the door (cheaper if done in advance), only about 5,000 of the tens of thousands who attend WMC events are expected to register this year. But there are no more rumors of the confab pulling up stakes. Clubs have honored WMC passes with free admissions more in recent years, and WMC has either outlasted or, as with Ultra, included many of its erstwhile competitors.
“We have evolved by incorporating the hundreds of parties and events that take place during the week of WMC into its program,” says Bill Kelly, a South Florida DJ who founded the conference with Louis Possenti.
There are legendary WMC gigs, like Carl Cox’s tent at Ultra, Danny Tenaglia’s marathon, and the Om Sessions. This year, the annual DJ Spin Off is one of several hip-hop highlights. Neosoul songstress Erykah Badu will speak, and Public Enemy DJs and producers the Bomb Squad will perform.
“Both disco/dance and hip-hop were birthed in the same clubs and on the same dance floors. Historically, their roots are very similar,” says Kelly. “Erykah’s new album is DJ and producer driven, which is why we are excited to have her involved.”
Dance music may not be the mega-trend it was, but the success of Justice, who beat out Kanye West at 2006’s MTV Europe Music Awards and caused one of the rapper’s more infamous meltdowns, proves its ongoing appeal. The name of Justice’s ‘07 hit says it all: “D.A.N.C.E.” Dance music’s many subgenres have created an international underground catacomb, and electronic production permeates contemporary pop, from country acts Big & Rich to rapper West, who incorporated techno on several tracks on last year’s Graduation.
As an institution into its third decade, WMC risks becoming calcified. But the presence of acts like Justice and the Bravery indicates its organizers are trying to keep it fresh. Even while they sneer at its quintessential Miami-ness, Europe’s legion of dance aficionados wouldn’t miss the party for a heartbeat.
“Everybody wants to go there who has something to do with the music business,” says de Rosnay. They all go to Miami every year.”
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On the Net:
http://www.wintermusicconference.com/
