Lessons to be learned from the year without live music

Resiliency and adaptability

Say whatever you want about the EDM community, but nothing has been more inspiring to me than its adaptability. True to the genre’s underground beginnings, we’ve once again seen a testament to the power of the music.

No other style of music so quickly hopped to streaming live sets or experimenting with distanced outdoor shows. Artists and fans alike are all struggling in our own ways, but the commitment to keep pushing and sharing music is damn incredible. The more that separates us, the more I’m convinced we’re really the same and music is that bridge.

That energy, that miracle of resiliency is honestly what’s going to carry us through this. During Porter’s New Years Eve set for Countdown, I couldn’t tell if I had been sobbing for happiness or sadness. I just remember being overcome with the feeling that everything I’d been through good or bad, every wrong turn after each triumph, everything that made me—everything put me in that moment in time. I couldn’t be anything but grateful.

Whatever your mindset may be about the year 2020, it’s undoubtedly been a tragic year. But take what you can learn from it and we can move forward together. Ride the good days and the bad, because at some point in your life you may look back and realize you wouldn’t be there without all of it. Maybe we’ll all end up at a Porter Robinson show together after overcoming all of the tragedy and realize we couldn’t be anything but grateful.

From all of us at Dance Music Northwest, we hope you have a happy New Year and continued health and safety. We can’t wait to see you again at a show someday.