Electronic Music, Now @ The Grammys

So the Grammys are, hands down, the biggest music event of the year. It has seen the likes of nearly all of the big hit artists, from usually upbeat U2 even down to a personal favorite, the more somber Tool. This is the award that musicians look towards in their careers, unless you were an electronic artist. The Grammys have never seen electronica take the stage; until now, that is.

The Grammy organization has nominated Skrillex for five different awards, and one of them is even in Best New Artist. There has never been a DJ nominated for that award, and so Skrillex will be a pioneer in the music industry as the frontrunner for popular electronic music. Also among the DJs will be deadmau5, David Guetta, and a few others.

With the rise of the likes of deadmau5, Skrillex, and other huge electronic artists all the way from house to dubstep, the long-underground side of the music industry could no longer be ignored. Electronic music has seeped into just about every genre over the last few years, making especially large appearances in pop and hip-hop. Black-Eye Peas, Lady Gaga -- you name it, the big names of late have been huge on electronic.

Not all is well in the land of music, though. At first glance, this move to include electronic music in the Grammys seems nice, even natural. In fact, most fans and artists of this particular umbrella genre will be quite thrilled to finally be included in the biggest music event of the year. What is not apparent initially, though, is how this will change the genre entirely.

There are so many subgenres to electronic: dance, trance, dubstep, drum 'n base, house, electronica... The list goes on and on. Electronic music is as diverse as it is enticing, due largely to the fact that it was underground and had to evolve to specific, local desires. This particular kind of music developed as it was spurned for so many years, and so it went on doing what it pleased -- rather than what the industry wanted of it.

Now, perhaps there may be a lot of good music to come thanks to the embracing of electronic by the Grammys. It may even improve the genre for all we know; after all, the entertainment industry is a fickle business. Regardless of the outcome of electronic's newest step into the world of glitz and glamor, everyone involved should remember one thing: this genre was built by everyday people, not the music industry.