What We Started (2017) Movie Script
1
[Clatters]
[Car door closes]
[Indistinct chatter]
[Tranquil music]
[Kerri] The biggest
misconception is
that dance music is a new thing.
That it just kind of
burst from the ether.
People don't see it as
part of a long history.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Carl] My drive has
always been about
sharing the love of music.
Finding it, and then sharing it.
[Martin] Some tracks
make me really happy,
some tracks makes me think,
some tracks make you
forget everything.
[John] Such an
experience of freedom.
And experiencing this
freedom with other people,
all through the sound of music.
[Louie] Dance music
has always been about
an escape and letting go.
[Richie] Just get lost in
this aural sound state.
I close my eyes, stick
my head in the speaker,
and just be...
Absorbed.
[Upbeat music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Crowd cheering]
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Crackling]
[Upbeat music]
Sweet! [Chuckles]
[Truck beeping]
[Martin] I'm very nervous.
What if something goes wrong?
[Beeping]
[Carl] I've always
done everything
for the love of music.
Always.
[Tranquil music]
I was always
building tree houses
with my dad.
[Martin] And we'd
put a radio in it,
bought, like, cheap
car speakers,
kept expanding it.
Before we knew it,
we had, like, uh...
Kind of "tree...
Tree house club."
[Martin chuckles]
[Martin]My friends were there,
we started playing music.
Then, we made it like, mobile,
so we could, like,
travel with it.
It wasn't a tree house anymore.
It was just like a
kind of dj booth.
[Gerard] We made a very big sign
saying, "dj Marty" on it.
And it all fitted in the car,
so I could drive him to, uh,
the places where he
wanted to perform.
[Upbeat music]
[Carl] So, eight years old,
my father was bringing
the music home,
I got inspired by the
music he was playing.
[Pam]Carl played music nonstop.
We constantly told him,
"turn it down!"
[Carl] I used to take my
sound system to school,
and an hour-break that we had,
I would play music to
them to the canteen.
[Upbeat music]
I kind of grew up all the
way through the '70s, '80s,
playing hip-hop, R&B,
funk, and soul music.
Most of the parties that I
did, we never got paid for.
My dad thought I would
amount to nothing.
[Pam] Dj'ing was not something
that my dad thought was a job.
He didn't encourage Carl.
[Carl] He was always just
looking at me, going,
"just get a proper job,"
because whatever
you're doing now
"is never gonna
amount to anything."
[Martin] I discovered
electronic music
due to tisto's performing
at the Olympics.
I heard, like, the
sound on television,
and I never, never kind
of listened to it before,
I never really got
connected to it.
I, I loved it.
[Upbeat music]
I, I played at, like, the
local house parties,
for like, ten people.
I had my first real dj gig
on 16th of January, 2010.
There were, like, 250 people,
and there was, for
me, already like,
there was, like, a goal for
me to, like, make it bigger.
[Upbeat music]
[Carl] I started to
understand music
at a very early age.
I'd just study there as
much as I possibly could.
Where does it all stem from?
How did we get here?
[Funky music]
[John] When I first started
working in nightclubs,
there were really one kind of
music that would fill a room.
Live music.
At least they'll
hear me sing
The people I worked
for had a concept,
where they would have
a dj play records.
Everybody said, "it
will never work.
People want to see a live band."
That was sort of the
beginning of disco.
[Disco music]
Uh, everyone comes here
to do whatever they want.
["Good times" by chic playing]
Disco is the phenomenon
of our time.
[Seth] The paradise garage.
Good times
These are the good times
Where so many artists,
so many people met
and congregated,
and created the downtown
New York scene.
These are the good times
[Seth]There's a way for people
who would disenfranchise
to connect with other
like-minded individuals,
express themselves, and dance.
Good times
I went to the paradise
garage when I was about 14,
and my sister snuck me in.
[Louie] That's when I
went to my first club
and never turned back.
Happy days are here again
That was kind of, the,
the theater for the dj.
[Pete] The way Larry
levan was playing,
he had two copies
of the same record,
going between the
two turntables.
Remixing the record on the fly,
and extending bits of
work with the crowd.
[Louie] He knew about sound.
How to pick the right
music at the right time,
and it just opened up a whole
new thing for everybody.
This is dj heaven, when
you walked in that club.
I think I want to live
the sporting life
There's a space for an idea
for freedom and expression,
that was outside of
popular culture.
Leave your cares behind
These are the good times
[John] And then, the
next thing I knew,
that every single
holiday inn in America
converted their lounge
into a discotheque,
and it started becoming
a caricature of itself.
Look out
[John] It became
almost too comical.
Disco died an ugly death.
[Explosion]
[Steve] Disco sucks!
Disco sucks! Disco sucks!
[Reporter 1] It was billed
as disco demolition night.
And the white sox went along.
In Chicago, a shock
jock on the radio
challenged everyone to
burn their disco records.
[Kerri] And everyone did it.
[Reporter 2] One of
the saddest sights
I've ever seen in a
ballpark in my life.
It's getting out of hand.
[Kerri] America just gave
up on disco and kind of,
came out of its stupor and said,
"this is gay black music.
We can't listen to this.
We like rock and roll."
So then it went
back underground.
[Calm music]
[John] Those primal beats
returned in different forms.
Really like a rebirth of disco.
Although it... It
wasn't called disco.
["In the beginning" by
Chuck Roberts playing]
In the beginning
there was Jack
And Jack had a groove
And from this groove
Came the grooves
of all grooves
[Pete] When house music
first kind of started,
it was like the map was
completely redrawn.
Jack boldly declared
let there be house
And house music was born
I am, you see, I
am the creator
And this is my house
[Pete]The inner city of Chicago
really celebrating disco
from ten years before.
[Groovy music playing]
[Pete] Experimental
sessions of, of setting
drum machines and synthesizers.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Pete] And no one have
ever actually heard
what a drum pattern played
over six, seven minutes
coming out of a
machine sounded like.
["Time to Jack" by chip e.
Playing]
The beginning, for me,
for this movement,
was, basically, chip e.,
"time to Jack," 1986.
Time to Jack
Time to Jack
Time to Jack
[Carl] This track, for
me, changed everything.
It would literally
stop the dance floor.
Time to Jack
Jack, Jack
[Carl]People didn't understand
where this was coming from,
why am I playing it.
It has no elements or soul to it
because they can't see a band.
Well, to me, that was exciting,
because all we've
done is see bands.
Now, what we're seeing is what
could be created and electronic.
Time to Jack
Time to Jack
Time to Jack
Time to Jack
[Louie] Disco music was
made by musicians,
arrangers, songwriters.
When house music
started being made,
it was made by dj's.
We had no musical training.
[Upbeat music]
I was lucky to stumble upon
the Detroit scene very early.
[Richie]I was probably 16, 17.
The main hub was a club
called the music institute.
A black box, big speakers,
and a strobe light.
All the Detroit guys
playing incredible music.
[Techno music playing]
[Techno music continues]
Jeff mills, he was, like,
playing so fast...
[Techno music playing]
[Techno music continues]
[Richie] He was playing
all the records
that I have listened
to for the last year.
And we were sitting in the back,
helping him sort his records,
and just copying all the
records' names down.
[Techno music playing]
[Techno music continues]
Listening to those
first records,
it was like, every
time, it was like,
not only listening to
the future, but...
Even if it wasn't every
day or every week,
there was always something,
just when you started to get
a little bit comfortable,
someone else released
a new record.
[Club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
[Louie] The sound is minimal.
It was direct and in-your-face.
More industrial.
[Richie] Detroit
is a motor city.
The Ford motor production line.
[Crackles]
That's what you
hear when you hear
Kevin saunderson and Derrick may
in one act, in their
early records.
Their start with their...
These sounds and synthesizers
and these, like, high-hats,
and it's just like...
[Inhales]
Like pulling you into tomorrow.
[Clatters]
[Crackles]
[Richie] People
like that feel good
and in tune with technology,
not afraid of it.
And they're like, "where's
this gonna take us?"
[Upbeat music]
[Carl] A lot of the artists,
they were enjoying a
moment of creativity.
This was brilliant,
because there was no boundaries
to that sound, you know,
especially Detroit techno.
[Carl] And I found,
a lot of music that was
being made in America
wasn't being paid in America.
Artists kept buying
these records.
Whatever they made
from Chicago, Detroit,
every record I bought
was an American import.
And I was buying it and
playing it in the uk.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Pete]The birth of house music,
and then the birth of
the Detroit sound,
did have a profound effect
on what we were playing
as dj's in the uk.
It wasn't really
fashionable to be a dj.
You could identify yourself
by playing music that...
You and your friends love
though it kinda
wasn't on the radio.
[Upbeat music]
[Paul] Trevor fung, he
was a big dj in britain,
as I was growing up.
I got to meet him to
hang out with him
and really got excited by
what he introduced me to.
The British interpretation
of what America was doing.
[Upbeat music]
[Pete] For the likes of
me and Paul oakenfold,
we were more excited
about change
than we were about staying,
you know, in our own Lane.
We were obsessed
about innovation,
hunting for music.
[Club dance music]
[Club dance music continues]
[Paul]Trevor, he was in Ibiza,
working there all summer,
I went there with a few friends.
We went to this club
called amnesia.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Pete] All that excitement
could run all night
into the morning.
And just going out
and going crazy.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Paul] Ibiza was a
seasonal place.
The end of may, early
June, until September.
The workers and the people who
have been there on holiday,
when they all came
back to the uk,
they wanted to go somewhere.
Me and Trevor went on
to start our own club.
[Upbeat music]
[Paul] Such a wonderful,
exciting moment.
We were very free in the
respect of what we play.
So you would hear cyndi
lauper next to ll cool j,
next to Bob Marley, next to...
a house record.
[Paul] We didn't do
clubs over weekend.
The clubs that I ran
were on Monday and
Thursday night,
till 3:30 in the morning.
If it meant that you
would stay up all night
and go to work...
Then so be it.
We were underground, it
wasn't a commercial movement.
[Upbeat music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Club dance music]
[Paul] We were in the moment.
Really living this scene.
Carl Cox was my sound
man at the time.
[Indistinct chatter]
Look, look, here comes the mob.
[Carl chuckles]
Here comes the mob.
[Crowd cheering]
[Carl] When I started,
I was going up and down
the country, in the uk,
playing four or five
gigs every weekend.
It was only till
roundabout 27, 28
that people started
knowing and...
Started hearing the
name Carl Cox.
[Club dance music playing]
Oh, yes, oh!
[Club dance music playing]
[Crowd cheering]
[Club dance music playing]
Carl Cox is such a special
dj, because he is the king.
[Club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
People that have been
in the game that long,
they still might love it.
But they're not
exuding the energy
that Carl exudes when
he's behind the decks.
[Club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
The longest that
I've ever played
is up to about ten hours.
[Carl] Most people
are only gonna work for
eight hours a day.
In their eight
hours, they have...
You know, a breakfast,
they have a tea break,
they have a lunch break,
they have another tea break,
and they go home for tea.
We're still playing. [Laughs]
[Club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
[Donnie] He's probably
the hardest working man
in this whole business.
I mean, he's nonstop.
He's amazing.
[Club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
[Carl] I never really
give myself a break.
So, to play for ten hours, not
even time to go for a pee.
Yeah, it's not a ten-hour
step program, yeah.
You know, to try and get
rid of all the carbs,
you know, that you put on
over the Christmas party.
You know? [Laughs]
[Club dance music playing]
[Carl] After ten hours, I'm done.
My brain's fried,
my legs are killing me,
back's killing me.
My ears are killing me.
You know, if I go
past the ten hours,
and then, I don't know
what I'm playing.
[Club dance music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Cheering continues]
[Kobi] Carl Cox is
what dj is all about.
He walks into the room,
and he knows how to read
them like they're a book.
And he understand
what needs to happen.
And that's a dj.
[Guitar playing]
[Guitar playing continues]
[Martin] I played the
guitar at the time.
I had so many ideas which I
had on my guitar, but I...
Had no... nothing to,
like, put it in.
Started messing
around with the ideas
and with the melodies which
I created on my guitar.
I started doing some research
and I found, like, this program,
which allowed me to put
my guitar melodies
in the computer.
[Slow techno music]
[Slow techno music continues]
[Martin] I finished
my first record
when I was, like,
ten or something.
I still have it. It's,
it's completely terrible.
But I was super proud of it.
I was doing everything
from my bedroom.
Luckily, I had a
neighbor who was deaf,
who wasn't complaining
about my noise.
I had agreements with my
parents that after 10:00 P.M.
I couldn't play
loud music anymore,
because my sister
wanted to go to sleep.
Then I would be at the
middle of the night,
with my headphones on.
[Upbeat music]
[Martin] I got discovered
through a local dj.
I made an unofficial
remix for "tonight"
by Enrique iglesias.
And he started playing
it live at his shows.
[Club dance music]
But tonight
[club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
[Martin] Some other
dj's contacted me,
and one of them was
looking for a producer,
and I played him some of
my stuff, and he was like,
"one track. Oh, I really
liked that track."
And, and he released it
on spinnin' records.
And the track became really big.
Spinnin' records, they, they
invited me at their office,
and what was fun, I never
told them how old I was,
until I actually met
them in real life.
And they were like, "fuck off.
This can't be true."
So then, they joined
me to my house,
to my room, where I still
produce the music, and...
They were like, "yeah,
show what you do."
And I showed them, like,
a lot of new stuff.
A lot of melodies which I
was working on, and...
Not that much later, I
signed on spinnin' records.
[Club dance music]
[Club dance music continues]
[Record scratching]
[Groovy music]
Stand back watch
the bomb drop
All the competition
that try to compete
[Carl] In the early
days, a dj was someone
that can juggle two or
three or four turntables.
You had to really be talented
to be a dj that can
play continuous music.
[Upbeat music]
[Club dance music]
Come on!
[record scratching]
[Carl] The craft was
always about mixing music,
from our perspective,
always about digging
into the crate,
always about playing
new music to people,
so they can actually
expect the unexpected.
[Record squeaking]
[Crowd cheering]
[Record scratching]
[Crowd cheering]
[Club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
[Crowd cheering]
[Louie]You can give another
dj the same records,
and have us play in
front of a crowd.
Those records will
sound different...
When we... we each play 'em.
It's getting creative
with what you have.
I think that's something
that can't be taught.
It's something that
comes from here.
With computer now,
you know, you have
a lot of people
who don't know how to mix,
don't know how to dj.
[Carl] They've never done it.
It's because technology...
They came in when the
technology was available,
and that's what they
use, and they go,
"you know, I can do this live."
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
There are a lot of dj's who've
got pre-programmed sets.
[Paul] And, unfortunately,
are just pressing play.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Martin] Right now,
there's a lot of...
USB dj's, which I'm a part of.
We are also dj'ing, but
just in a different way.
[Kobi] If you play USB,
and you don't use
vinyls anymore,
does that make you
not a real dj?
That's exactly the same thing.
You use the technology
that is available to you today.
[Ed] But I don't get it.
It's a laptop and a dude.
And that's it.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Carl] People want dj's to
play the records they love.
Buy the top 20 records,
put them on a USB,
stick it, put your
hands in the air,
you have a big smile on
your face, away you go.
If you've got your
hands in the air
for three quarters of your show,
how are you mixing records?
[Phil] If you're
throwing pies at people,
how are you mixing records?
[Carl] It's just
kinda dumbing down
on what made the
craft, the craft.
[Sasha] Watching
some of the guys
that do the main
stages at festivals,
play their hour-long
pre-recorded set,
with their arms in the air,
it's very hard to acquaint that
to what, say, Carl Cox
does in our set at space.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Crowd chattering]
[James]The '80s were not
really great years for the uk.
We had a series of...
You know, industrial strikes,
people with no jobs,
violence and riots,
at the same time.
Clubbing was very exclusive.
[Pete] That changed in the
kind of mid to late '80s.
[Disco music]
[Sasha] Lasers,
smoke machines...
Smiley faces.
The sound of acid house
music had arrived,
and I was like, "what is this?"
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Sasha] Before you know it, that
sound had kinda taken over.
[Ominous music]
[Ominous music continues]
[Paul] The rave culture
developed from acid house.
Outdoor parties held in fields.
[Pete]Something completely new,
that no one had
ever done before.
There's no legal venue in
London you could do that,
hence, started to
do it in warehouses
and fields around the m25.
[Phone ringing]
[Phone ringing continues]
[Carl] The only way
we had to know
where these parties
were happening
was if you had a number to call.
[Phone ringing]
The address would be
on the answer phone.
[Phone ringing]
[Man on phone] You are
cordially invited
to a midsummer night's dream.
Take the m25 motorway,
to 8296, and head east.
Ten thousand people
on the motorway
going around and around
and around the toll.
[Carl] Someone found out
where it was located,
then everyone
followed that person.
And at that time, we
were playing vinyl.
So you imagine walking
through a field
with two boxes of vinyl.
It just kicked off at three
o'clock in the morning,
at some poor guy's farmland.
Check, check your body
Check, check your body
Check, check your body
Check, check your body
Check, check your body
Check, check your body
Check, check your body
[kobi] Dance music
made people feel like
their own secret society.
They're on to something
that the rest of the
people are not.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[James] It was called
the "summer of love."
Because the culture
finds its roots
in the hippie culture.
The late '60s, and
peace and love.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[James] I come from a city
which is full of like
really hard guys.
It's a hard city.
To see these guys go from
fighting every Saturday night,
to dancing, with their
arms in the air,
and, you know, it was
just unbelievable.
[Club dance music]
[Grunts]
[Pete] It was our
punk rock moment.
It was like everything
that had gone before
didn't exist.
It was the year zero.
We were starting again.
And you're either part
of this or you weren't.
[Upbeat music]
[Afrojack] How cool
was it when you have
like a little secret
that no one understands,
and you go to this place
where there's 10,000 others
that feel exactly
the same as you do.
In the world of
electronic dance music,
we are in sort of
uncharted territory.
[Club dance music]
[Moby] When I was growing up,
dance music was supposed to be
the alternative, you know?
You're supposed to
have top 40 over here,
and dance music over here.
And dance music was
supposed to be the domain
of like weird underground-misfit
electronic musicians.
Underground dance
music is about art,
where edm is show business.
[Seth] And there is
still some of the same
shared aesthetics of unity,
and expression, and people
opening up, you know.
But they are two
different things.
[Tisto] The main
core of our music
will always be underground.
Doesn't matter if your Carl Cox
or tisto or Martin garrix.
It always will be underground.
With, uh, the popularity
of electronic music today,
sure, um, we all appreciate
that more and more
kids are in to it.
Um...
But we know, we
always hope that...
Getting into electronic music
via like afrojack or tisto,
they're just sort of
scratching the surface,
and, you know, interested
to explore further.
[Afrojack] Thing
with dance music,
it is not about focus, but
it's about arrangement.
The whole journey you
can take someone on.
You create something
that sounds like, "hey,
this is a nice song."
Like, for people that are
not used to dance music,
and then you present
them with the drop.
[Club dance music]
If I ask my grandma, "do
you like the drop?"
She's like, "what's the drop?"
[Afrojack] Then she
heard the drop,
"look, oh, I like
the dancing parts."
"I like the dancy part."
[Club dance music]
I've got this bad habit when
I start working on an idea,
I'm like working, working on
like a breakdown so much,
and I build up, and then I
have to come up with a drop,
and I'm like, "what?"
[Michael] Martin skypes me,
and he's like, "hey!"
You know, "haven't been
able to sleep all night",
uh, there's this
melody in my head.
"I made this new record,
you need to hear it."
And it was the
demo of "animals".
[Club dance music]
[Club dance music continues]
[Martin] Sometimes, I
start with the melody.
Sometimes, I start
with a kick drum.
I go through a sound bank
with already
pre-programmed sounds,
where I start programming
my own sounds.
[Club dance music]
[Watse] When we started out,
we did very small shows,
you know, just to get him going,
get, um, get him to experience
how the life is and stuff.
And, um...
And, suddenly, you know,
we release his
record, "animals".
["Animals" by Martin
garrix playing]
[Moby] It's an amazing
piece of music.
That's an example
of electronic music
becoming top 40.
That...
Seems to have quite a lot
of integrity around it.
["Animals" by Martin
garrix playing]
It's this special
drop, you know.
Everybody was making hard drops,
and his was still special.
[Club dance music]
We are the fuckin' animals
[techno music]
[Screams]
[Michael] This
instrumental record,
becomes a top 40 radio
record in the us,
the number one single in the uk.
He was the first
17-year-old guy,
who made it into the uk chart.
[Jose] He was the youngest
guy ever playing ultra.
[Dramatic music]
[Reagan] Mr. Gorbachev,
tear down this wall.
[People cheering]
[Moby]There was this
explosion of openness.
A lot of the
problems of the past
just started to fade away.
[Cheering]
[Moby] The wall had come down.
And the world was becoming
a more prosperous place,
and I feel like the love parade
was very much a
reflection of that.
Like this new...
Youth culture that
wasn't burdened
by the prejudices of the past.
[Cheering]
[Uplifting music]
[Carl] It started
off very innocent.
Maybe 250 people.
Couple of trucks going through
the streets of Berlin,
and they would just
stop the trucks
and just party.
[Club dance music]
[Carl] East and
west come together,
and brought people who
were into dance music
to, basically, celebrate life.
[Pete] It was the same spirit
that went into the
league of raves
in the uk.
You know, it was pretty
crazy for the way it grew,
through the first five
years in the '90s
was insane.
The scale of it was just unreal.
[Club dance music]
I can't believe
it, it's amazing.
I've never seen this many
people in one place before.
I'm from Holland, and I
really, really like it here!
[Carl] I was invited
to come and be a part
of the proceedings.
At my first time
to go in there...
Completely blew my mind.
[Cheering]
[Carl] Going through
the streets of Berlin,
I just cannot believe
there's over a million
and a half people.
[Upbeat music]
[Cheering]
[Carl]Breaking down the walls,
breaking down, even culturally,
and there's no way we
could have done this
anywhere else in the world.
We've got this big
massive monument
in the middle.
[Cheering]
And in the monument is where
they built the dj stage,
and you go up in the
monument, and you see over
the whole of the park.
And all you can see
is just heads.
[Electronic dance music]
[Russell] I discovered
electronic dance music
in the early '90s.
I started going to a
lot of the events.
In Miami...
The community and the culture
was like nothing I've
ever seen before.
[Electronic dance music]
[Donnie] I discovered electronic
music in New Orleans.
I was working at a restaurant,
and the other waiters
invited me to a party.
I kinda walked in the doors
and it was a whole new world.
[Club dance music]
[Pasquale] I discovered
electronic music
by getting dragged to
an underground party
in Los Angeles.
You know, when I
was 15 years old.
It was one of the most
magical experiences
in my life.
I fell in love with the music,
the culture, and the vibe.
[Donnie] I started promoting
even though I had
nothing financial
to gain from it.
It was basically a hobby.
We would rent out warehouses.
It was totally illegal.
You were basically risking
a house every weekend.
Um, and all it takes
is for somebody
to do something stupid or
something bad to go happen,
and then you could
lose everything.
Because I loved it.
[Donnie] I put that house
on the line every weekend.
[Russell] First event
that I ever promoted
and produced was in a warehouse.
We would rent the venue,
contract the venue, hire police,
hire fire rescue, hire security
we were definitely
in over our heads.
But we didn't realize
it at the time.
[Pasquale]I did my first
event in Los Angeles,
thinkin' I and my friends
would have a place to go, and
party, and have a good time,
and listen to, you know,
the music that we loved.
And I found out
it was extremely difficult
to even get a venue.
[Club dance music]
[Donnie] It was all ages, and
we were serving alcohol.
It was just... it was just
a recipe for disaster.
But at the time,
when you're 23 years old,
it just seemed like
nothing could go wrong.
[Chattering]
[Chuckles]
[Chattering]
[Man 1] Yo!
[Martin] I'm nervous as fuck.
I'm really nervous, yeah.
- Oh, you...
- I threw up earlier today.
- Oh, really?
- Yeah.
[Somber music]
[Martin] The craziest thing for
me is like how it all went
so quick.
And that's also why I still...
Don't really realize yet what,
what's happening right now.
Omri, is this for fireworks?
[Omri] Yes.
[Martin] I was at ultra
2013 in the crowd.
And right now...
Uh, you're playing
the main stage,
you're a main stage actor and...
It's...
[Stuttering] It's super...
I had to pinch myself
a million times.
[Chuckles]
[Gerard] It went that
fast at every moment.
You had no time to getting
used at the success.
It went that fast.
But imagine for him, he
just did this in two years.
- Yeah.
- What we did in ten years,
he did in two years.
[David] It must be
hard to process
so much in such a short time.
You know?
You go from being
in your bedroom,
to play in front of
a 100,000 people
in a year almost.
- Like this is crazy.
- [Martin] I was in the crowd
two years ago.
What the fuck.
[Giggles]
[Fireworks crackling]
[Martin] Like, for me, it was,
boom, this!
Then, oh, we got a
request for tomorrow.
Oh, we got, then...
Before you know it, you're
in the middle of it,
and there's so much
happening at the same time
that you kinda forget
what's happening,
and you're focused
on the next thing.
[Martin]Where is it gonna end?
- [Martin] That's my question.
- [David] Hm?
[Martin]'Cause I have no clue.
What's gonna happen next?
I don't know.
Do you know what's
gonna happen next?
I mean...
[Steve] I think it's
about not being scared.
And not having...
And having fun.
You know, the fact the
you're nervous now
is a good thing.
[Seth chuckles]
[Seth]How is a 17-year-old kid
the fucking face of dance music?
What the fuck?
You know? Like...
[Panting]
[Paul] A 16, 17-year-old
kid makes a record,
he's never... He has got
no experience ever,
playing in front of a crowd.
And they book him.
Why?
[Seth] You know, a
17-year-old kid,
who has no context of
the greater history
of anything he's doing.
He made some track
for teenage kids.
Like, it's not music,
'cause it's just a way,
for... to sell music
to teenagers.
[Electronic dance music]
[Martin] There's a lot
of commotion going on,
like, "oh, you're
too mainstream."
From like the underground people
or the mainstream people,
who don't understand the
underground thing, but...
If, if people who love techno
don't like the electronic music
or the stuff which I make,
then don't listen to it.
[Interviewer] So
what is underground?
I guess underground, for me, uh,
is anything that's outside
of the mainstream.
[Dubfire] It's outside of like
whatever is considered popular.
But it always been more
interesting to me.
Underground dance music
is a representation of
trying to do things
with a cultural acknowledgement
who we are as humans.
There's always gonna be
super underground music,
and there's always
gonna be stuff
that some people
consider cheesy,
and that's gonna appeal
to the pop market.
David guetta's underground
for Katy Perry fans.
[Afrojack] I'm underground
for David guetta fans.
Like, compared to me,
deadmau5 is underground.
Compared to deadmau5, feed
me would be underground.
Compared to feed me,
Richie hawtin would
be underground.
But if you compare Richie
hawtin to Nicolas jaar,
Richie hawtin is
commercial techno.
But, like, no matter how
underground you are,
if you're driving your car,
and a-ha "take on me"
comes on the radio,
you sing along.
If Richie hawtin will
play it in his set,
you would not be happy.
But if the song comes
on in the car, like...
take on me
Take on me
Like, it's always.
["Take on me" by a-ha playing]
[Afrojack]You can't deny that.
And that's why I
love music so much,
because it's universal.
I'll be gone
In a day or two
So needless to say
I'm odds and ends but
I'll be stumbling away
Slowly learning
that life is okay
[man 2] Did you guys
have fun tonight?
- Yeah, man.
- [Woman 1] Yeah, excellent.
[Man 2] Why? What was
so good about it?
[Woman 1] Good atmosphere.
Excellent atmosphere.
[Man 2] Are you guys
gonna stop ever?
Or you're gonna keep
dancing forever?
I can keep dancing
forever, I mean.
Well, at least till I
remember where I put my car.
[Moby] When you talk about
thousands of people
gathering together
in a field or on a warehouse,
and throwing their
hands in the air,
and having these
euphoric experiences,
of course, the music
plays a big part in it.
The drugs play a huge
part in it, too.
[Club dance music]
[Woman 2] Are you all good?
Yeah, there's, uh...
[Woman 2] Oh, no.
[Erick] When you do ecstasy,
music feels unbelievable.
[Uplifting music]
[Erick]As a dj, it's incredible
because, you know, you
could really take 'em
to different heights.
[Uplifting music]
[Moby] I spent time
at raves sober,
and I've spent time
at raves not sober.
[Uplifting music]
[Moby] The sound is huge.
Visuals are huge.
Everyone's dancing.
[Club dance music]
The crowd is the star.
[Club dance music]
[Moby] It's hardwired into
our evolutionary DNA...
To wanna dance with each other,
have ecstatic experiences
at night in front of light.
You know, 50,000 years ago,
people were banging on sticks,
and dancing around the fire.
No one has to learn
how to throw their
hands in the air,
and dance ecstatically
at three o'clock in the morning.
[Club dance music]
[Laughing]
[Producer] The rave scene,
what were they like?
Did many deny it?
[Producer] Many denied it.
Did they really?
Were they really there?
Or they were just trying
to claim they were there?
[Club dance music playing]
[Whistle blows]
[Paul] The first raves
were very successful.
And then, of course, the
police got wind of it.
People who go to the parties
are calling for them
to be legalized.
[Reporter 3] But
the authorities
are worried about drugs
and noise levels.
Things were getting
pretty crazy.
[Pete]Some stuff was happening
that wasn't necessarily
that safe.
[Reporter 4] Police moved
in to break up the party
at five this morning.
Eight hundred and
thirty-six youngsters
were arrested,
and officers seized 1,000
pounds worth of drugs.
This was an easy outlet
for them to sell drugs.
[Chief inspector Wilson] We
got some very firm evidence
about major criminals involved,
major criminal organizations,
drugs, protection rackets,
all at the background
of these parties.
[Carl] They really thought
that I was a part
of the syndicate
that was basically
making parties
just to sell drugs.
And, apparently, I was
carrying it around
with a silver platter,
while I was dj'ing,
I'm handing out
ecstasies to people
who I know would take it,
while they were dancing.
I said, "well, if I
was doing that,"
how would I be mixing the
records at the same time
"I was handing out
all the drugs?"
[Motorcycle revs]
[James] Castlemorton.
What began as a small gathering,
suddenly turns this
huge, huge rave.
[Reporter 5] At the
height of the festival,
an estimated 20,000
people have converged
on castlemorton common.
[James] More and more
people were arriving.
It went on for a week.
And the police just
couldn't break it up.
It was just so big.
Twenty thousand people
on this common,
and no toilets.
You can imagine the mess
they're going to
leave behind them.
[Reporter 6] The police
view is that these
are purely criminal events.
[Jack]These people are crooks,
and they are
destroying the lives
of hundreds not
to say thousands,
of decent law-abiding citizens.
[Sasha] I remember
going to some parties
that were really dangerous.
Packed into sweaty warehouses,
no lights, no exits.
[Pete] If people get hurt,
then it needs to be addressed.
It can't, it can't carry on.
[James] That point, a
lot of people realized
that concept of the
illegal raves was dead.
It couldn't continue.
You know, the government
were crazy about it,
the media were all over it.
And so something has to change.
[Club dance music]
[Indistinct chattering]
You had the beginnings
of the legal space,
where all the dj's could work.
[Club dance music]
[James] We launched cream,
and it just became
this phenomenon.
It just exploded.
[Club dance music]
They started putting on
really highly-produced venues
with great sound systems,
and it was safer.
[Club dance music]
[Richie] I like dj'ing because
I was nerdy, insecure.
And dj'ing was the perfect,
anonymous way to connect
and touch hundreds
even thousands of people,
without actually having
to talk to them.
[Richie]What you gotta
remember in the late '80s,
where was the dj in the club?
In the corner, probably
the darkest corner.
[Carl] And the corner here,
was where the original dj booth.
[Man 3] Yeah, yeah, in between
these two columns. Here.
[Carl] In between the
two columns here.
So, when you were dj'ing here,
you can see the people
dancing if they're up there,
and you can see people
coming inside here.
But I always felt that
the dj should be...
[Man 3] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Of course.
- Should be there as the area.
- [Man 3] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Club dance music]
[James]When we set up our club,
we put the dj center stage.
We built a huge gold
gilt frame around him.
So there was no escaping
the fact that you had to
look in this direction,
you had to worship the dj.
We aggressively
promoted the concept
of the dj being as important
as the lead guitarist
or the lead singer in a band.
Paul oakenfold is
the most obvious dj
who had used the
advantage of the time,
and the interests in dj's,
and packaged himself
as a rockstar.
[Uplifting music]
[Paul] I was doing remixes for
the love of the big acts.
I was approached by U2 to
do some remixes for them.
I remixed a track
called "even better
than the real thing".
["Even better than the
real thing" by U2 remix]
[Paul]That became a bigger
hit than the original.
And then they asked me
if I would like to
be the opening act
on their world tour.
["Even better than the
real thing" by U2 remix]
Primarily a rock and roll crowd,
so I can't play
underground music.
So what am I gonna do?
[Paul] I didn't want
to let anyone down.
I started to look at a lot
of the remixes I've done.
I would take classic rock songs,
and do my own version of it.
The club version.
They still had the
roots and essence
of what it was.
But it had my flavor to it.
Knowing 2,000 people,
nervous, excited.
It was a scary
moment walking out,
and you find just you,
and all these people
looking at you.
[Upbeat music]
[Cheering]
[Whistling]
[Upbeat music]
[Paul]It was such a
wonderful, exciting moment.
I really was like,
"wow, these people
are really into it."
[Sasha]The big story, you know,
wow, there's a dj playing
to a U2-size crowd.
And I think it really kind
of set something in motion.
[Paul] That was a
big moment for me.
'Cause it really
proved to myself
that I was more than
just a dj in a club.
[Upbeat music]
[Paul] I took a lot of
what I saw and learned
from the biggest
band in the world,
and put it into my career.
[Indistinct chatter]
[Somber music]
[Donnie] The DEA raided
the state palace theatre,
which was the venue that
I was doing shows at.
Some creative genius in the DEA
came up with the idea
that the owner and
the management
of a dance event
should be charged
as if they were operating
a crack house.
[Reporter 7] The manager and
two promoters of the club
were indicted,
for simply knowingly
and intentionally
making the building available
for the purpose of
unlawfully distributing
and using controlled substances.
Imagine when you go and you
meet with your lawyer,
and they say, "well, it's bad."
They wanna charge you with
the crack house law."
[Ominous music]
There was a lot of
other people that...
Did the same thing I was doing.
If you're a club owner
or you're a promoter,
you go to battle in
order to produce shows.
I don't have to worry.
Um...
[Kobi] Donnie was the one
they used as an example
to scare other promoters
from doing the raves.
Who is he with?
It was a test case.
And what they wanted to do
was take my conviction,
and basically use it
against everybody else.
[Graham] We had a full trial
in front of a federal judge
in New Orleans.
We insisted that there was
a constitutional right
to play music of your choice.
And Donnie, at the
end of the day,
was exonerated.
But the United States
was in the middle
of a sort of a moral panic
about ecstasy,
and about the perception
that a certain kind of music
was causing people
to use the drug.
After the crack
house law failed,
they came up with the rave act.
[Donnie]A way to scare venues.
[Pasquale] I mean,
it was ridiculous
trying to put the club owners,
venue owners, promoters in jail.
[Donnie] And right
at that same time,
then you have 9/11.
And then, boom.
You know, the whole
market crashed.
[Slow techno music]
[Donnie] We went from
never stop growing
to half.
[Pete] You know,
record companies
were closing labels down,
magazines were going bust.
People were getting laid off.
[Slow techno music]
[Pasquale] Literally, everyone
pretty much disappeared.
After you put, you know,
every last dollar you
have on the line,
and that event doesn't happen.
I was broke.
[Russell] We were
losing a lot of money.
Everybody I knew
asked me if I was
crazy to continue.
There was no point to continue.
It didn't make any
sense on any level.
I was very anxious.
I didn't wanna really imagine
that I had to stop
doing what I loved.
[Donnie] The rave scene was
the lowest of the low.
I would go to a party
with somebody, and like,
"okay, don't tell anybody
you're a rave promoter, right?"
It's like, "okay, yeah, I won't.
I won't embarrass you."
Maybe people are
just tired of it.
Yeah, maybe the...
The people that
were in, into it,
for just 'cause it was
a cool thing to do,
I think they found
something else.
[Donnie] Now I
have a 4-year-old,
and my wife's pregnant again.
And, you know, I'm there
at the gas station
using five credit cards to
put five dollars in my car.
And I have to ask my wife
for her credit card.
And she's like, "you
know, you need to stop
doing these shows,
and go get a job."
I really sorta
thought, "well, okay,
that was a fun ride
while it happened."
[Martin] I always wished
like, when I was in my bedroom,
like, I wanna do this
in front of 100,000 people,
but I never really
thought it would happen.
I never had the intention
to become famous.
For me, I make music
'cause I love it.
Because it's my hobby.
[Calm music]
[Carl] I do this 'cause
I love the music,
I have a passion for it.
Since I was 8 years old,
I have not looked back.
When the time comes where
you have to close the door
and put it all behind you,
is the time that you know
that you've done something
of self-worth with your life.
[Tranquil music]
[Carl] I believe
in what I'm doing.
And if you do that,
you're gonna find other people
that also feel the same.
This movement is still
pushing forward.
[Electronic music]
[Paul] Having come to America,
I saw that there was
pockets of people
that were into electronic
music in certain cities.
[Electronic music continues]
[Pete]Paul turned around to me,
literally, in the dj booth.
Mid-season in Ibiza and said,
"by the way, I'm not
gonna be here next week.
Can you do the rest
of the season?"
And I said, "why?"
He said, "'cause I'm
going to America.
'Cause I'm gonna go
and break America."
[Paul] I looked to
America and thought,
"I really want a
challenge here."
I really wanna go to Cincinnati,
I wanna go to Nashville,
"I wanna go to these
smaller places."
I did about 150 shows in a year.
[Pete] Across the country,
backwards and forwards,
touring in America
in the same way a
rock band would.
It was like a chemical reaction.
This metamorphosis happened
with the advent of the Internet.
Napster had started.
And limewire and file
sharing really took off.
You can make a track at home.
You could share it,
start sending files
around the world.
[Reporter 8]Uh, how many mp3s
you have on your computer?
About 600.
Maybe like 100.
Six or seven thousand.
- Come again.
- Six or seven thousand.
[Erick]You have all these kids
that were really
looking for the music.
And the Internet kinda
brought it to them.
[Pete] Suddenly,
people were able
to monetize themselves
in a different way.
[Upbeat music]
[Paul]Big turning point for me
was when I sold
Hollywood bowl out.
I was like, "wow! I
didn't realize it",
that there was these many kids
"that were really into
electronic music."
[Pete] Things would
just seem to get bigger
and bigger and bigger.
People started calling
from around the world
to actually book you
for the first time.
The dj's started
migrating like birds
to other parts of the world.
[Techno music]
[Tisto] Uh, I
played at festivals.
And they asked all the people,
"who do you come here to see?"
And most would say, "we
come here to see tisto."
And the promoter and I decided,
"why don't we try a
tsto solo show?"
You play for like,
six, seven hours
and you might sell
out a stadium.
[Upbeat music]
[Host] Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome...
Dj tisto!
[Upbeat music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Tisto] I walked on
stage and I was like,
"this is... this is not real."
Just one dj in a stadium
for 25,000 people.
Oh, that, that never
happened before.
[Upbeat music playing]
[Tisto]There was this
one guy from Greece,
he saw the concert.
And he was like, "I want you
to play at the Olympics."
[People gasping]
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music]
[Tisto]I saw, like, presidents
fist-bumping and stuff.
So, it was... It was
an amazing experience.
It was live on television
for 4.6 billion people.
[Techno music]
He became the first
global superstar.
[Pete] After Olympics
in 2004, you really saw
it's going further and
further into the mainstream.
[Ed] I remember seeing
a massive poster
that said, "sold out
Victoria park."
And Victoria park is,
like, 40,000 people.
It said, "sold out
Victoria park, tisto."
I was like, "who the
fuck is tisto?"
Dj.
[Laughter]
[Applause]
["Summer" by Calvin
Harris playing]
We were doing electric
Daisy carnival.
[Donnie] Everything was
kinda building up,
the crowds kept getting bigger.
And in 2002, we did
about 6,000 people.
And then, in 2003,
we did about 10,000.
Barely trickling up.
Y'all ready?
[Cheering]
[Pete] Donnie and pasquale,
they kinda had to
legitimize their business.
Like the uk came away
from riskier spaces
and started to look to
re-invent themselves
in a dedicated legal space.
["Summer" by Calvin
Harris playing]
[Donnie] In 2008,
electric Daisy carnival
got 30,000 people.
[Pasquale] It was
an amazing moment.
I was like, "finally,
we're here." You know?
This is gonna go somewhere.
[Russell] In Miami, I realized
that I didn't wanna
just continue
doing warehouse parties,
I kind of have
reached the ceiling.
So, I wanted to go
to the next step
and do a festival.
We started coming up with ideas
of what we can do that
would be special,
something unique,
something different.
Let's go talk to the
main stage there,
and we'll go up to,
uh, Carl's station.
[Russell] First year of ultra
music festival on the beach,
we started with 10,000 people.
And then, it just
grew from there.
The attendance just kept
rising and rising and rising.
One year, it really exploded.
It went up over 100,000.
["Around the world"
by daft punk playing]
Around the world
around the world
Around the world...
[Donnie] The scene just
kept growing and growing.
I knew that we were
on to something.
I knew that, eventually,
it would filter around
to the rest of the country.
'Cause I gotta feeling
Whoo-hoo
That tonight's gonna
be a good night
That tonight's gonna
be a good night
I think the guy that got
us to where we are today
was actually David guetta.
["I gotta feeling" by
David guetta playing]
David guetta collaboration
with, uh, the Black Eyed Peas.
That record really
opened the door.
And then we'll do it
again let's do it...
People were interviewing me
about me bringing electronic
concert to the us.
[David] And I'm like, "what?
It's coming from the us."
here we go we gotta
rock, rock, rock
A lot of people,
even in America,
didn't know this.
Now we on top top,
top, top, top
Feel the shot, body rock
David guetta was making music
that was acceptable
to top 40 radio,
and actually really
catchy and fun.
Monday, Tuesday
[afrojack] He's been, by
far, the reason that edm
has had such an amazing
cultural success.
That song introduced
so many people
to another form of music.
They started looking in.
Party every day
And I'm feeling
Whoo-hoo
That tonight's gonna be...
[Carl] We're now
in a global scene.
We're in a
billion-dollar industry.
["Levels" by avicii playing]
[Jamie] You hear electronic
music everywhere.
It has become pop music.
So, those crowds,
the people who...
Who do listen to pop music,
are now listening to
electronic music.
All of us are reaping
the benefits of that.
["Levels" by avicii playing]
[Carl] When you go to
one of these events,
you escape from whatever
you're involved in life.
[Dramatic music]
[Martin] Because a lot
of electronic music
is instrumental,
it's universal,
there's no language
attached to it.
Everybody can understand it.
Music is the language itself.
[Calm music]
[Kerri] You can't really do
dance music on your own.
It's participatory.
It's a tribal experience
you have together.
Right? It's meant to
be enjoyed in a group.
[Calm music]
[Paul] It is crazy at
how many festivals
around the world there are.
Most electronic festivals
came from raves.
[Exciting music]
[Carl] What we started,
from where it was to
where it is now, today,
we've made it as a
whole, for the scene.
These artists right
now are averaging...
A half a million dollara night.
[Uplifting music]
Now, there's like a
commercial appeal to them.
You can hear... like, that's
the only thing you hear
on pop radio now is edm music.
Every urban artist, pop star,
anybody whose anybody wants a
dance record on their album.
[Martin] Are you happy
with the shorts like this?
[Ed] How about this?
How about this?
How about this? The
first break is just,
doo-doot, doo-doot.
And then the second break
is both of 'em together.
[Martin] It's like if...
what I think,
if we are gonna use
the first break,
is that when the drop
comes with the melody,
it's way too random.
It's out of nothing.
The reason I initially
wanted to work with Martin
is because of "animals".
I heard it, I was like,
"this is fucking weird."
I like it. It's...
it's different.
We're gonna record,
like right now,
the guitar parts.
[Ed] Do you want it like that?
[Guitar playing]
Or...
[Guitar strums]
- [Martin] Yeah, that. Better.
- [Ed] Or that?
You know what? I'll do it.
And then you can
chop it and use it.
Yeah, just, uh, just
turn the track down low,
if that's all right.
[Ed] You forget how
young Martin is,
because he's so,
like, well-traveled.
It's like you feel like
he's like tsto or something.
The quality of production is
really out there, everywhere,
so many good producers.
You know?
What's the problem for me
is a lot of anti-music.
How are we gonna make music
that touch people's heart,
but in a new, fresh
and exciting way?
[Light music]
[Indistinct chatter]
- Like that.
- Okay.
["Don't look down" Martin garrix ft.
Usher playing]
[Usher] I really feel like a
creative musical chemist.
You know, I mean, when
the fusion of music
comes together,
whatever you may call
it, pop, R&B, and edm,
and it works, and it opened
an entire new conversation.
You got me way up
a thousand miles
Can we stay right here...
Because those greats before
us who created that fusion.
Like Michael Jackson when
disco was on its way out,
and rock was on its way in,
[Usher] Michael was able
to create something
that satisfy both parties.
We're gonna reach it now
Do you feel the lightning
inside of you?
Will you follow through
if I fall for you?
Don't look down
Up this high we'll
never hit the ground
I feel like once the world
was able to hear
edm in that way,
and me experiment
with David guetta
and now, Martin garrix.
[Usher] To me, that creates
an entire new movement.
[Upbeat music]
It's created an
authenticity within a style
that everybody's
kind of enjoying.
What the big challenge
is, for me,
is to keep evolving, evolving
and to stay relevant.
[Calm music]
[Calm music continues]
[Carl] My career has
spanned over 38 years,
doing what I love to do.
Hey, hi! Hey, hey, hey.
[Carl] To be honest
with you, you know,
my father would not
really get behind me.
It was quite damning
in some ways
and he didn't respect
the fact that,
that I had this
drive and energy,
uh, to be able to become
the person I am today.
[Somber music]
[Carl] When I said to him
that I didn't really
wanna do anything
as apart from dj'ing, he...
just basically laughed.
He didn't give me the respect
to find my own path.
[Pam] I think he had
made Carl stronger.
That he wanted, you know,
when my dad said no,
I think it was a yes to Carl
that, "I'm gonna
follow my dreams."
[Uplifting music]
[Pam] I'm so proud to say
that he's my big brother.
Um, right now, I really wish
that he could say those words.
At the moment, my dad
is not very well.
He has dementia.
[Pam] It would have been nice
for him to say those words.
I don't think Carl
will ever hear them
from his father now,
because he doesn't remember.
[Somber music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Indistinct chatter]
[Loud cheering]
[Crowd screaming]
[Indistinct chatter]
[Crowd cheering]
[Indistinct chatter]
[Techno music]
Hello.
["Virus" by Martin garrix & moti ft.
Jenny wahlstrm playing]
[Crowd shouting]
What's up, Miami?
[Crowd cheering]
[Gerard] Imagine that
you're standing there,
and you're seeing your son,
and he's standing
before 40,000 people.
It's incredible.
Virus
["Virus" by Martin garrix & moti ft.
Jenny wahlstrm continues]
[Crowd screaming]
Party with me all of you!
Scream right now!
One, two, three, let's go!
["Virus" by Martin garrix & moti ft.
Jenny wahlstrm playing]
[Carl] Martin garrix, you
put him on any festival,
and he can't do no wrong.
See, it's something
which is wondrous.
You know, you got someone
that's this young,
who's connected
with 18-year-olds.
He's connecting directly to
the people he is inspirin'.
It'd be difficult
for me to be there.
And have 18-years-olds go,
"oh, my god, he's amazing!"
They'd be like, "oh, my
god, my dad's amazing."
You know? It doesn't work.
[Martin] I don't see
myself as a big act.
It doesn't count how
many tickets you sell.
It also counts
about what you did
for the industry,
what you are still doing,
and what your abilities
are, what you can do.
You're gonna be
right over there.
Hey, there he is.
- How you doing?
- [Martin] Hey.
So, you've played
already, right?
- You've been at it.
- I just came off stage,
- and we rushed here.
- You just came off. Really?
- Oh, thank god.
- No worries, it's all good.
[Martin] I respect Carl
as a producer and a dj.
His dj sets are...
I can't play eight
hours in a row,
and not lose attention
from the crowd.
The longest set I've
done is 12, is 10 hours.
- It's like...
- How did you, like...
You didn't play one
track two times?
- No, no, I did not.
- That's nuts.
Yeah. [Laughs]
Are you solo or did you do
back to back with others?
No, no, no. Just me on my own.
Yeah. Went to the toilet once.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Uh, took two slices of pizza.
And, uh, I think four beers.
And that was me.
- But that's something I respect.
- Yeah.
I can't think about 12 hours.
That's nuts.
He can do so many things
which I am dreaming of.
And which I'm still...
Trying to do.
I mean, I was actually
quite shy as a young dj.
When I was up on the stage,
I had the curtains closed.
And I'll still play my music.
And I was like,
"keep them closed,
keep them closed"
as long as I could.
And then, I went out, there's
the dj, I'd be like...
[Laughing]
- But that's cool, though.
- He'd be playing, you know.
"Say something on the
mic." I'll be like, "no."
"You say something." You know?
But that's how it was for me, I
kinda grew into all of this.
[Carl] Martin's gotta believe
that he can do this.
Because the whole scene
rests on his shoulders now.
He's young, he's hungry,
and he's out to
basically set the bar
of what's happens next.
[Dramatic music]
[Dramatic music continues]
[Carl] Big, deep breath.
[Deep breath]
Final night.
[Carl] In all these
defining moments,
tsto's played to
billions of people,
Paul oakenfold at
wembly with U2.
No one's actually been in a
club for 15 years straight.
But I played gigs all over
the world, festivals, clubs,
house parties.
Everything that I've done
feels like it's gone so quickly.
[Applauding]
[Carl] Oh, yes. Oh, yes!
We have got ten hours to go.
I never really thought
in any way, shape,
or form that...
That I would have this
longevity in my career.
Thank you all, so, so, so much.
Thank you.
[Crowd cheering]
[Carl] Great spot.
Thank you to heart!
[Crowd cheering]
I came with Carl the very,
very first trip to Ibiza.
[Pam] I loved it.
It was the start of my
journey coming to space.
You know, I love my
brother to bits.
Um, I am his number one fan.
And I am so proud.
My journey with Carl,
um, is coming to an end.
[Somber music]
[Carl] The last half an hour,
down to the last,
actual last record,
I have never seen so
much emotion in a club.
[Dramatic music]
[Carl] I've been so blessed to about...
do what I do
at the level that I do it.
And when you look back,
the amount of music
you've played,
people you've met,
touched a lot of
hearts and souls
all over the world.
And people remember those
times and those moments.
[Dramatic music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Whistling]
[Loud cheering]
[Carl] In the end of the
day, it's all about music.
And if I've touched
you with my music,
then all I can say
is, "thank you."
[Tranquil music]
[Afrojack]We're all lost
souls at one point,
and when we come together
at dance music festivals,
we're not lost anymore.
Dance music used to be my
little secret, you know.
It was my little thing.
But if you have something great,
you want to share it with these
many people as possible.
It's just a lot of thing
and it's a fun thing.
And you should never,
never be greedy about
something great.
[Crowd screaming]
[Screaming continues]
["Virus" by Martin garrix & moti ft.
Jenny wahlstrm playing]
[Martin] It's not about
being on the top,
it's about making
other people happy.
We'll make it
It's just who we are
Say where to go
[Martin]It's all about
the dj, the music.
The people you're
surrounded with.
I think that's so beautiful.
You make people happy
and make them forget
about everything else.
It's just who we are
Yeah, we will do
anything we dream about
[Martin] I'm kind of
happy that it's going
towards a new
direction right now.
Because it won't make
it, like, fade away.
And that's only fear I have.
Like, because it went...
Like, same with my career,
like, because it went so fast.
I just hope, like,
I can hold on.
What I just hope is that
electronic music is
not at the limit yet.
And it can still grow
for the next ten years.
["Virus" by Martin garrix & moti ft.
Jenny wahlstrm playing]
I just hope I can be,
like, a part of it.
And we'll see what happens.
["Virus" by Martin garrix & moti ft.
Jenny wahlstrm continues]
[Richie] We love and are
tied together by music,
created by a technology
that is always...
Evolving and mutating.
That makes every day
a new possibility.
[Light music]
[Paul]When you look back at it,
god, what we started,
to where we are now,
years later,
it was some achievement.
Whether it's underground
or commercial,
as a whole, electronic music
is thriving around the world.
[Donnie] I wanna protect
the scene, you know,
I want it to be
here a long time.
Way after I'm done and
retired and in the ground.
In rave heaven.
Uh, I want this
to go on forever.
[Electronic music]
[Electronic music continues]
Uh, Martin and I were at
a festival tour together
for future music in Australia.
And we had a five-hour
long flight.
- And we are next to each other.
- Yeah.
At first, we're all,
and it's like...
And then we're both
kinda like, "oh, hey."
So, we chatted up.
And, I have to say, I was wrong
about some things, you know.
Martin is the first
person I met...
From that scene who's doing
it for the right reasons.
In my mind, "maybe, one day",
he can break into
the dark side."
[Chuckles]
[Upbeat music]
[Slow electronic music]
[Clatters]
[Car door closes]
[Indistinct chatter]
[Tranquil music]
[Kerri] The biggest
misconception is
that dance music is a new thing.
That it just kind of
burst from the ether.
People don't see it as
part of a long history.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Carl] My drive has
always been about
sharing the love of music.
Finding it, and then sharing it.
[Martin] Some tracks
make me really happy,
some tracks makes me think,
some tracks make you
forget everything.
[John] Such an
experience of freedom.
And experiencing this
freedom with other people,
all through the sound of music.
[Louie] Dance music
has always been about
an escape and letting go.
[Richie] Just get lost in
this aural sound state.
I close my eyes, stick
my head in the speaker,
and just be...
Absorbed.
[Upbeat music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Crowd cheering]
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Crackling]
[Upbeat music]
Sweet! [Chuckles]
[Truck beeping]
[Martin] I'm very nervous.
What if something goes wrong?
[Beeping]
[Carl] I've always
done everything
for the love of music.
Always.
[Tranquil music]
I was always
building tree houses
with my dad.
[Martin] And we'd
put a radio in it,
bought, like, cheap
car speakers,
kept expanding it.
Before we knew it,
we had, like, uh...
Kind of "tree...
Tree house club."
[Martin chuckles]
[Martin]My friends were there,
we started playing music.
Then, we made it like, mobile,
so we could, like,
travel with it.
It wasn't a tree house anymore.
It was just like a
kind of dj booth.
[Gerard] We made a very big sign
saying, "dj Marty" on it.
And it all fitted in the car,
so I could drive him to, uh,
the places where he
wanted to perform.
[Upbeat music]
[Carl] So, eight years old,
my father was bringing
the music home,
I got inspired by the
music he was playing.
[Pam]Carl played music nonstop.
We constantly told him,
"turn it down!"
[Carl] I used to take my
sound system to school,
and an hour-break that we had,
I would play music to
them to the canteen.
[Upbeat music]
I kind of grew up all the
way through the '70s, '80s,
playing hip-hop, R&B,
funk, and soul music.
Most of the parties that I
did, we never got paid for.
My dad thought I would
amount to nothing.
[Pam] Dj'ing was not something
that my dad thought was a job.
He didn't encourage Carl.
[Carl] He was always just
looking at me, going,
"just get a proper job,"
because whatever
you're doing now
"is never gonna
amount to anything."
[Martin] I discovered
electronic music
due to tisto's performing
at the Olympics.
I heard, like, the
sound on television,
and I never, never kind
of listened to it before,
I never really got
connected to it.
I, I loved it.
[Upbeat music]
I, I played at, like, the
local house parties,
for like, ten people.
I had my first real dj gig
on 16th of January, 2010.
There were, like, 250 people,
and there was, for
me, already like,
there was, like, a goal for
me to, like, make it bigger.
[Upbeat music]
[Carl] I started to
understand music
at a very early age.
I'd just study there as
much as I possibly could.
Where does it all stem from?
How did we get here?
[Funky music]
[John] When I first started
working in nightclubs,
there were really one kind of
music that would fill a room.
Live music.
At least they'll
hear me sing
The people I worked
for had a concept,
where they would have
a dj play records.
Everybody said, "it
will never work.
People want to see a live band."
That was sort of the
beginning of disco.
[Disco music]
Uh, everyone comes here
to do whatever they want.
["Good times" by chic playing]
Disco is the phenomenon
of our time.
[Seth] The paradise garage.
Good times
These are the good times
Where so many artists,
so many people met
and congregated,
and created the downtown
New York scene.
These are the good times
[Seth]There's a way for people
who would disenfranchise
to connect with other
like-minded individuals,
express themselves, and dance.
Good times
I went to the paradise
garage when I was about 14,
and my sister snuck me in.
[Louie] That's when I
went to my first club
and never turned back.
Happy days are here again
That was kind of, the,
the theater for the dj.
[Pete] The way Larry
levan was playing,
he had two copies
of the same record,
going between the
two turntables.
Remixing the record on the fly,
and extending bits of
work with the crowd.
[Louie] He knew about sound.
How to pick the right
music at the right time,
and it just opened up a whole
new thing for everybody.
This is dj heaven, when
you walked in that club.
I think I want to live
the sporting life
There's a space for an idea
for freedom and expression,
that was outside of
popular culture.
Leave your cares behind
These are the good times
[John] And then, the
next thing I knew,
that every single
holiday inn in America
converted their lounge
into a discotheque,
and it started becoming
a caricature of itself.
Look out
[John] It became
almost too comical.
Disco died an ugly death.
[Explosion]
[Steve] Disco sucks!
Disco sucks! Disco sucks!
[Reporter 1] It was billed
as disco demolition night.
And the white sox went along.
In Chicago, a shock
jock on the radio
challenged everyone to
burn their disco records.
[Kerri] And everyone did it.
[Reporter 2] One of
the saddest sights
I've ever seen in a
ballpark in my life.
It's getting out of hand.
[Kerri] America just gave
up on disco and kind of,
came out of its stupor and said,
"this is gay black music.
We can't listen to this.
We like rock and roll."
So then it went
back underground.
[Calm music]
[John] Those primal beats
returned in different forms.
Really like a rebirth of disco.
Although it... It
wasn't called disco.
["In the beginning" by
Chuck Roberts playing]
In the beginning
there was Jack
And Jack had a groove
And from this groove
Came the grooves
of all grooves
[Pete] When house music
first kind of started,
it was like the map was
completely redrawn.
Jack boldly declared
let there be house
And house music was born
I am, you see, I
am the creator
And this is my house
[Pete]The inner city of Chicago
really celebrating disco
from ten years before.
[Groovy music playing]
[Pete] Experimental
sessions of, of setting
drum machines and synthesizers.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Pete] And no one have
ever actually heard
what a drum pattern played
over six, seven minutes
coming out of a
machine sounded like.
["Time to Jack" by chip e.
Playing]
The beginning, for me,
for this movement,
was, basically, chip e.,
"time to Jack," 1986.
Time to Jack
Time to Jack
Time to Jack
[Carl] This track, for
me, changed everything.
It would literally
stop the dance floor.
Time to Jack
Jack, Jack
[Carl]People didn't understand
where this was coming from,
why am I playing it.
It has no elements or soul to it
because they can't see a band.
Well, to me, that was exciting,
because all we've
done is see bands.
Now, what we're seeing is what
could be created and electronic.
Time to Jack
Time to Jack
Time to Jack
Time to Jack
[Louie] Disco music was
made by musicians,
arrangers, songwriters.
When house music
started being made,
it was made by dj's.
We had no musical training.
[Upbeat music]
I was lucky to stumble upon
the Detroit scene very early.
[Richie]I was probably 16, 17.
The main hub was a club
called the music institute.
A black box, big speakers,
and a strobe light.
All the Detroit guys
playing incredible music.
[Techno music playing]
[Techno music continues]
Jeff mills, he was, like,
playing so fast...
[Techno music playing]
[Techno music continues]
[Richie] He was playing
all the records
that I have listened
to for the last year.
And we were sitting in the back,
helping him sort his records,
and just copying all the
records' names down.
[Techno music playing]
[Techno music continues]
Listening to those
first records,
it was like, every
time, it was like,
not only listening to
the future, but...
Even if it wasn't every
day or every week,
there was always something,
just when you started to get
a little bit comfortable,
someone else released
a new record.
[Club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
[Louie] The sound is minimal.
It was direct and in-your-face.
More industrial.
[Richie] Detroit
is a motor city.
The Ford motor production line.
[Crackles]
That's what you
hear when you hear
Kevin saunderson and Derrick may
in one act, in their
early records.
Their start with their...
These sounds and synthesizers
and these, like, high-hats,
and it's just like...
[Inhales]
Like pulling you into tomorrow.
[Clatters]
[Crackles]
[Richie] People
like that feel good
and in tune with technology,
not afraid of it.
And they're like, "where's
this gonna take us?"
[Upbeat music]
[Carl] A lot of the artists,
they were enjoying a
moment of creativity.
This was brilliant,
because there was no boundaries
to that sound, you know,
especially Detroit techno.
[Carl] And I found,
a lot of music that was
being made in America
wasn't being paid in America.
Artists kept buying
these records.
Whatever they made
from Chicago, Detroit,
every record I bought
was an American import.
And I was buying it and
playing it in the uk.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Pete]The birth of house music,
and then the birth of
the Detroit sound,
did have a profound effect
on what we were playing
as dj's in the uk.
It wasn't really
fashionable to be a dj.
You could identify yourself
by playing music that...
You and your friends love
though it kinda
wasn't on the radio.
[Upbeat music]
[Paul] Trevor fung, he
was a big dj in britain,
as I was growing up.
I got to meet him to
hang out with him
and really got excited by
what he introduced me to.
The British interpretation
of what America was doing.
[Upbeat music]
[Pete] For the likes of
me and Paul oakenfold,
we were more excited
about change
than we were about staying,
you know, in our own Lane.
We were obsessed
about innovation,
hunting for music.
[Club dance music]
[Club dance music continues]
[Paul]Trevor, he was in Ibiza,
working there all summer,
I went there with a few friends.
We went to this club
called amnesia.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Pete] All that excitement
could run all night
into the morning.
And just going out
and going crazy.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Paul] Ibiza was a
seasonal place.
The end of may, early
June, until September.
The workers and the people who
have been there on holiday,
when they all came
back to the uk,
they wanted to go somewhere.
Me and Trevor went on
to start our own club.
[Upbeat music]
[Paul] Such a wonderful,
exciting moment.
We were very free in the
respect of what we play.
So you would hear cyndi
lauper next to ll cool j,
next to Bob Marley, next to...
a house record.
[Paul] We didn't do
clubs over weekend.
The clubs that I ran
were on Monday and
Thursday night,
till 3:30 in the morning.
If it meant that you
would stay up all night
and go to work...
Then so be it.
We were underground, it
wasn't a commercial movement.
[Upbeat music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Club dance music]
[Paul] We were in the moment.
Really living this scene.
Carl Cox was my sound
man at the time.
[Indistinct chatter]
Look, look, here comes the mob.
[Carl chuckles]
Here comes the mob.
[Crowd cheering]
[Carl] When I started,
I was going up and down
the country, in the uk,
playing four or five
gigs every weekend.
It was only till
roundabout 27, 28
that people started
knowing and...
Started hearing the
name Carl Cox.
[Club dance music playing]
Oh, yes, oh!
[Club dance music playing]
[Crowd cheering]
[Club dance music playing]
Carl Cox is such a special
dj, because he is the king.
[Club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
People that have been
in the game that long,
they still might love it.
But they're not
exuding the energy
that Carl exudes when
he's behind the decks.
[Club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
The longest that
I've ever played
is up to about ten hours.
[Carl] Most people
are only gonna work for
eight hours a day.
In their eight
hours, they have...
You know, a breakfast,
they have a tea break,
they have a lunch break,
they have another tea break,
and they go home for tea.
We're still playing. [Laughs]
[Club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
[Donnie] He's probably
the hardest working man
in this whole business.
I mean, he's nonstop.
He's amazing.
[Club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
[Carl] I never really
give myself a break.
So, to play for ten hours, not
even time to go for a pee.
Yeah, it's not a ten-hour
step program, yeah.
You know, to try and get
rid of all the carbs,
you know, that you put on
over the Christmas party.
You know? [Laughs]
[Club dance music playing]
[Carl] After ten hours, I'm done.
My brain's fried,
my legs are killing me,
back's killing me.
My ears are killing me.
You know, if I go
past the ten hours,
and then, I don't know
what I'm playing.
[Club dance music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Cheering continues]
[Kobi] Carl Cox is
what dj is all about.
He walks into the room,
and he knows how to read
them like they're a book.
And he understand
what needs to happen.
And that's a dj.
[Guitar playing]
[Guitar playing continues]
[Martin] I played the
guitar at the time.
I had so many ideas which I
had on my guitar, but I...
Had no... nothing to,
like, put it in.
Started messing
around with the ideas
and with the melodies which
I created on my guitar.
I started doing some research
and I found, like, this program,
which allowed me to put
my guitar melodies
in the computer.
[Slow techno music]
[Slow techno music continues]
[Martin] I finished
my first record
when I was, like,
ten or something.
I still have it. It's,
it's completely terrible.
But I was super proud of it.
I was doing everything
from my bedroom.
Luckily, I had a
neighbor who was deaf,
who wasn't complaining
about my noise.
I had agreements with my
parents that after 10:00 P.M.
I couldn't play
loud music anymore,
because my sister
wanted to go to sleep.
Then I would be at the
middle of the night,
with my headphones on.
[Upbeat music]
[Martin] I got discovered
through a local dj.
I made an unofficial
remix for "tonight"
by Enrique iglesias.
And he started playing
it live at his shows.
[Club dance music]
But tonight
[club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
[Martin] Some other
dj's contacted me,
and one of them was
looking for a producer,
and I played him some of
my stuff, and he was like,
"one track. Oh, I really
liked that track."
And, and he released it
on spinnin' records.
And the track became really big.
Spinnin' records, they, they
invited me at their office,
and what was fun, I never
told them how old I was,
until I actually met
them in real life.
And they were like, "fuck off.
This can't be true."
So then, they joined
me to my house,
to my room, where I still
produce the music, and...
They were like, "yeah,
show what you do."
And I showed them, like,
a lot of new stuff.
A lot of melodies which I
was working on, and...
Not that much later, I
signed on spinnin' records.
[Club dance music]
[Club dance music continues]
[Record scratching]
[Groovy music]
Stand back watch
the bomb drop
All the competition
that try to compete
[Carl] In the early
days, a dj was someone
that can juggle two or
three or four turntables.
You had to really be talented
to be a dj that can
play continuous music.
[Upbeat music]
[Club dance music]
Come on!
[record scratching]
[Carl] The craft was
always about mixing music,
from our perspective,
always about digging
into the crate,
always about playing
new music to people,
so they can actually
expect the unexpected.
[Record squeaking]
[Crowd cheering]
[Record scratching]
[Crowd cheering]
[Club dance music playing]
[Club dance music continues]
[Crowd cheering]
[Louie]You can give another
dj the same records,
and have us play in
front of a crowd.
Those records will
sound different...
When we... we each play 'em.
It's getting creative
with what you have.
I think that's something
that can't be taught.
It's something that
comes from here.
With computer now,
you know, you have
a lot of people
who don't know how to mix,
don't know how to dj.
[Carl] They've never done it.
It's because technology...
They came in when the
technology was available,
and that's what they
use, and they go,
"you know, I can do this live."
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
There are a lot of dj's who've
got pre-programmed sets.
[Paul] And, unfortunately,
are just pressing play.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Martin] Right now,
there's a lot of...
USB dj's, which I'm a part of.
We are also dj'ing, but
just in a different way.
[Kobi] If you play USB,
and you don't use
vinyls anymore,
does that make you
not a real dj?
That's exactly the same thing.
You use the technology
that is available to you today.
[Ed] But I don't get it.
It's a laptop and a dude.
And that's it.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Carl] People want dj's to
play the records they love.
Buy the top 20 records,
put them on a USB,
stick it, put your
hands in the air,
you have a big smile on
your face, away you go.
If you've got your
hands in the air
for three quarters of your show,
how are you mixing records?
[Phil] If you're
throwing pies at people,
how are you mixing records?
[Carl] It's just
kinda dumbing down
on what made the
craft, the craft.
[Sasha] Watching
some of the guys
that do the main
stages at festivals,
play their hour-long
pre-recorded set,
with their arms in the air,
it's very hard to acquaint that
to what, say, Carl Cox
does in our set at space.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Crowd chattering]
[James]The '80s were not
really great years for the uk.
We had a series of...
You know, industrial strikes,
people with no jobs,
violence and riots,
at the same time.
Clubbing was very exclusive.
[Pete] That changed in the
kind of mid to late '80s.
[Disco music]
[Sasha] Lasers,
smoke machines...
Smiley faces.
The sound of acid house
music had arrived,
and I was like, "what is this?"
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[Sasha] Before you know it, that
sound had kinda taken over.
[Ominous music]
[Ominous music continues]
[Paul] The rave culture
developed from acid house.
Outdoor parties held in fields.
[Pete]Something completely new,
that no one had
ever done before.
There's no legal venue in
London you could do that,
hence, started to
do it in warehouses
and fields around the m25.
[Phone ringing]
[Phone ringing continues]
[Carl] The only way
we had to know
where these parties
were happening
was if you had a number to call.
[Phone ringing]
The address would be
on the answer phone.
[Phone ringing]
[Man on phone] You are
cordially invited
to a midsummer night's dream.
Take the m25 motorway,
to 8296, and head east.
Ten thousand people
on the motorway
going around and around
and around the toll.
[Carl] Someone found out
where it was located,
then everyone
followed that person.
And at that time, we
were playing vinyl.
So you imagine walking
through a field
with two boxes of vinyl.
It just kicked off at three
o'clock in the morning,
at some poor guy's farmland.
Check, check your body
Check, check your body
Check, check your body
Check, check your body
Check, check your body
Check, check your body
Check, check your body
[kobi] Dance music
made people feel like
their own secret society.
They're on to something
that the rest of the
people are not.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[James] It was called
the "summer of love."
Because the culture
finds its roots
in the hippie culture.
The late '60s, and
peace and love.
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music continues]
[James] I come from a city
which is full of like
really hard guys.
It's a hard city.
To see these guys go from
fighting every Saturday night,
to dancing, with their
arms in the air,
and, you know, it was
just unbelievable.
[Club dance music]
[Grunts]
[Pete] It was our
punk rock moment.
It was like everything
that had gone before
didn't exist.
It was the year zero.
We were starting again.
And you're either part
of this or you weren't.
[Upbeat music]
[Afrojack] How cool
was it when you have
like a little secret
that no one understands,
and you go to this place
where there's 10,000 others
that feel exactly
the same as you do.
In the world of
electronic dance music,
we are in sort of
uncharted territory.
[Club dance music]
[Moby] When I was growing up,
dance music was supposed to be
the alternative, you know?
You're supposed to
have top 40 over here,
and dance music over here.
And dance music was
supposed to be the domain
of like weird underground-misfit
electronic musicians.
Underground dance
music is about art,
where edm is show business.
[Seth] And there is
still some of the same
shared aesthetics of unity,
and expression, and people
opening up, you know.
But they are two
different things.
[Tisto] The main
core of our music
will always be underground.
Doesn't matter if your Carl Cox
or tisto or Martin garrix.
It always will be underground.
With, uh, the popularity
of electronic music today,
sure, um, we all appreciate
that more and more
kids are in to it.
Um...
But we know, we
always hope that...
Getting into electronic music
via like afrojack or tisto,
they're just sort of
scratching the surface,
and, you know, interested
to explore further.
[Afrojack] Thing
with dance music,
it is not about focus, but
it's about arrangement.
The whole journey you
can take someone on.
You create something
that sounds like, "hey,
this is a nice song."
Like, for people that are
not used to dance music,
and then you present
them with the drop.
[Club dance music]
If I ask my grandma, "do
you like the drop?"
She's like, "what's the drop?"
[Afrojack] Then she
heard the drop,
"look, oh, I like
the dancing parts."
"I like the dancy part."
[Club dance music]
I've got this bad habit when
I start working on an idea,
I'm like working, working on
like a breakdown so much,
and I build up, and then I
have to come up with a drop,
and I'm like, "what?"
[Michael] Martin skypes me,
and he's like, "hey!"
You know, "haven't been
able to sleep all night",
uh, there's this
melody in my head.
"I made this new record,
you need to hear it."
And it was the
demo of "animals".
[Club dance music]
[Club dance music continues]
[Martin] Sometimes, I
start with the melody.
Sometimes, I start
with a kick drum.
I go through a sound bank
with already
pre-programmed sounds,
where I start programming
my own sounds.
[Club dance music]
[Watse] When we started out,
we did very small shows,
you know, just to get him going,
get, um, get him to experience
how the life is and stuff.
And, um...
And, suddenly, you know,
we release his
record, "animals".
["Animals" by Martin
garrix playing]
[Moby] It's an amazing
piece of music.
That's an example
of electronic music
becoming top 40.
That...
Seems to have quite a lot
of integrity around it.
["Animals" by Martin
garrix playing]
It's this special
drop, you know.
Everybody was making hard drops,
and his was still special.
[Club dance music]
We are the fuckin' animals
[techno music]
[Screams]
[Michael] This
instrumental record,
becomes a top 40 radio
record in the us,
the number one single in the uk.
He was the first
17-year-old guy,
who made it into the uk chart.
[Jose] He was the youngest
guy ever playing ultra.
[Dramatic music]
[Reagan] Mr. Gorbachev,
tear down this wall.
[People cheering]
[Moby]There was this
explosion of openness.
A lot of the
problems of the past
just started to fade away.
[Cheering]
[Moby] The wall had come down.
And the world was becoming
a more prosperous place,
and I feel like the love parade
was very much a
reflection of that.
Like this new...
Youth culture that
wasn't burdened
by the prejudices of the past.
[Cheering]
[Uplifting music]
[Carl] It started
off very innocent.
Maybe 250 people.
Couple of trucks going through
the streets of Berlin,
and they would just
stop the trucks
and just party.
[Club dance music]
[Carl] East and
west come together,
and brought people who
were into dance music
to, basically, celebrate life.
[Pete] It was the same spirit
that went into the
league of raves
in the uk.
You know, it was pretty
crazy for the way it grew,
through the first five
years in the '90s
was insane.
The scale of it was just unreal.
[Club dance music]
I can't believe
it, it's amazing.
I've never seen this many
people in one place before.
I'm from Holland, and I
really, really like it here!
[Carl] I was invited
to come and be a part
of the proceedings.
At my first time
to go in there...
Completely blew my mind.
[Cheering]
[Carl] Going through
the streets of Berlin,
I just cannot believe
there's over a million
and a half people.
[Upbeat music]
[Cheering]
[Carl]Breaking down the walls,
breaking down, even culturally,
and there's no way we
could have done this
anywhere else in the world.
We've got this big
massive monument
in the middle.
[Cheering]
And in the monument is where
they built the dj stage,
and you go up in the
monument, and you see over
the whole of the park.
And all you can see
is just heads.
[Electronic dance music]
[Russell] I discovered
electronic dance music
in the early '90s.
I started going to a
lot of the events.
In Miami...
The community and the culture
was like nothing I've
ever seen before.
[Electronic dance music]
[Donnie] I discovered electronic
music in New Orleans.
I was working at a restaurant,
and the other waiters
invited me to a party.
I kinda walked in the doors
and it was a whole new world.
[Club dance music]
[Pasquale] I discovered
electronic music
by getting dragged to
an underground party
in Los Angeles.
You know, when I
was 15 years old.
It was one of the most
magical experiences
in my life.
I fell in love with the music,
the culture, and the vibe.
[Donnie] I started promoting
even though I had
nothing financial
to gain from it.
It was basically a hobby.
We would rent out warehouses.
It was totally illegal.
You were basically risking
a house every weekend.
Um, and all it takes
is for somebody
to do something stupid or
something bad to go happen,
and then you could
lose everything.
Because I loved it.
[Donnie] I put that house
on the line every weekend.
[Russell] First event
that I ever promoted
and produced was in a warehouse.
We would rent the venue,
contract the venue, hire police,
hire fire rescue, hire security
we were definitely
in over our heads.
But we didn't realize
it at the time.
[Pasquale]I did my first
event in Los Angeles,
thinkin' I and my friends
would have a place to go, and
party, and have a good time,
and listen to, you know,
the music that we loved.
And I found out
it was extremely difficult
to even get a venue.
[Club dance music]
[Donnie] It was all ages, and
we were serving alcohol.
It was just... it was just
a recipe for disaster.
But at the time,
when you're 23 years old,
it just seemed like
nothing could go wrong.
[Chattering]
[Chuckles]
[Chattering]
[Man 1] Yo!
[Martin] I'm nervous as fuck.
I'm really nervous, yeah.
- Oh, you...
- I threw up earlier today.
- Oh, really?
- Yeah.
[Somber music]
[Martin] The craziest thing for
me is like how it all went
so quick.
And that's also why I still...
Don't really realize yet what,
what's happening right now.
Omri, is this for fireworks?
[Omri] Yes.
[Martin] I was at ultra
2013 in the crowd.
And right now...
Uh, you're playing
the main stage,
you're a main stage actor and...
It's...
[Stuttering] It's super...
I had to pinch myself
a million times.
[Chuckles]
[Gerard] It went that
fast at every moment.
You had no time to getting
used at the success.
It went that fast.
But imagine for him, he
just did this in two years.
- Yeah.
- What we did in ten years,
he did in two years.
[David] It must be
hard to process
so much in such a short time.
You know?
You go from being
in your bedroom,
to play in front of
a 100,000 people
in a year almost.
- Like this is crazy.
- [Martin] I was in the crowd
two years ago.
What the fuck.
[Giggles]
[Fireworks crackling]
[Martin] Like, for me, it was,
boom, this!
Then, oh, we got a
request for tomorrow.
Oh, we got, then...
Before you know it, you're
in the middle of it,
and there's so much
happening at the same time
that you kinda forget
what's happening,
and you're focused
on the next thing.
[Martin]Where is it gonna end?
- [Martin] That's my question.
- [David] Hm?
[Martin]'Cause I have no clue.
What's gonna happen next?
I don't know.
Do you know what's
gonna happen next?
I mean...
[Steve] I think it's
about not being scared.
And not having...
And having fun.
You know, the fact the
you're nervous now
is a good thing.
[Seth chuckles]
[Seth]How is a 17-year-old kid
the fucking face of dance music?
What the fuck?
You know? Like...
[Panting]
[Paul] A 16, 17-year-old
kid makes a record,
he's never... He has got
no experience ever,
playing in front of a crowd.
And they book him.
Why?
[Seth] You know, a
17-year-old kid,
who has no context of
the greater history
of anything he's doing.
He made some track
for teenage kids.
Like, it's not music,
'cause it's just a way,
for... to sell music
to teenagers.
[Electronic dance music]
[Martin] There's a lot
of commotion going on,
like, "oh, you're
too mainstream."
From like the underground people
or the mainstream people,
who don't understand the
underground thing, but...
If, if people who love techno
don't like the electronic music
or the stuff which I make,
then don't listen to it.
[Interviewer] So
what is underground?
I guess underground, for me, uh,
is anything that's outside
of the mainstream.
[Dubfire] It's outside of like
whatever is considered popular.
But it always been more
interesting to me.
Underground dance music
is a representation of
trying to do things
with a cultural acknowledgement
who we are as humans.
There's always gonna be
super underground music,
and there's always
gonna be stuff
that some people
consider cheesy,
and that's gonna appeal
to the pop market.
David guetta's underground
for Katy Perry fans.
[Afrojack] I'm underground
for David guetta fans.
Like, compared to me,
deadmau5 is underground.
Compared to deadmau5, feed
me would be underground.
Compared to feed me,
Richie hawtin would
be underground.
But if you compare Richie
hawtin to Nicolas jaar,
Richie hawtin is
commercial techno.
But, like, no matter how
underground you are,
if you're driving your car,
and a-ha "take on me"
comes on the radio,
you sing along.
If Richie hawtin will
play it in his set,
you would not be happy.
But if the song comes
on in the car, like...
take on me
Take on me
Like, it's always.
["Take on me" by a-ha playing]
[Afrojack]You can't deny that.
And that's why I
love music so much,
because it's universal.
I'll be gone
In a day or two
So needless to say
I'm odds and ends but
I'll be stumbling away
Slowly learning
that life is okay
[man 2] Did you guys
have fun tonight?
- Yeah, man.
- [Woman 1] Yeah, excellent.
[Man 2] Why? What was
so good about it?
[Woman 1] Good atmosphere.
Excellent atmosphere.
[Man 2] Are you guys
gonna stop ever?
Or you're gonna keep
dancing forever?
I can keep dancing
forever, I mean.
Well, at least till I
remember where I put my car.
[Moby] When you talk about
thousands of people
gathering together
in a field or on a warehouse,
and throwing their
hands in the air,
and having these
euphoric experiences,
of course, the music
plays a big part in it.
The drugs play a huge
part in it, too.
[Club dance music]
[Woman 2] Are you all good?
Yeah, there's, uh...
[Woman 2] Oh, no.
[Erick] When you do ecstasy,
music feels unbelievable.
[Uplifting music]
[Erick]As a dj, it's incredible
because, you know, you
could really take 'em
to different heights.
[Uplifting music]
[Moby] I spent time
at raves sober,
and I've spent time
at raves not sober.
[Uplifting music]
[Moby] The sound is huge.
Visuals are huge.
Everyone's dancing.
[Club dance music]
The crowd is the star.
[Club dance music]
[Moby] It's hardwired into
our evolutionary DNA...
To wanna dance with each other,
have ecstatic experiences
at night in front of light.
You know, 50,000 years ago,
people were banging on sticks,
and dancing around the fire.
No one has to learn
how to throw their
hands in the air,
and dance ecstatically
at three o'clock in the morning.
[Club dance music]
[Laughing]
[Producer] The rave scene,
what were they like?
Did many deny it?
[Producer] Many denied it.
Did they really?
Were they really there?
Or they were just trying
to claim they were there?
[Club dance music playing]
[Whistle blows]
[Paul] The first raves
were very successful.
And then, of course, the
police got wind of it.
People who go to the parties
are calling for them
to be legalized.
[Reporter 3] But
the authorities
are worried about drugs
and noise levels.
Things were getting
pretty crazy.
[Pete]Some stuff was happening
that wasn't necessarily
that safe.
[Reporter 4] Police moved
in to break up the party
at five this morning.
Eight hundred and
thirty-six youngsters
were arrested,
and officers seized 1,000
pounds worth of drugs.
This was an easy outlet
for them to sell drugs.
[Chief inspector Wilson] We
got some very firm evidence
about major criminals involved,
major criminal organizations,
drugs, protection rackets,
all at the background
of these parties.
[Carl] They really thought
that I was a part
of the syndicate
that was basically
making parties
just to sell drugs.
And, apparently, I was
carrying it around
with a silver platter,
while I was dj'ing,
I'm handing out
ecstasies to people
who I know would take it,
while they were dancing.
I said, "well, if I
was doing that,"
how would I be mixing the
records at the same time
"I was handing out
all the drugs?"
[Motorcycle revs]
[James] Castlemorton.
What began as a small gathering,
suddenly turns this
huge, huge rave.
[Reporter 5] At the
height of the festival,
an estimated 20,000
people have converged
on castlemorton common.
[James] More and more
people were arriving.
It went on for a week.
And the police just
couldn't break it up.
It was just so big.
Twenty thousand people
on this common,
and no toilets.
You can imagine the mess
they're going to
leave behind them.
[Reporter 6] The police
view is that these
are purely criminal events.
[Jack]These people are crooks,
and they are
destroying the lives
of hundreds not
to say thousands,
of decent law-abiding citizens.
[Sasha] I remember
going to some parties
that were really dangerous.
Packed into sweaty warehouses,
no lights, no exits.
[Pete] If people get hurt,
then it needs to be addressed.
It can't, it can't carry on.
[James] That point, a
lot of people realized
that concept of the
illegal raves was dead.
It couldn't continue.
You know, the government
were crazy about it,
the media were all over it.
And so something has to change.
[Club dance music]
[Indistinct chattering]
You had the beginnings
of the legal space,
where all the dj's could work.
[Club dance music]
[James] We launched cream,
and it just became
this phenomenon.
It just exploded.
[Club dance music]
They started putting on
really highly-produced venues
with great sound systems,
and it was safer.
[Club dance music]
[Richie] I like dj'ing because
I was nerdy, insecure.
And dj'ing was the perfect,
anonymous way to connect
and touch hundreds
even thousands of people,
without actually having
to talk to them.
[Richie]What you gotta
remember in the late '80s,
where was the dj in the club?
In the corner, probably
the darkest corner.
[Carl] And the corner here,
was where the original dj booth.
[Man 3] Yeah, yeah, in between
these two columns. Here.
[Carl] In between the
two columns here.
So, when you were dj'ing here,
you can see the people
dancing if they're up there,
and you can see people
coming inside here.
But I always felt that
the dj should be...
[Man 3] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Of course.
- Should be there as the area.
- [Man 3] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Club dance music]
[James]When we set up our club,
we put the dj center stage.
We built a huge gold
gilt frame around him.
So there was no escaping
the fact that you had to
look in this direction,
you had to worship the dj.
We aggressively
promoted the concept
of the dj being as important
as the lead guitarist
or the lead singer in a band.
Paul oakenfold is
the most obvious dj
who had used the
advantage of the time,
and the interests in dj's,
and packaged himself
as a rockstar.
[Uplifting music]
[Paul] I was doing remixes for
the love of the big acts.
I was approached by U2 to
do some remixes for them.
I remixed a track
called "even better
than the real thing".
["Even better than the
real thing" by U2 remix]
[Paul]That became a bigger
hit than the original.
And then they asked me
if I would like to
be the opening act
on their world tour.
["Even better than the
real thing" by U2 remix]
Primarily a rock and roll crowd,
so I can't play
underground music.
So what am I gonna do?
[Paul] I didn't want
to let anyone down.
I started to look at a lot
of the remixes I've done.
I would take classic rock songs,
and do my own version of it.
The club version.
They still had the
roots and essence
of what it was.
But it had my flavor to it.
Knowing 2,000 people,
nervous, excited.
It was a scary
moment walking out,
and you find just you,
and all these people
looking at you.
[Upbeat music]
[Cheering]
[Whistling]
[Upbeat music]
[Paul]It was such a
wonderful, exciting moment.
I really was like,
"wow, these people
are really into it."
[Sasha]The big story, you know,
wow, there's a dj playing
to a U2-size crowd.
And I think it really kind
of set something in motion.
[Paul] That was a
big moment for me.
'Cause it really
proved to myself
that I was more than
just a dj in a club.
[Upbeat music]
[Paul] I took a lot of
what I saw and learned
from the biggest
band in the world,
and put it into my career.
[Indistinct chatter]
[Somber music]
[Donnie] The DEA raided
the state palace theatre,
which was the venue that
I was doing shows at.
Some creative genius in the DEA
came up with the idea
that the owner and
the management
of a dance event
should be charged
as if they were operating
a crack house.
[Reporter 7] The manager and
two promoters of the club
were indicted,
for simply knowingly
and intentionally
making the building available
for the purpose of
unlawfully distributing
and using controlled substances.
Imagine when you go and you
meet with your lawyer,
and they say, "well, it's bad."
They wanna charge you with
the crack house law."
[Ominous music]
There was a lot of
other people that...
Did the same thing I was doing.
If you're a club owner
or you're a promoter,
you go to battle in
order to produce shows.
I don't have to worry.
Um...
[Kobi] Donnie was the one
they used as an example
to scare other promoters
from doing the raves.
Who is he with?
It was a test case.
And what they wanted to do
was take my conviction,
and basically use it
against everybody else.
[Graham] We had a full trial
in front of a federal judge
in New Orleans.
We insisted that there was
a constitutional right
to play music of your choice.
And Donnie, at the
end of the day,
was exonerated.
But the United States
was in the middle
of a sort of a moral panic
about ecstasy,
and about the perception
that a certain kind of music
was causing people
to use the drug.
After the crack
house law failed,
they came up with the rave act.
[Donnie]A way to scare venues.
[Pasquale] I mean,
it was ridiculous
trying to put the club owners,
venue owners, promoters in jail.
[Donnie] And right
at that same time,
then you have 9/11.
And then, boom.
You know, the whole
market crashed.
[Slow techno music]
[Donnie] We went from
never stop growing
to half.
[Pete] You know,
record companies
were closing labels down,
magazines were going bust.
People were getting laid off.
[Slow techno music]
[Pasquale] Literally, everyone
pretty much disappeared.
After you put, you know,
every last dollar you
have on the line,
and that event doesn't happen.
I was broke.
[Russell] We were
losing a lot of money.
Everybody I knew
asked me if I was
crazy to continue.
There was no point to continue.
It didn't make any
sense on any level.
I was very anxious.
I didn't wanna really imagine
that I had to stop
doing what I loved.
[Donnie] The rave scene was
the lowest of the low.
I would go to a party
with somebody, and like,
"okay, don't tell anybody
you're a rave promoter, right?"
It's like, "okay, yeah, I won't.
I won't embarrass you."
Maybe people are
just tired of it.
Yeah, maybe the...
The people that
were in, into it,
for just 'cause it was
a cool thing to do,
I think they found
something else.
[Donnie] Now I
have a 4-year-old,
and my wife's pregnant again.
And, you know, I'm there
at the gas station
using five credit cards to
put five dollars in my car.
And I have to ask my wife
for her credit card.
And she's like, "you
know, you need to stop
doing these shows,
and go get a job."
I really sorta
thought, "well, okay,
that was a fun ride
while it happened."
[Martin] I always wished
like, when I was in my bedroom,
like, I wanna do this
in front of 100,000 people,
but I never really
thought it would happen.
I never had the intention
to become famous.
For me, I make music
'cause I love it.
Because it's my hobby.
[Calm music]
[Carl] I do this 'cause
I love the music,
I have a passion for it.
Since I was 8 years old,
I have not looked back.
When the time comes where
you have to close the door
and put it all behind you,
is the time that you know
that you've done something
of self-worth with your life.
[Tranquil music]
[Carl] I believe
in what I'm doing.
And if you do that,
you're gonna find other people
that also feel the same.
This movement is still
pushing forward.
[Electronic music]
[Paul] Having come to America,
I saw that there was
pockets of people
that were into electronic
music in certain cities.
[Electronic music continues]
[Pete]Paul turned around to me,
literally, in the dj booth.
Mid-season in Ibiza and said,
"by the way, I'm not
gonna be here next week.
Can you do the rest
of the season?"
And I said, "why?"
He said, "'cause I'm
going to America.
'Cause I'm gonna go
and break America."
[Paul] I looked to
America and thought,
"I really want a
challenge here."
I really wanna go to Cincinnati,
I wanna go to Nashville,
"I wanna go to these
smaller places."
I did about 150 shows in a year.
[Pete] Across the country,
backwards and forwards,
touring in America
in the same way a
rock band would.
It was like a chemical reaction.
This metamorphosis happened
with the advent of the Internet.
Napster had started.
And limewire and file
sharing really took off.
You can make a track at home.
You could share it,
start sending files
around the world.
[Reporter 8]Uh, how many mp3s
you have on your computer?
About 600.
Maybe like 100.
Six or seven thousand.
- Come again.
- Six or seven thousand.
[Erick]You have all these kids
that were really
looking for the music.
And the Internet kinda
brought it to them.
[Pete] Suddenly,
people were able
to monetize themselves
in a different way.
[Upbeat music]
[Paul]Big turning point for me
was when I sold
Hollywood bowl out.
I was like, "wow! I
didn't realize it",
that there was these many kids
"that were really into
electronic music."
[Pete] Things would
just seem to get bigger
and bigger and bigger.
People started calling
from around the world
to actually book you
for the first time.
The dj's started
migrating like birds
to other parts of the world.
[Techno music]
[Tisto] Uh, I
played at festivals.
And they asked all the people,
"who do you come here to see?"
And most would say, "we
come here to see tisto."
And the promoter and I decided,
"why don't we try a
tsto solo show?"
You play for like,
six, seven hours
and you might sell
out a stadium.
[Upbeat music]
[Host] Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome...
Dj tisto!
[Upbeat music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Tisto] I walked on
stage and I was like,
"this is... this is not real."
Just one dj in a stadium
for 25,000 people.
Oh, that, that never
happened before.
[Upbeat music playing]
[Tisto]There was this
one guy from Greece,
he saw the concert.
And he was like, "I want you
to play at the Olympics."
[People gasping]
[Upbeat music]
[Upbeat music]
[Tisto]I saw, like, presidents
fist-bumping and stuff.
So, it was... It was
an amazing experience.
It was live on television
for 4.6 billion people.
[Techno music]
He became the first
global superstar.
[Pete] After Olympics
in 2004, you really saw
it's going further and
further into the mainstream.
[Ed] I remember seeing
a massive poster
that said, "sold out
Victoria park."
And Victoria park is,
like, 40,000 people.
It said, "sold out
Victoria park, tisto."
I was like, "who the
fuck is tisto?"
Dj.
[Laughter]
[Applause]
["Summer" by Calvin
Harris playing]
We were doing electric
Daisy carnival.
[Donnie] Everything was
kinda building up,
the crowds kept getting bigger.
And in 2002, we did
about 6,000 people.
And then, in 2003,
we did about 10,000.
Barely trickling up.
Y'all ready?
[Cheering]
[Pete] Donnie and pasquale,
they kinda had to
legitimize their business.
Like the uk came away
from riskier spaces
and started to look to
re-invent themselves
in a dedicated legal space.
["Summer" by Calvin
Harris playing]
[Donnie] In 2008,
electric Daisy carnival
got 30,000 people.
[Pasquale] It was
an amazing moment.
I was like, "finally,
we're here." You know?
This is gonna go somewhere.
[Russell] In Miami, I realized
that I didn't wanna
just continue
doing warehouse parties,
I kind of have
reached the ceiling.
So, I wanted to go
to the next step
and do a festival.
We started coming up with ideas
of what we can do that
would be special,
something unique,
something different.
Let's go talk to the
main stage there,
and we'll go up to,
uh, Carl's station.
[Russell] First year of ultra
music festival on the beach,
we started with 10,000 people.
And then, it just
grew from there.
The attendance just kept
rising and rising and rising.
One year, it really exploded.
It went up over 100,000.
["Around the world"
by daft punk playing]
Around the world
around the world
Around the world...
[Donnie] The scene just
kept growing and growing.
I knew that we were
on to something.
I knew that, eventually,
it would filter around
to the rest of the country.
'Cause I gotta feeling
Whoo-hoo
That tonight's gonna
be a good night
That tonight's gonna
be a good night
I think the guy that got
us to where we are today
was actually David guetta.
["I gotta feeling" by
David guetta playing]
David guetta collaboration
with, uh, the Black Eyed Peas.
That record really
opened the door.
And then we'll do it
again let's do it...
People were interviewing me
about me bringing electronic
concert to the us.
[David] And I'm like, "what?
It's coming from the us."
here we go we gotta
rock, rock, rock
A lot of people,
even in America,
didn't know this.
Now we on top top,
top, top, top
Feel the shot, body rock
David guetta was making music
that was acceptable
to top 40 radio,
and actually really
catchy and fun.
Monday, Tuesday
[afrojack] He's been, by
far, the reason that edm
has had such an amazing
cultural success.
That song introduced
so many people
to another form of music.
They started looking in.
Party every day
And I'm feeling
Whoo-hoo
That tonight's gonna be...
[Carl] We're now
in a global scene.
We're in a
billion-dollar industry.
["Levels" by avicii playing]
[Jamie] You hear electronic
music everywhere.
It has become pop music.
So, those crowds,
the people who...
Who do listen to pop music,
are now listening to
electronic music.
All of us are reaping
the benefits of that.
["Levels" by avicii playing]
[Carl] When you go to
one of these events,
you escape from whatever
you're involved in life.
[Dramatic music]
[Martin] Because a lot
of electronic music
is instrumental,
it's universal,
there's no language
attached to it.
Everybody can understand it.
Music is the language itself.
[Calm music]
[Kerri] You can't really do
dance music on your own.
It's participatory.
It's a tribal experience
you have together.
Right? It's meant to
be enjoyed in a group.
[Calm music]
[Paul] It is crazy at
how many festivals
around the world there are.
Most electronic festivals
came from raves.
[Exciting music]
[Carl] What we started,
from where it was to
where it is now, today,
we've made it as a
whole, for the scene.
These artists right
now are averaging...
A half a million dollara night.
[Uplifting music]
Now, there's like a
commercial appeal to them.
You can hear... like, that's
the only thing you hear
on pop radio now is edm music.
Every urban artist, pop star,
anybody whose anybody wants a
dance record on their album.
[Martin] Are you happy
with the shorts like this?
[Ed] How about this?
How about this?
How about this? The
first break is just,
doo-doot, doo-doot.
And then the second break
is both of 'em together.
[Martin] It's like if...
what I think,
if we are gonna use
the first break,
is that when the drop
comes with the melody,
it's way too random.
It's out of nothing.
The reason I initially
wanted to work with Martin
is because of "animals".
I heard it, I was like,
"this is fucking weird."
I like it. It's...
it's different.
We're gonna record,
like right now,
the guitar parts.
[Ed] Do you want it like that?
[Guitar playing]
Or...
[Guitar strums]
- [Martin] Yeah, that. Better.
- [Ed] Or that?
You know what? I'll do it.
And then you can
chop it and use it.
Yeah, just, uh, just
turn the track down low,
if that's all right.
[Ed] You forget how
young Martin is,
because he's so,
like, well-traveled.
It's like you feel like
he's like tsto or something.
The quality of production is
really out there, everywhere,
so many good producers.
You know?
What's the problem for me
is a lot of anti-music.
How are we gonna make music
that touch people's heart,
but in a new, fresh
and exciting way?
[Light music]
[Indistinct chatter]
- Like that.
- Okay.
["Don't look down" Martin garrix ft.
Usher playing]
[Usher] I really feel like a
creative musical chemist.
You know, I mean, when
the fusion of music
comes together,
whatever you may call
it, pop, R&B, and edm,
and it works, and it opened
an entire new conversation.
You got me way up
a thousand miles
Can we stay right here...
Because those greats before
us who created that fusion.
Like Michael Jackson when
disco was on its way out,
and rock was on its way in,
[Usher] Michael was able
to create something
that satisfy both parties.
We're gonna reach it now
Do you feel the lightning
inside of you?
Will you follow through
if I fall for you?
Don't look down
Up this high we'll
never hit the ground
I feel like once the world
was able to hear
edm in that way,
and me experiment
with David guetta
and now, Martin garrix.
[Usher] To me, that creates
an entire new movement.
[Upbeat music]
It's created an
authenticity within a style
that everybody's
kind of enjoying.
What the big challenge
is, for me,
is to keep evolving, evolving
and to stay relevant.
[Calm music]
[Calm music continues]
[Carl] My career has
spanned over 38 years,
doing what I love to do.
Hey, hi! Hey, hey, hey.
[Carl] To be honest
with you, you know,
my father would not
really get behind me.
It was quite damning
in some ways
and he didn't respect
the fact that,
that I had this
drive and energy,
uh, to be able to become
the person I am today.
[Somber music]
[Carl] When I said to him
that I didn't really
wanna do anything
as apart from dj'ing, he...
just basically laughed.
He didn't give me the respect
to find my own path.
[Pam] I think he had
made Carl stronger.
That he wanted, you know,
when my dad said no,
I think it was a yes to Carl
that, "I'm gonna
follow my dreams."
[Uplifting music]
[Pam] I'm so proud to say
that he's my big brother.
Um, right now, I really wish
that he could say those words.
At the moment, my dad
is not very well.
He has dementia.
[Pam] It would have been nice
for him to say those words.
I don't think Carl
will ever hear them
from his father now,
because he doesn't remember.
[Somber music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Indistinct chatter]
[Loud cheering]
[Crowd screaming]
[Indistinct chatter]
[Crowd cheering]
[Indistinct chatter]
[Techno music]
Hello.
["Virus" by Martin garrix & moti ft.
Jenny wahlstrm playing]
[Crowd shouting]
What's up, Miami?
[Crowd cheering]
[Gerard] Imagine that
you're standing there,
and you're seeing your son,
and he's standing
before 40,000 people.
It's incredible.
Virus
["Virus" by Martin garrix & moti ft.
Jenny wahlstrm continues]
[Crowd screaming]
Party with me all of you!
Scream right now!
One, two, three, let's go!
["Virus" by Martin garrix & moti ft.
Jenny wahlstrm playing]
[Carl] Martin garrix, you
put him on any festival,
and he can't do no wrong.
See, it's something
which is wondrous.
You know, you got someone
that's this young,
who's connected
with 18-year-olds.
He's connecting directly to
the people he is inspirin'.
It'd be difficult
for me to be there.
And have 18-years-olds go,
"oh, my god, he's amazing!"
They'd be like, "oh, my
god, my dad's amazing."
You know? It doesn't work.
[Martin] I don't see
myself as a big act.
It doesn't count how
many tickets you sell.
It also counts
about what you did
for the industry,
what you are still doing,
and what your abilities
are, what you can do.
You're gonna be
right over there.
Hey, there he is.
- How you doing?
- [Martin] Hey.
So, you've played
already, right?
- You've been at it.
- I just came off stage,
- and we rushed here.
- You just came off. Really?
- Oh, thank god.
- No worries, it's all good.
[Martin] I respect Carl
as a producer and a dj.
His dj sets are...
I can't play eight
hours in a row,
and not lose attention
from the crowd.
The longest set I've
done is 12, is 10 hours.
- It's like...
- How did you, like...
You didn't play one
track two times?
- No, no, I did not.
- That's nuts.
Yeah. [Laughs]
Are you solo or did you do
back to back with others?
No, no, no. Just me on my own.
Yeah. Went to the toilet once.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Uh, took two slices of pizza.
And, uh, I think four beers.
And that was me.
- But that's something I respect.
- Yeah.
I can't think about 12 hours.
That's nuts.
He can do so many things
which I am dreaming of.
And which I'm still...
Trying to do.
I mean, I was actually
quite shy as a young dj.
When I was up on the stage,
I had the curtains closed.
And I'll still play my music.
And I was like,
"keep them closed,
keep them closed"
as long as I could.
And then, I went out, there's
the dj, I'd be like...
[Laughing]
- But that's cool, though.
- He'd be playing, you know.
"Say something on the
mic." I'll be like, "no."
"You say something." You know?
But that's how it was for me, I
kinda grew into all of this.
[Carl] Martin's gotta believe
that he can do this.
Because the whole scene
rests on his shoulders now.
He's young, he's hungry,
and he's out to
basically set the bar
of what's happens next.
[Dramatic music]
[Dramatic music continues]
[Carl] Big, deep breath.
[Deep breath]
Final night.
[Carl] In all these
defining moments,
tsto's played to
billions of people,
Paul oakenfold at
wembly with U2.
No one's actually been in a
club for 15 years straight.
But I played gigs all over
the world, festivals, clubs,
house parties.
Everything that I've done
feels like it's gone so quickly.
[Applauding]
[Carl] Oh, yes. Oh, yes!
We have got ten hours to go.
I never really thought
in any way, shape,
or form that...
That I would have this
longevity in my career.
Thank you all, so, so, so much.
Thank you.
[Crowd cheering]
[Carl] Great spot.
Thank you to heart!
[Crowd cheering]
I came with Carl the very,
very first trip to Ibiza.
[Pam] I loved it.
It was the start of my
journey coming to space.
You know, I love my
brother to bits.
Um, I am his number one fan.
And I am so proud.
My journey with Carl,
um, is coming to an end.
[Somber music]
[Carl] The last half an hour,
down to the last,
actual last record,
I have never seen so
much emotion in a club.
[Dramatic music]
[Carl] I've been so blessed to about...
do what I do
at the level that I do it.
And when you look back,
the amount of music
you've played,
people you've met,
touched a lot of
hearts and souls
all over the world.
And people remember those
times and those moments.
[Dramatic music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Whistling]
[Loud cheering]
[Carl] In the end of the
day, it's all about music.
And if I've touched
you with my music,
then all I can say
is, "thank you."
[Tranquil music]
[Afrojack]We're all lost
souls at one point,
and when we come together
at dance music festivals,
we're not lost anymore.
Dance music used to be my
little secret, you know.
It was my little thing.
But if you have something great,
you want to share it with these
many people as possible.
It's just a lot of thing
and it's a fun thing.
And you should never,
never be greedy about
something great.
[Crowd screaming]
[Screaming continues]
["Virus" by Martin garrix & moti ft.
Jenny wahlstrm playing]
[Martin] It's not about
being on the top,
it's about making
other people happy.
We'll make it
It's just who we are
Say where to go
[Martin]It's all about
the dj, the music.
The people you're
surrounded with.
I think that's so beautiful.
You make people happy
and make them forget
about everything else.
It's just who we are
Yeah, we will do
anything we dream about
[Martin] I'm kind of
happy that it's going
towards a new
direction right now.
Because it won't make
it, like, fade away.
And that's only fear I have.
Like, because it went...
Like, same with my career,
like, because it went so fast.
I just hope, like,
I can hold on.
What I just hope is that
electronic music is
not at the limit yet.
And it can still grow
for the next ten years.
["Virus" by Martin garrix & moti ft.
Jenny wahlstrm playing]
I just hope I can be,
like, a part of it.
And we'll see what happens.
["Virus" by Martin garrix & moti ft.
Jenny wahlstrm continues]
[Richie] We love and are
tied together by music,
created by a technology
that is always...
Evolving and mutating.
That makes every day
a new possibility.
[Light music]
[Paul]When you look back at it,
god, what we started,
to where we are now,
years later,
it was some achievement.
Whether it's underground
or commercial,
as a whole, electronic music
is thriving around the world.
[Donnie] I wanna protect
the scene, you know,
I want it to be
here a long time.
Way after I'm done and
retired and in the ground.
In rave heaven.
Uh, I want this
to go on forever.
[Electronic music]
[Electronic music continues]
Uh, Martin and I were at
a festival tour together
for future music in Australia.
And we had a five-hour
long flight.
- And we are next to each other.
- Yeah.
At first, we're all,
and it's like...
And then we're both
kinda like, "oh, hey."
So, we chatted up.
And, I have to say, I was wrong
about some things, you know.
Martin is the first
person I met...
From that scene who's doing
it for the right reasons.
In my mind, "maybe, one day",
he can break into
the dark side."
[Chuckles]
[Upbeat music]
[Slow electronic music]