U Street Music Hall, a DJ-owned concert venue in Washington D.C., recently celebrated their six year anniversary on March 11, 2016. The venue had DJ Jim E-Stack as the opening act, and featured XXYYXX as the main attraction. XXYYXX is a twenty-year old black electronic dance music artist who challenges stereotypes and uses his racial, age, and gender identity to creatively produce music without the boundaries of modern convention.
XXYYXX, otherwise known as Marcel Everett, considers his genre to be “post-internet” due to his rise to fame via social media, and specializes in heavily sampled electronic dance music (Taylor). Critics hail XXYYXX as the “child prodigy” of electronic dance music (Eror). Because of his rapid-growing fan base through social media, his was able to attain much attention. He started off in a band, which later turned into him producing his own music in …show more content…
Thus, his authenticity as an electronic dance music artist is never questioned. His talent is never doubted and fans never shy away from his work solely for his gender, which has afforded XXYYXX many privileges that others cannot enjoy. Being a cisgender male in a predominantly male music genre caters to his audience, since “louder forms of electronic dance music are more appreciated by boys” (ter Bogt 300). However, it is paradoxical in that many of his fans are males because XXYYXX personally prefers to sample female vocals in his work and claims that one “can do a lot with it...if you transpose down a male’s voice, it sounds, like, creepy.” (McKinley). This divergence represents the music that is created by and for men, albeit not intentionally, yet uses the vocal talents of females. XXYYXX’s male gender identity in a chiefly male artist music genre pushes the idea of inherent sexism in which many males are openly welcomed to the world of electronic dance music, while females must contend for
XXYYXX, otherwise known as Marcel Everett, considers his genre to be “post-internet” due to his rise to fame via social media, and specializes in heavily sampled electronic dance music (Taylor). Critics hail XXYYXX as the “child prodigy” of electronic dance music (Eror). Because of his rapid-growing fan base through social media, his was able to attain much attention. He started off in a band, which later turned into him producing his own music in …show more content…
Thus, his authenticity as an electronic dance music artist is never questioned. His talent is never doubted and fans never shy away from his work solely for his gender, which has afforded XXYYXX many privileges that others cannot enjoy. Being a cisgender male in a predominantly male music genre caters to his audience, since “louder forms of electronic dance music are more appreciated by boys” (ter Bogt 300). However, it is paradoxical in that many of his fans are males because XXYYXX personally prefers to sample female vocals in his work and claims that one “can do a lot with it...if you transpose down a male’s voice, it sounds, like, creepy.” (McKinley). This divergence represents the music that is created by and for men, albeit not intentionally, yet uses the vocal talents of females. XXYYXX’s male gender identity in a chiefly male artist music genre pushes the idea of inherent sexism in which many males are openly welcomed to the world of electronic dance music, while females must contend for