In contrast to the all the colorful music fest lineups with big-font headliners we've seen over the past few weeks, Sónar just dropped a beige, all-lowercase, one-font-size lineup for their June 2020 Barcelona event. Despite the simple layout, the list is filled with an epic artist offering, including The Chemical Brothers, along with rising rapper/producer/dance hero Channel Tres, LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, '00-and-beyond house & techno innovator Eric Prydz, environmental scientist/disco queen Jayda G, "Love$ick" producer Mura Masa and many more.

Read: Channel Tres Talks Honoring Isaac Hayes On EP 'Black Moses,' Healing With Music & Being A "Ghetto Savior"

The "music, creativity & technology" festival returns with its flagship Barcelona event on June 18–20. Oft Björk-collaborator Arca, emerging French producer/director duo THE BLAZE, along with worldwide house and techno legends The Black Madonna, Charlotte de Witte, Carl Cox, Richie Hawtin and Laurent Garnier, will also perform.

According to Sónar, current 2020 GRAMMY nominees The Chemical Brothers will be making the Spanish debut of their acclaimed live show, which they toured in 2019 alongside the release of their GRAMMY-nominated No Geography. THE BLAZE will be performing their only live show of 2020 at the fest. Both acts are a great representation of artists celebrated by Sónar—cinematic, unexpected electronic music elevated by the stunning visuals/technology of their live shows.

While Sónar is beloved for their expert curation from within the eclectic electronic music rainbow, they also celebrate left-of-center acts in other areas, particularly in the hip-hop. Channel Tres, whose self-made beats are infused with '90s G-funk, is an artist whose music lives within both worlds. Afro-Latina rapper Princess Nokia, who marks her return to the fest this year, also uses the medium of rapping to incorporate and celebrate diverse sounds and identities within her music.

Related: Princess Nokia Is Making Space For People Who "Don't Have A Voice Yet" In Music

U.K. rappers Dave, AJ Tracey, Headie One and Conducta, will bring Britain's prevalent trap Grime and drill sounds to the iconic festival. The newer SonarXS stage grows this year as it "expands its mission as a springboard for local and international talent from the fringes." Now in its fourth year, the newly revamped stage "presents Spanish trap and reggaeton from Morad, Afrojuice195 and Miss Nina, as well as unclassifiable strains of street derived music from the likes of Chenta Tsai - Baobae, Califato ¾ or Kaydy Cain."

Tickets are on sale now; visit Sónar's website for more info as well as the complete lineup.

Primavera Sound 2020 Lineup: Bad Bunny, Beck, Kacey Musgraves, Tyler, The Creator & More

Primavera Sound is known for its heavy-hitting lineup and even bigger surprise guests. The Spanish festival celebrated 20 years in 2024, and transformed Barcelona's Parc del Fòrum into a masterclass of genre diversity and LGBTQIA+ inclusivity. There, under mostly sun-soaked skies, a wide range of international and native acts lit up multiple stages from May 29 - June 2.

Primavera Barcelona always promises an eclectic mix of performances that showcase native Spanish talent as well as major international headliners to get the party going. However, it’s not just the massive talent that pulls in the crowd. While the mainstages were graced by American superstars  Lana Del Rey,  SZA and Troye Sivan, the festival’s line-up was elevated by the vibrant non-stop DJ stylings of rising Brazilian star Clementaum and the divinity of Arca — who was rightfully labeled "madre!" by a buzzed up Boiler Room x Cupra activation. 

Primavera Sound’s diverse lineup guaranteed a highlight for every kind of festival goer: from the dad rocker to the 20-something throwing themselves head-first into new music. The festival amped up the energy and was keen to ensure a safe space for all music lovers (including regularly signposting a pro-LGBTQIA+ "Nobody Is Normal" campaign). If you weren't in Barcelona to experience the magic happening at Parc del Fòrum, read on for nine highlights from Primavera Sound BCN.

Arca Delivers A Divine Boiler Room Performance

Drawing on heavy doses of electronica, pop and techno, Venezuelan producer and DJ Arca’s unpinnable sound is exactly what made her sets unmissable. Arca set Primavera alight with two incredible sets: an early morning rave on the Amazon Music Stage on May 31, and a second, more intimate event inside Boiler Room x Cupra’s industrial set up on June 1.

The musician's Boiler Room set brought the club to Barcelona, weathering attendees through a humid thunderstorm with sweaty, fusion beats and remixes (Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Zedd) that made her experimental anthems even more exceptional. 

Read more: 8 Essential Latin Electronic Releases: Songs And Albums From Bizarrap, Arca & More

We all love a bit of Spanish sunshine, but nobody seemed quite as home on-stage as Vampire Weekend. Having last played at the festival in 2008, the 16-year wait was well worth it with a set list doused with indie rock nostalgia and new bangers that kept the late-night crowd grooving.

It’s not easy to keep a mainstage crowd going on opening night (especially as the band faced some line-up changes for the festival) but Vampire Weekend's catalog-spanning performance rocked. They ran though hits "A-Punk, "Campus" "Oxford Comma," and new tracks ("Classical", "Gen-X Cops", "Connect")  from their new fifth album, Only God Was Above Us – a record which frontman Ezra Koeing described as "feeling perfect" on stage. 

No Vampire Weekend set is complete with some curveball covers. This year, to match the beat of their long-overdue festival return, the band kept things fresh with an incredible cover of Sbtrkt’s "New Drop, New York" performed against a smokey, dark red stage backdrop. Whether performing their own catalog, making surprise appearance alongside French rock band Phoenix  or dropping electric covers, Vampire Weekend prove they’re music more than hitmakers — they’re also a summer festival bucket list act too. 

Troye Sivan kicked off his mainstage set on Friday night dripping with innuendo. Replete with sexy outfit changes (including a pair of crotchless pants), effortlessly cool choreography and a very well-positioned mic in his pelvic region, the two-time GRAMMY nominee showed Barcelona that he not only has stadium-worthy tunes but is a stadium-worthy performer. Performing a medley of hits from his third studio album Something To Give You, Sivan's infectious pop tracks were perfectly timed to sexy and immaculately polished dance choreography (featuring his reliable backup dancer troupe of Simone Nolasco, Mauro van de Kerkhof, Benjamin Williams, Ainsley Hall Ricketts and Theo Maddix) against a campily creative set. 

The singer yearned alongside Spanish musician guitarricadelafuente on a silver silk bed as they duetted "In My Room," and belted out Ariana Grande’s "supernatural" in front of a mesmerizing anime video backdrop. Whether it was intimately crooning to synth-pop summer banger "Honey" or throwback hit "1999," Sivan was undoubtedly a mainstage highlight. As he wrapped up his set, the singer shouted out Barcelona's art and culture as an inspiration for Something To Give You. The Primavera performance was one of the biggest shows of his life, and closed this set with his anthem queer hit "RUSH."

Read more: Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Troye Sivan On "Rush," The Importance Of Dance-Pop & The Spirituality Of Partying

Yeule Opens Primavera With An Electric Set

Kitted out with tattoos, American flag-styled cargo trousers, a heather gray bikini top and chunky boots,  yeule is exactly as you see them: an uncategorizable phenomenon. While their set clashed with major alt-metal and indie acts Deftones and Pulp, yeule’s distorted, glitchy universe was more than immersive; it was an electronic, energetic undertaking that swept the audience away. Away from the main stages, yeule’s set felt like a charged techo-pop portal to their world of emotional, alt-rock tunes.

Shaped by everything from nu-metal, Avril Lavigne and My Chemical Romance, yeule sounds neither human nor computerized. Often conceptualized as being something of a "cyborg identity," yeule's music translates with a darkly alluring style onstage. They opened with the melodic "Electric" from their second studio album Glitch Princess, while the rest of the setlist beautifully emulated their recent album Softscares; an emotional futuristic electro-pop record. The musician’s punk rock inflected "cybermeat," "sulky baby" and "dazies" were highlights, pulling the crowd closer to the stage as well as new listeners in from nearby smaller stages. 

Performing against a flickering urban city backdrop illuminated the midnight sky, yeule's set created the perfect isolated, small-stage universe to hear their deafening screamo notes during "Bite My Neck" and the hauntingly mellow electro-rock closeout track "software update."

Clementaum Brings The Brazilian Party Spirit To The Boiler Room

The Boiler Room x Cupra stage was the place to be this year. While the Parc del Fòrum never fails to pull together an eclectic mix of talent, Primavera Sound truly thrived in showing its ability to channel the club, ballroom and EDM into a live festival setting. There was never a set that didn’t bring the festival goers in glam outfits and the ultimate dance party vibes. However, the raging techno beats of Clementaum that most caught our attention.

Playing to a packed room with festival-goers tightly crammed in even behind her decks, Clementaum led a chant ("Vai Brazil!") as her country’s flag was proudly waved in the crowd.  Feeling more like a late-night rave, the Brazilian DJ had us thriving on deep beat drops and pummeling beats that you couldn’t help but dance to. Artfully skilled, Clementaum fuses Afro-Latin rhythms, ballroom culture and amped-up electronica for an incredible, heart-racing high.

The trance beat-packed El NICK DGO x Clementaum banger "Dale Pal Party" had everybody dancing, while a full-throttle remix of "Puttuna" pushed things into another level. However, her live rendition of "Pirigótika" (a track with Brazilian singer Bibi Babydoll) was her hallmark performance, and proved that if you haven’t heard of Clementaum, be sure this won’t be the last time you come across her name. 

Amaarae’s Captivating Set Can't Be Boxed In By Genre 

There’s nothing Amaarae can’t do. Taking over the Amazon Music stage on May 30, the Ghanaian American Afrobeats musician can take on anything from punk to R&B. In Barcelona, Amaarae’s chameleonic talent showcases that no style (or genre) is too much for her to turn into a captivating set.

Amaarae proved that whatever mood she brings to stage, she devours, from effortlessly performing slow burner "Wasted Eyes" to silkily switching to "Disguise," a song of desire and domination, and segueing to alternative anthem "Sex, Violence, Suicide." 

Learn more: Meet The Latest Wave Of Rising Afrobeats Stars: AMAARAE, BNXN, Oladapo & More

Nobody throws a party like the ultimate "it" girl Charli XCX. From ranging pop bangers ("I Love It" to "Party 4 U"), the British pop star kept crowds dancing until 4 a.m. — and for good reason. While fans weren’t frightened away by heavy rain and thunderstorms during the festival’s final night, Charli XCX and her fans made Primavera’s final night one to remember. 

And, if you were lucky, you might’ve caught the star pull off an incredible surprise DJ set alongside co-collaborator A.G Cook, and finance The 1975 band member George Daniel. While the early announced pop-up set for her upcoming sixth studio album Brat fell just outside of the festival on Sunday, the sweaty beach-side crowd was packed with fans flocking from Primavera Sound to make sure they got their early hit of Charli XCX ahead of her mainstage set later that night. 

Following the breakthrough of her sophomore album Preacher’s Daughter, Ethel Cain has been on an unstoppable rise. A goth-pop mix of Lana Del Ray and heartland-style emo rock, the Tallahassee-born musician is crafting her own Americana aesthetic shaped by desire, death and South Baptist Christian influences.

While playing a late afternoon set, the singer stepped out under the blazing sun delivering incredible vocals to fan favorites "Crush’’ and "House of Nebraska." The singer’s set highlights were elevated by two things: a new song and a political call-out that broke the divide between the festival crowd and on-stage artist. Dressed in a ‘Free Palestine’ t-shirt and with a keffiyeh hanging from her mic, the musician denounced genocide and advocated for the people of Gaze before launching into her viral anti-pop song, "American Teenager." 

Amidst her anti-war advocacy, the singer also slotted into a somber new song "Amber Waves," showcasing her penchant for eerie melodies and what fans can expect on her currently untitled upcoming project. 

Learn more: 15 LGBTQIA+ Artists Performing At 2024 Summer Festivals

Whether it’s the instantly recognizable intro to "Good Days" or the viral rotations of "Kill Bill," SZA has long been dominating and driving contemporary pop and R&B. The GRAMMY winner highlighted her artistic versatility with deep cuts and chart hits (including those from her massively popular sophomore album SOS) to a packed mainstage crowd.

With a stage set designed to look like a ship, SZA was amplifying the message of SOS loud and clear – with hits, charismatic stage movements and impressive vocals to match. And, she didn’t stop there. From knife play routine to "Kill Bil" to full-throttle Miley Cryus-style and riding an anchor to dropping the splits mid-set, SZA gave a performance that continuously raised the bar. 

Read more: How 'SOS' Transformed SZA Into A Superstar & Solidified Her As The Vulnerability Queen

Music Festivals 2024 Guide: Lineups & Dates For Lollapalooza, Coachella, Bonnaroo & Much More

Electronic music is embedded within the diverse world of Latin music and, for the first time, will be recognized in a new Field and Category at the 2024 Latin GRAMMYs. Within that field, the award for Best Latin Electronic Music Performance was created to shine a light on DJs, producers, and artists blending proudly blending electronic music with the sounds of their cultures.

Electronic music embodies various subgenres like house music, techno, trance, electronica, and many others rooted that have been popularized by DJs and producers. Latin artists have long enriched those subgenres: Mexico's Belanova globalized the electro-pop wave, while Bomba Estéreo blended cumbia with electronica in Colombia. 

The explosion of EDM in the 2010s also allowed the careers of Latinx DJs to flourish. Mexican American DJ Deorro has showcased both cultures during sets at music festivals like EDC, Coachella, Tomorrowland, and more. Arca's music pushes the boundaries of electronic music through a Venezuelan and Latin American lens. More recently, Colombian producer Víctor Cárdenas bridged the gap between EDM and reggaeton with the global hit "Pepas" by Farruko. Since then, electronic music has seeped through the work of Latin hit-makers like Tainy, Caleb Calloway, Bizarrap and Diego Raposo. "Pepas" and many of Bizarrap's music sessions crossed over onto Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs.

"That’s something that’s very big for us," Deorro tells GRAMMY.com about the new category. "How beautiful that this is happening, because it shows that what we’re doing is working, we’re breaking down doors, and we’re creating more opportunities for artists like us in the future." 

In honor of the Latin Recording Academy's new Field and Category, here are eight must-hear Latin electronic music essentials.

Belanova - Cocktail (2003)

Belanova revolutionized the Latin music space with their 2003 debut album Cocktail, an atmospheric LP that seamlessly blends Latin pop with electronic music. In the dreamy deep house of "Tu Ojos," singer Denisse Guerrero sang about getting lost in her lover's eyes. The trippy techno of "Barco De Papel" was reminiscent of the music from Madonna's Ray of Light album. Electronic music on the ambient level wasn’t common in Latin music until Belenova changed the game in Mexico, which later reverberated into the rest of Latin America and the U.S. 

The trio — which includes guitarist Ricardo Arreol and keyboardist Edgar Huerta — later delved into electro-pop on 2007's Fantasía Pop, which won a Latin GRAMMY for Best Pop Album by a Group or Duo the following year. 

Arca - Kick I-II (2020)

Venezuelan producer/artist Arca is a pioneer in the Latin electronic music space. Arca first began producing her experimental electronica in Spanish with her 2017 self-titled album.

Arca then masterfully mixed the diverse sounds of Latin America and beyond with EDM throughout her Kick album series. 

For Kick I, she combined Venezuelan gaita music and reggaeton with a cyberpunk edge in "KLK" featuring Spanish pop star Rosalía. Arca then blended electronica with neo-perreo on Kick II's "Prada" and "Rakata." Both albums garnered Arca GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY nominations. 

As a trans and non-binary artist, she is also breaking boundaries for the LGBTQ+ community in the genre. Arca is just not creating more space for queer artists in Latin music, but also in EDM at large by embracing the totality of herself in song.  

Bomba Estéreo - Deja (2021)

Bomba Estéreo, which is comprised of core members Simón Mejía and Liliana "Li" Saumet, has masterfully melded the music of Colombia’s Caribbean coast with electronic music. Since breaking out in 2008 with their sophomore album, the group has often reimagined the African and Indigenous rhythms of their country like cumbia through dance music. Bomba Estéreo’s folkloric approach to EDM has led to collaborations with Bad Bunny, Tainy, and Sofi Tukker.    

In 2021, Bomba Estéreo released its most ambitious album Deja, which garnered a GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY nominations. The title track put a funky spin on the band's signature electro-tropical sound. House music collided with the Afro-Colombian rhythms of champeta in "Conexión Total" featuring Nigerian singer Yemi Alade. Their album that was based on the four classical elements was a breath of fresh air in the Latin music scene. 

Bizarrap - "BZRP Music Sessions #52" (2022)

Argentine producer Bizarrap launched the BZRP Music Sessions on YouTube in 2018, first remaining behind the console for freestyle rapping sessions with local acts. The sessions quickly went viral, and have featured increasingly larger names in music.

Over the past five years, Bizarrap worked elements of electronic music into his hip-hop productions. In 2022, he fully delved into EDM with his global hit "BZRP Music Sessions #52" featuring Spanish singer Quevedo. The traptronica banger peaked at No. 4 on Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs and earned Bizarrap his first Latin GRAMMY Award. 

Since then, his music sessions have become a global event. Bizarrap later infused electro-pop with a trap breakdown in "BZRP Music Sessions #53" with Shakira, which garnered him two more Latin GRAMMY awards. 

Javiera Mena - Nocturna (2022)

Javiera Mena first debuted as an indie act in 2006 with Esquemas Juveniles. With that freedom as a producer and artist, the Chilean star pushed Latin music into the electronic space with her 2010 album Mena. 

She fully immersed herself into Latin electronica on her latest album, 2022's Nocturna — an album filled with nighttime club bangers that invite everyone to dance with her. Mena also proudly sings about being part of the LGBTQ+ community in the alluring "La Isla de Lesbos" and the fierce house music of "Diva" featuring Chico Blanco. Considering the influence of queer artists in the formation of electronic genres like house, it’s refreshing to see an artist like Mena remind people of those roots and bring that into Latin music.  

Deorro - Orro (2022)

Mexican American producer Deorro has established himself as one of the world's top DJs, and is known for mixing both of his cultures into his music festival sets. Even before the música mexicana explosion last year, he was one of the first mainstream EDM acts to bring the genre to music festivals around the world through his songs and remixes.   

With his debut album, 2022's Orro, Deorro fully bridged música mexicana with house music. He collaborated with Latin acts like Mexico's Los Tucanes De Tijuana and Maffio in "Yo Las Pongo," which blended the band's norteño sound with EDM. Deorro also explored cumbia with deep house in the sweeping "Dime" featuring Los Ángeles Azules and Lauri Garcia. In his recent sets, he is spinning a fiery remix of "Ella Baila Sola" by Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma

Sinego - Alterego (2023)

Sinego first broke through in 2019 thanks to his house bolero sound like in "Verte Triste," which put a refreshing spin on an age-old Cuban genre. With traditional genres within the Latin diaspora often falling to the wayside as the years go on, he is reintroducing them to new audiences through EDM reimaginings.   

For his debut album, 2023's Alterego, the Colombian producer pushed his electronic music to another level. Sinego traveled to different Latin American countries and Spain to record with local musicians, reimagining genres like cumbia, tango, and mambo through Sinego's EDM lens. With the sultry "Mala," he blended Venezuela's variation of calypso with house music. He also gave Brazilian samba a house music makeover in "Boa Noite" featuring Tonina. 

Diego Raposo - Yo No Era Así Pero De Ahora En Adelante Sí (2023)

Dominican producer Diego Raposo has helped Latin acts like Danny Ocean, Blue Rojo, and Letón Pé embrace elements of electronic music. In 2018, Raposo released his debut album Caribe Express, which demonstrated his knack for mixing the sounds of the Caribbean with EDM. 

Raposo took that inventive mix into overdrive with last year's Yo No Era Así Pero De Ahora En Adelante Sí. The otherworldly "Si Supieras" featuring Okeiflou blended house music with reggaeton, while "Al Contrario" with Akrilla aggressively mixes drum 'n 'bass with dembow. Rapaso also channels Dance Dance Revolution-esque electronica in the spellbinding "Quédate" with Kablito. 

7 Latin DJs To Watch In 2023: Gordo, Arca, The Martinez Brothers & More

As any fan can attest, dance music is a broad church spanning myriad micro-genres, fan communities and city-specific scenes. The genre’s reach was as wide as ever in 2023, stretching from the biggest festival stages to the most intimate clubs, with variations in moods and beats-per-minute to suit all tastes. 

Nostalgia for rave’s ‘90s heyday was everywhere, fueling big-name releases and underground club sets alike. [Surprise supergroups](https://www.grammy.com/news/coachella-2023-weekend-2-recap-skrillex-four-tet-fred-again-gorillaz-bad-bunny-eric-pyrdz-performances-surprises-video) and [long-time collaborators](https://www.grammy.com/news/skrillex-fred-again-friendship-timeline-collaborations-videos) hit big in 2023, while albums from [James Blake](https://www.grammy.com/artists/james-blake/17760), [the Chemical Brothers](https://www.grammy.com/artists/chemical-brothers/7746), Disclosure and Everything But The Girl showed there’s still power in the electronic LP format. 

With festivals and DJ touring schedules back to a pre-COVID pace, dance music also enjoyed a busy year on the road. Across North America, [ILLENIUM](https://www.grammy.com/artists/Illenium/38165), G Jones, ZHU and ODESZA (not to mention Beyoncé’s house music-indebted Renaissance tour) sold out venues across the country. In a genre that can feel impossible to get your arms around, these five trends were undeniable in 2023. 

Everything Old Was New Again

Wherever you looked this year, DJ-producers were reaching back to the racing sounds of trance, rave and Eurodance that dominated dancefloors in the ‘90s and early 2000s. David Guetta and Calvin Harris spent 2023 memorably mining this past — the latter’s "Desire," featuring Sam Smith, could be ripped straight from a decades-old pop-trance compilation. 

Meanwhile, South Korean DJ-producer Peggy Gou released "(It Goes Like) Nanana," a dance-pop earworm with shades of ATB’s late ‘90s hit, "9PM (Till I Come)." Already a hugely popular draw as a DJ, Gou’s time-warping groover became her first Billboard chart entry and ignited buzz for her debut artist album, expected in 2024. 

On the less commercial spectrum, European producers like DJ Heartstring, Narciss and Marlon Hoffstadt continued to contextualize vintage sounds for a new audience. Meanwhile, a cluster of Dutch DJs, most notably Job Jobse, Young Marco and KI/KI, played throwback anthem-fuelled sets on festival stages usually reserved for steely techno, including at Dekmantel and Time Warp. 

For some DJs, looking back to the past meant embracing the fast and furious tempos of hardstyle and hard dance, two subgenres with passionate niche followings but little mainstream crossover. Continuing a trend from 2022, speedier BPMs were very much in vogue, as DJs kept pace with fans demanding a harder, faster workout. 

Women Danced To The Front 

Many of the year’s most invigorating and genre-blurring releases were made by women. Having built a steady career as a producer and singer, Kenya Grace broke out in 2023 with "Strangers," which caught fire on TikTok and converted new fans via a sleek mix of pop, drum & bass and Grace’s hushed vocals. Peggy Gou’s aforementioned "(It Goes Like) Nanana," also captured the TikTok zeitgeist with a widely-viewed video of Gou teasing the single for a dancefloor in Morocco. 

Electronic chameleon [Charli XCX](https://www.grammy.com/artists/charli-xcx/18360) stayed squarely in the limelight, following 2022’s stellar *Crash* with the one-two punch of "In The City" featuring Sam Smith and "Speed Drive"(from *Barbie the Album*, which is nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media alongside *AURORA*, *Weird: The Al Yankovic Story*, *Black Panther: Wakanda Forever- Music From And Inspired By*, and *Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3: Awesome Mix*). Meanwhile, two of the year’s standout albums came from women coloring outside the lines of their best-known projects: the xx vocalist Romy’s *Mid Air* embraced her queerness through euphoric dance-pop, while Aluna (of electronic duo AlunaGeorge) blossomed as a solo artist and activist on her second album, *MYCELiUM*. 

While dance music’s ranks remained largely white and male in 2023, undeniable albums from the likes of Jayda G, PinkPanthress and Róisín Murphy were a welcome counterbalance. 

UK Bass Got Bombastic

Following the runaway success of Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal’s 2022 UK garage-tinged house anthem "B.O.T.A. (Baddest of Them All)" the previous year, British bass music continued to shine in 2023. 

While still relatively niche in the U.S., the UK garage (UKG) and bassline subgenres that thrived in the Y2K era found a new generation of British converts, thanks to releases like Interplanetary Criminal’s *All Thru The Night* and Conducta’s *In Transit* EP. Elsewhere, acclaimed British singer/songwriter Jorja Smith tapped her UKG roots on the irresistible single "Little Things." 

Welsh duo Overmono weaved garage textures into their accomplished debut album, *Good Lies*, and rounded out the year with a powerful Boiler Room live set from Manchester’s Warehouse Project. The set and album cemented their bona fides as the UK’s next dance festival headliner. 

The many mutations of UK bass music shone bright all year in DJ sets from the likes of Anz, Nia Archives, Jyoty and Joy Anonymous. (The latter’s near-three-hour set with Austrian producer salute and New Jersey-born garage godfather Todd Edwards at Amsterdam Dance Event captured the jubilant mix of house and UKG that was dominant this year.) 

Bringing it full circle, Eliza Rose parlayed the success of "B.O.T.A." into a collaboration with Calvin Harris on this year’s housey "Body Moving," which started with the pair exchanging Instagram DMs. 

Technology Upped The Ante

In a year where artificial intelligence and rapid technological advancement were burning topics, a wave of dance music artists found new ways to embrace the future. 

The possibilities of technology to enhance live performance were on full display in two raved-about Coachella sets. Swedish veteran [Eric Prydz](https://www.grammy.com/artists/eric-prydz/5679) brought his HOLO show to the California festival, deploying cutting-edge tech to create giant holographic images that extend over the crowd. Meanwhile, inside the festival's Sahara Tent, melodic techno duo Tale Of Us completed their transition to EDM crowd-pleasers with a full-scale audiovisual spectacle that explored themes of robot-human connection. (One half of the duo, Matteo Milleri, is also all-in on NFTs.) 

Meanwhile, techno favorite Nicole Moudaber debuted an AV show in which her own movements control a towering digital avatar. The year also saw big-name DJs embracing the metaverse — from Carl Cox playing a set in the Sensorium Galaxy to Swedish House Mafia joining the Roblox platform — in a trend that’s sure to carry into 2024. 

Techno & Techno-House Go Center Stage

Continuing a trend from 2022, big room techno and tech-house muscled onto U.S. festival stages usually reserved for EDM anthems. In particular, tech-house — which in 2023 sounds a world away from the raw UK club records that birthed the subgenre — cemented its place in the mainstream with Fisher and Chris Lake’s back-to-back set at Coachella’s Outdoor Theatre. (Later in the year, the pair shut down Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles for an epic street party.) 

Both coming off a star-making 2022, tech-house mischief-makers John Summit and Dom Dolla leveled up with bigger shows and feverish fan followings. Meanwhile, Belgian sensation Charlotte de Witte became the techno artist booked on the Ultra Miami main stage, scheduled incongruously alongside the likes of Zedd and Afrojack, while in Europe, techno specialists Amelie Lens and Nina Kraviz were given the same honor (and challenge) for a sprawling crowd at Tomorrowland. 

Whether mining the past or accelerating into the future, the dance/electronic genre never stood still this year, setting the stage for a thrilling 2024.  

[2023 In Review: 5 Trends That Defined Pop Music](https://www.grammy.com/news/pop-music-trends-2023-year-in-review-taylor-swift-sza)

In 2002, against the advice of his friends, a 34-year-old James Murphy released "Losing My Edge," an eight-minute track with a simple, slow-building drum machine pattern. On it, Murphy humorously questions his relevance: "But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent/ And they're actually really, really nice."

The track would, somewhat ironically, make Murphy's LCD Soundsystem and his burgeoning Brooklyn indie label DFA Records the cool new kids on the block.

Murphy started getting booked off of the song and decided to put an actual band behind LCD Soundsystem, calling on Nancy Whang (synths, keys and vocals) and Pat Mahoney (drums and drum machines). Two years later, bassist Tyler Pope became a core member; stellar musicians from the punk/indie/art rock world would join them in the studio and/or on tour over the years.

In January 2005, LCD Soundsystem released their eponymous two-disc debut album, which opens with one of their beloved classics "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House," a No. 1 hit on the UK Dance chart. The aforementioned track and album also earned them their first two GRAMMY nominations in 2006, for Best Electronic/Dance Album and Best Dance Recording respectively, and the album reached No. 6 on Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Album chart in March 2005. Murphy and company hadn't lost their edge — rather, they were certified big-time indie stars.

Twenty-one years after their tongue-in-cheek debut and 12 years after their not-so-final farewell shows at Madison Square Garden, the beloved Brooklyn band is back with their third residency on their home turf, this time with twelve shows across three New York City venues: Brooklyn Steel (where they had their 2021 and 2022 residencies), Terminal 5 in Manhattan and Knockdown Center in Queens. The shows sold out in a matter of seconds and saw high resale prices clocking double to triple face value, just as their "final" show at Madison Square Garden did in 2011.

In the midst of their highly anticipated Tri Boro Tour — which wraps Dec. 10 — GRAMMY.com examines why LCD Soundsystem still resonates so strongly, even as the dance music and indie scenes around them have changed so much.

They're Y2K's Answer To The Talking Heads

LCD Soundsystem was born during the early aughts, their punk DIY ethos part of New York's brief but thriving indie rock scene (led by the popularity of the Strokes). As documented in Lizzy Goodman's 2017 book, Meet Me in the Bathroom, Murphy fell in love with dance music after trying ecstasy on a New York dance floor, promptly expanding his sonic world.

After this blissful experience, he finally felt comfortable dancing. He started DJing his favorite deep-cut records and throwing parties with DFA co-founder Tim Goldsworthy. 

With LCD Soundsystem, he brought garage and indie rock to the rave, mixing the euphoria and energy of disco, acid house, and electronic instrumentation with guitars and snarky, self-deprecating lyrics. Their influences — ESG, Loose Joints, David Bowie, Talking Heads, CAN, Daft Punk, Kraftwerk — were spiritually present but seamlessly mixed in. Chopped up and flipped until a whole new thing was born, LCD's sound was as inventive as the house music and hip-hop producers and DJs that came before him.

"For many overstimulated and underwhelmed New York hipsters, LCD Soundsystem provided the soundtrack for making sense of the late 2000s," Ryan Pinkard wrote for Tidal. "LCD was to 2000s New York what the Velvet Underground and the Talking Heads were in their own eras. And their legacy is no less hefty nor contentious."

While music labels and outlets became obsessed with finding "the next Strokes," LCD and DFA paved their own path in indie dance. They made significant contributions to the era of loud, chaotic danceable music largely made by bands or DJs' edits of bands, which would later be coined bloghouse or indie sleaze. The Rapture's 2002 single "House of Jealous Lovers" and subsequent debut album, Echoes, were produced by Murphy and Goldsworthy. It brought the post-punk band into a dancier arena that proved successful for them and DFA.

Like the Talking Heads — who, 30 years prior, made music "abuzz with nervous energy… [that] articulated the strangeness and anxiety of modern times" — LCD Soundsystem created artsy, humorous, danceable punk for the people, with an open-minded yet meticulously crafted DIY ethos.

Yet Murphy was a reluctant king of the indie dance scene. His own insecurities, perfectionism and jadedness around the scene and his own creative output resonated with his fans. He became — and remains — the moody, accidently cool Gen X father of his younger Gen X and older millennial fans; the younger generations are slowly catching up.

The Music — Lyrically and Sonically — Still Resonates

"It still kinda weighs on me a bit because we keep getting better and better at playing it live. It's surprising how long 'Losing My Edge' lingers around, for a dance song. But everyone's silly and shallow and insipid and vain and the more they accept it the less boring records we'll have," Murphy said of the ongoing popularity of "Losing My Edge."

"I made 'Yeah', which pretty much consists of me saying yeah over and over, to try and erase the expectation that it was gonna be another clever diatribe of lyrics. Etched into the vinyl of 'Yeah' is, 'Not as good as Losing My Edge.'"

The theme of relevancy and aging out youth culture is as old as time.  "Losing My Edge" is an anthem for aging DJs and music fans, who are loyal to their scene but no longer at the center of it. With his debut track, Murphy is knocking too-cool-for-school hipsters, but most of all, he's knocking himself — the music video is a close up of him getting repeatedly smacked as he says the lyrics with a straight face.

It is this playful self-depreciation and jaded introspection that permeates Murphy's lyrics — often sing-spoken, sometimes shouted — makes them so relatable. Just as Murphy found catharsis during his first experience with ecstasy, LCD's upbeat music and contemplative lyrics provide a similar energy for the band's loyal fans.

And as guitars gave way for perfectly programmed EDM-level drops at the end of the 2000s, LCD's music was a necessary balm. The group united emo rave kids and moody guitar heads under the disco ball, creating a cathartic dance party. Here, celebrating, crying, shouting and dancing like a weirdo are all okay, because Murphy does it too.

"Someone Great," placed midway through their second album 2007's Sound of Silver, is a heart-wrenching meditation on grief, pierced by droning synths, sparkling bells and a tender-sounding Murphy. It's easy to place your own story in the song (I thought it was about an ex no longer in his life), which is about his therapist Dr. George Kamen, who died in 2006. The album is also dedicated to him.

Sound of Silver ends with another melancholic track, "New York, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down," a slow-burning piano ballad that erupts into a can't-help-but-shout-along-chorus. It's a bittersweet love letter to the city that birthed the band (and that they still reside in), speaking to rapid gentrification and police crackdowns that pushed out (and continue to) creatives, venues and working-class people. Even when performed outside of NYC, the song feels poignant given the struggles of living in a capitalist society.

LCD Soundsystem's GRAMMY-nominated fourth studio album, american dream, was released in 2017, in Trump's dystopian America. The anxiety and discontentment are understandably still there, and Murphy is older, but no less disillusioned. "tonite" is a catchy GRAMMY-nominated acid house-tinged tune about all the songs on the radio declaring "you only live once, let's party!" Murphy's response is poetic: "I never realized these artists thought so much about dying/ But truth be told we all have the same end /Could make you cry, cry, cry, cry, cry."

The band has grown up (as have its core fanbase) but there are still plenty of feelings to be processed, sung out loud and danced out.

Their Sound Transcends Trends

LCD Soundsystem's first three albums were released during the first decade of the millennium and peak indie rock/bloghouse era, yet they don't feel dated. Instead, their music channeled something vintage without being nostalgic, and was incredibly fresh-sounding. They remain timeless and are among the era's standouts that still make great music and play killer shows, like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Murphy famously attempted to dissolve the band at the peak of their fame in 2011 — a year after their release of their third album, This is Happening. He didn't want to become a band he hated, to keep getting bigger regardless of if their music was better or not. The hiatus lasted for four years.

"As things mature — whether they be real estate, rock 'n' roll, politics, festivals, radio — there's an efficiency that develops and with it, very often, comes some soul-crushing truths. If you keep doing it, you get bigger even if the records get worse," Murphy told the New York Times in 2017. "It was our turn, And something about that turned my stomach."

When Murphy was working on music that sounded like his beloved band, it seemed silly to not release it because he killed the project. The band's first — rather surprising — new song in five years, "christmas will break your heart," was released in December 2015. A much-hyped Coachella 2016 headline set, followed by a summer tour including other big fests like Lollapalooza, Primavera Sound and Glastonbury, meant LCD was very much back.

While some fans derided the band for making a big deal about breaking up and then coming back, they were clearly missed. And with their 2017 album, they've been able to avoid getting stuck in the nostalgia trap.  Of course, LCD Soundsystem's latest tune, 2022's "new body rhumba," was created to close out the absurd grocery store dance scene in Noah Bambauch's White Noise (based on Don DeLillo's dystopian 1985 novel of the same name).

"There's a lot of music that came out in the '80s around the time of that book that I love," Murphy told Netflix about writing the song. "I didn't want to do anything that was sounding like '80s Radiohead… And I don't want to do emotions for emotions sake. Because I feel that life and death and fear and feelings and these things are too important to use cheap shorthand."

The Band Is Tight & A Joy To See Live

LCD Soundsystem are beloved for their energetic, cathartic live shows, where each song leads into the next and the bandmates riff with each other. They fill the stage with their talented musicians and their many instruments — several drum kits, percussion instruments and cowbells, Nancy Whang's keyboards and synths, and a whole vintage modular synth set up — and play with deft precision.

"We didn't set out to be cool. We set out to be an extremely tight band. We wanted to defy expectations," the frontman told GQ in 2018. And that they did — and continue to do.

Their live sets weave back and forth through their gem-laden catalog — when they performed 2017's "tonite" after 2005's "Tribulations" on the first night of their latest NYC residency, it's easy to forget how far apart they were recorded.

Whang and drummer Pat Mahoney helped bring LCD Soundsystem from the studio to the stage in its earliest days. Like Murphy, Mahoney played in punk bands (most notably Les Savy Fav) and his precise drumming drives LCD's music forward. Other band members include Al Doyle of Hot Chip and Tyler Pope of !!!, who bring funky guitar and bass, respectively, into the mix. Gavilán Rayna Russom offered her modular synth expertise on This Is Happening and on the farewell and reunion tours.

LCD Does Things On Their Own Terms

James Murphy cares about his art and is painstakingly perfectionist about sound quality. His stellar Despacio mobile sound room is a dark, joyful sonic wonderland — records sound as crisp and bright as ever — but is so costly to transport, they lose money when they use it.

After quitting at the height of their career, they came back when they were ready. Sure, Murphy thought painstakingly about whether he should or could release the music he'd been working on and knew there'd be backlash, but that didn't stop them. In fact, it was one of his idols, David Bowie, that encouraged him to do it.

"When I was working on Blackstar, I was talking to David Bowie, which is a luxurious thing to say. I said to him, 'I'm really freaked out as I've started writing music, what am I going to do? What if I come back after we quit so perfectly?'" Murphy told Crack Magazine in 2017.

"David said to me, 'Does it make you feel uncomfortable to come back?' I said 'Yes.' He said 'Good, you should be uncomfortable to do something. You need to be uncomfortable.' It was a funny thing to hear from him, because I always assumed he was comfortable all the time."

The band returned after four years away with a Christmas song, of all things. Almost two years later, they dropped their reunion album. They take their time with their music and release it when they're ready, on their own terms.

As the COVID-19 lockdowns eased up, they've experimented with different touring and festival formats, with their fans in mind as well as their older bodies and changing priorities. Their 2021 return kicked off their first NYC residency, with 20 shows at Brooklyn Steel (although the last three dates were canceled due to a new COVID variant spreading). They returned to Brooklyn Steel for 20 shows in late 2022, and kicked off their 2023 Tri Boro Tour on Nov. 16. The new format gives the band breaks in-between each venue, as Murphy explained the last run was a tough grind.

Murphy has also brought Despacio to more festivals recently, including his 2022 Ain't No Picnic in Pasadena, California and at Coachella 2023. He also launched the Re:Set Concert Series during summer 2023, which featured no set-time overlap and had LCD and the artists traveling shorter distances between shows.

What will 2024 hold for LCD Soundsystem? Hopefully new music to dance off the funk of 2023, more festivals with Despacio and LCD, and quotable moments from Murphy interviews, but who knows. They'll give us something great when they're ready and that will likely be just when we need it most.

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