British duo Guy and Howard Lawrence have taken the indie electronic hipster market by storm. They’re better known as Disclosure, and if you haven’t heard them on the radio or while out dancing, you’re probably doing something wrong. Most recently they’ve been causing waves after they released a rework of the 2003 Pharrell and Jay-Z hit “Frontin.”
The remix proves two things; the first is that music as we know it today has the power to travel faster now than ever before. Within two days of the track being released, it became the top trending subject on both Facebook and Twitter. There’s no question that the Internet has changed the face of the music industry. However, these small, isolated examples of organically shared content going instantly viral online shows us just how profound that change has really become.
The second thing it proves is that remixes can be mainstream. The press’s involvement and social trends show that people can love remixes just as much as original songs. It would appear we have officially embraced the electronic era as our own and stepped forward into the DJ realm. Not that Pharrell and Jay-Z need the excess publicity to promote their names, but DJs are becoming a whole new avenue in which artists can develop their careers, which is ultimately affecting the music industry as a whole.
Regardless of the analytics, it’s nice to see a great piece of music being shared through nontraditional mediums. In many ways, the Internet has become the main platform in which the popularity of a band or solo performer can be judged. The music on the radio has proven less than acceptable for today’s generation, and it’s great that people are taking music consumption into their own hands by sharing what they like, rather than passively accepting what mainstream DJs and stations want to play.
Have you heard “Frontin” yet? What do you think of Disclosure’s remix?
Image: via Facebook.
