I was recently thinking about an interview with Gene Simmons of KISS, where he brought up an interesting idea: the richness of rock music seems to have disappeared, largely because the industry now relies on algorithms instead of studios taking risks.
He called it a “rich menu” of music. But nowadays, what’s really on the menu?
“It is. And people don’t understand how I can say that when we all have our favourite songs and we love our favourite bands — you and I and everybody else. But what I mean is that… Well, let’s play a game, and I’ve done this before. From 1958 until 1988, that’s 30 years. 30 years. So what came during that period? Well, we had Elvis (Presley), we had The Beatles, The (Rolling) Stones, Jimi Hendrix, all that, Pink Floyd, the solo artists, David Bowie and just music that lasts forever, we’d like to think. In the disco world, you had Madonna, more heavy guitars, you had — Oh God — AC/DC and everybody else, Aerosmith and on and on. And you had Motown at the same time. You had Prince. It was a very, very rich musical menu. It could go up and down. You had prog bands, you had Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant and you had the heavy bands, Led Zeppelin and so on. And from 1988 until today, it’s something like almost 40 years, certainly 35 years. Who are the new Beatles?”
That quote got me thinking. I’m not someone who was deep into rock, disco, or those scenes, but I’ve noticed the same thing: happy, upbeat dance music feels dead. The only people keeping it alive are older artists still putting out tracks.
This really hit me one day while I was chilling with a Faygo Bubble Pop, brainstorming what to write about next. I thought, “New dance songs!” But then I realized — there aren’t any new artists. The “newest” songs are just remixes. One track I found was literally called “New Theme for Scanty and Kneesocks” by TeddyLoid.
For those who don’t know, Takashi “TeddyLoid” Sakakibara is an EDM DJ from Hamamatsu, Japan. Normies probably remember him for ME!ME!ME! back in 2014, or more recently for the Suicide Squad Isekai ending in 2024. In this case, he came back to do the soundtrack for Season 2 of the comedy anime Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
But this left me wondering: where are the new artists with real talent?
Even guys with “no talent” like Skrillex started 20 years ago. Hell, even “Glitch Glitch” — who I thought had the potential to become an amazing dance artist — only ever put out one song. Emily Hampshire released “If You Came Back Now” under that band name, and that was it.
What makes it worse is you can hear Jason Levine, aka “Simon” singing backup vocals on that track. Levine hasn’t released anything as Simon since his Forever 1999 album back in 2017. That makes it sting even more.
On the other side, you’ve got Eurobeat. Artists like Odyssey Eurobeat are keeping things going, but even he isn’t new — he’s been around since the 2010s and only became a VTuber in 2022.
Honestly, it feels like if it weren’t for DRM (Dave Rodgers Music), one of the oldest labels in the genre, Eurobeat would’ve been forgotten entirely. New material is rare and hard to find. Sure, Kaioh is putting out songs, but let’s be real: Kaioh grew up in the scene. Both his parents were part of Eurobeat before he was even born. He was raised in it.
I hate to say it, but maybe what we need is a new Avex — a fresh banner, a new community to rally around. Back in the days of Super Eurobeat, there was always excitement, always new talent. Yes, they still release albums, but the flow of fresh artists has slowed to a trickle.
And this is coming from someone who literally has every Super Eurobeat release loaded onto a modded iPod in lossless format, ready to blast anytime.
You know what? Screw it. I used to work in radio. Maybe it’s time to get off my ass and do it myself.
As the classic EuroBeat song goes: “I’ve just been in this place before… And I know it’s my time to go.”