Paris Electronic Week was held at the Gaîté Lyrique from September 20 to 23 for its fifth edition. On the menu, conferences, workshops… Just Focus was there.
Is the notion of an album outdated? Is radio dead? How to reconcile state of emergency and cultural manifestation?
Professionals and lovers of electronic culture met for three days at the Gaîté Lyrique to exchange and learn about electronic music, which today constitutes a world apart.
Speakers
It is only at Paris Electronic Week where we can hear Arnaud Robotini talk about technological developments in musical creation, or Jean-Michel Jarre pay tribute to Pierre Henry during the closing conference dedicated to this pioneer of electronic music, who died on July 5, 2017.
Only at Paris Electronic Week can you listen to speakers in English discussing the concept of the album with Sulinna Ong, Vice President of Artist Marketing at Deezer.
Finally, it is only at Paris Electronic Week where we can see Jack Lang talking about the consequences of the State of Emergency on electronic music.
Discoveries
If we knew very well the web radios Radio Meuh or PWFM, we had the good surprise to discover the webradio Le Mellotron. Anders Sicre, its president, was one of the speakers at the conference "Radio is dead… Long live the radio?" Le Mellotron was originally a blog, created in 2009, which gave birth to its own online radio in 2013. But Le Mellotron is also a bar-bistro, located in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, which also broadcasts its lives online. An economic system rather well thought out, since it is the bar that pays the costs of the Internet radio.
The conference on the "Panorama of technological innovations" also allowed us to discover that many businesses are dedicated to making the organization of a festival and the experience of its festival-goers much simpler and interactive. Cashless, ticket resale or the creation of apps for festivals are now among the priorities of event organizers, for example via the companies Beepers or Verve. The latter, which relies on the concept of "ambassador" should soon make its appearance in France.
Reflection
We liked to question the concept of album and how it is perceived today in a conference hosted by the independent British journalist Eamonn Forde. We learned that the album was mostly a creative choice today and that music consumers, even if they always listened to albums, were now big consumers of playlists. If we can wonder if the notion of album is generational, it is certain that today, artists live mainly thanks to the stage.
We also liked to question the notion of counterculture during a conference on the reinvented party in alternative places. As Kévin Ringeval of L'Aérosol explains, this counter-culture is never fixed and is bound to evolve constantly. The outdoor rave parties of the 90s no longer have the same presence as before and the wastelands and warehouses, so popular today, would only be temporary. We will thus find this alternative culture, perpetually changing, in other forms in a few years.
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