Over the years we’ve seen prolific artists and figures in the Dance Music scene flock down to Los Angeles because of its rich history as a music scene. Interestingly enough, the flaws that hold the city back from the top counter its advantages. Founders of LA’s Culprit label Droog did a guest editorial talking about what prevents the nightlife scene from truly embracing dance music.

“LA doesn’t really land itself to vibrant clubbing/nightlife culture, because of its layout, lack of viable public transport options, underdeveloped street culture. All the things that make New York or Berlin or London natural dance music centers, LA lacks to some degree.”

They go on to speak on the always daunting 2AM cutoff for alcohol in California. Because the main aspect of LA nightlife essentially is alcohol sales, a change of this little piece of policy can have enough impact to grow the scene as big as many want it to grow.

Connected to that is the problem that almost no venue is owned and operated by music people, something you see a lot more of in Europe. There are no small or medium size dance clubs or bars that came organically from within the scene, that are not beholden to huge financial pressure. Nightlife is completely alcohol sales driven, which, often times lead to frustrating party environment. Also, the city of LA seems to have a general mistrust of dance music culture, probably lumping us all together as ‘rave.’ This forces quite a bit of our scene underground, more so than any other major city i know. But that carries many risks and proper investment into underground parties is tough because of the risk of getting shut down.

Check out the full editorial on Dancing Astronaut.

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