Becket is the powerhouse agent behind\u2014among many others\u2014R\u00dcF\u00dcS DU SOL, Bedouin, Monolink and G Jones, the lattermost of whom was recently named by EDM.com<\/em> as one of the world’s best electronic music producers<\/a>. He has been with CAA for nearly two decades and became the firm’s first electronic music agent in 2012 before nabbing a spot in Billboard<\/em>\u2019s venerable “Dance Power Players” list in 2019.<\/p>\n It’s no secret that leading agencies like CAA wield industry tentacles to curate prime festival real estate as a means to nurture the eggs of their mainstream golden geese. In other words, the stages of major festivals are the ultimate slingshots for new albums<\/a>. Meanwhile, their electronic artists\u2014as well as those repped by independent bookers across the nation\u2014are left tasting the dust of their hip-hop and pop contemporaries.<\/p>\n But if there’s any silver lining, blue-chip agencies and festivals today are acutely focused on unearthing and booking EDM talent, according to Becket, who tells us he expects to see more dance acts on big stages in the near future.<\/p>\n c/o Creative Artists Agency<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Once relegated to the fringes of the festival circuit, dance music producers are now commanding top billing and drawing massive audiences to marquee mainstream events like\u00a0Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits, all of whom tapped ODESZA to headline last year.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Coachella’s organizers in 2023\u00a0approached<\/a>\u00a0the trio of Skrillex, Fred again.. and Four Tet to close out the world’s quintessential music festival in lieu of a spurned Frank Ocean. Prior to their last-minute headlining set, Coachella\u00a0counted only Calvin Harris and Swedish House Mafia\u2014themselves replacements after stepping in for Kanye West in 2022\u2014as their only other DJ headliners in the last decade.<\/p>\n Now, after a year teeming with unforgettable EDM moments<\/a>, Coachella is introducing a brand-new stage to serve as the festival’s de facto epicenter of rave music. The ambitious stage, Quasar, will feature three-hour DJ sets by R\u00dcF\u00dcS DU SOL and a cancer-free<\/a> Michael Bibi, among other deeply influential dance music artists.<\/p>\n Ahead of Coachella’s return this weekend, we caught up with Becket to discuss Quasar as well as the evolving relationship between major festivals and the\u00a0electronic dance music community.<\/p>\n EDM.com:\u00a0<\/strong>After Coachella made the decision to blend Sahara’s lineups with more mainstream artists, it seems Quasar is the festival’s new epicenter of electronic dance music. Why now?<\/u><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Alex Becket: <\/strong>The way “underground” house and techno music has become so popular in recent years, and arguably is now the mainstream dance music of the day, the traditional home at the festival for that sound, the Yuma Tent, has become too small to service all the demand. It\u2019s a great sign for the health of our industry that the festival needs a stage like Quasar for this growing audience.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n EDM.com: Take us behind the scenes of your discussions with your artists about Quasar. What about the new stage was so appealing to them?<\/u><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Alex Becket:\u00a0<\/strong>Coachella has been such a pioneer for dance music over the years and they\u2019ve done it again with Quasar. The opportunity to play an extended three-hour set is unheard of amongst multi-genre contemporary festivals and represents the core culture around DJs and raves. It’s exciting for these artists to have the freedom to take fans on a journey without the constraints of 60\u201375-minute sets that are typical at the festival.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n Quasar is not a tent and therefore not a desert pic.twitter.com\/MLRsw2PQm9<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/wetpainttools.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/alex-becket12.png\")
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