Is It Fair To Hate David Guetta?

One of the constantly-hated on artists within the EDM scene is David Guetta. Over the last four years, his name has been synonymous with what people c

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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One of the constantly-hated on artists within the EDM scene is David Guetta. Over the last four years, his name has been synonymous with what people consider to be mainstream EDM because, well, he is. His formula of working with pop artists (ranging from Lil Wayne to Jennifer Hudson), giving them obvious dancefloor jams for them to soar to the top of the club charts with, tracks that have netted him a Grammy and found him racking up almost eight million downloads of a "I Got a Feeling," the single he produced for the Black Eyed Peas. It's a proven formula, and it works. It also breeds hatred for Guetta.

We're driven to balance playing devil's advocate and representing the culture properly, and wanted to present a question: Is hating David Guetta fair? He's been DJing for years, practically living on the road, and seems to be genuine about making music for people to enjoy. Yet with anything that's constantly pushed in the mainstream, there's a huge resentment to David Guetta, his music, and the way he's operated within the both circles. He's not the thinking man's EDM producer, he's the feeling man's muse.

Through looking at the different sides of David Guetta's career thus far, we hope to determine if the hatred truly is warranted, or if the anti-Guetta contingent is blowing smoke unnecessarily.

He's Been Making "Pop" For A While

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Hating on What's Popular

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Originality (Or Lack Thereof)

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It's Not All Big Pop Hooks

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The Fame Chase

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He's Opened Doors For Today's EDM Artists

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He's Popular Because of His Collaborations

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In a livestream with his fans, Deadmau5 once spoke about the need to have producers and artists collaborate, and how that business model can be very viable. Guetta obviously fits in that structure, and we definitely understand if you hate on him for that. This is yet another result of having success within the music industry: everyone wants to work with you. Scratch that, everyone wants you to produce a hit for them because you're seen as the go-to producer. And that can be frustrating for music lovers because all of the "big hits," be they songs that Guetta produced or music produced by imitators, end up sounding the same, and will continue to sound the same until a new sound becomes popular.

As we said earlier, that's not really something you can blame on Guetta; anyone who is trying to make money and has a niche to fill is told to work it until they can't work it any longer, which is based on records sold. You might want to hate the public for still buying it, not Guetta for making it.

Concerns About His Live Gigs

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The Verdict?

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