There’s no denying the fact that dance music has officially completed its merger with the commercial media. If huge corporate sponsorships at your favorite events or a feature-length film starring Zac Efron weren’t clear indicators, take Diplo on your mother’s favorite morning talk show with Charlie Rose as the strongest example yet. Dance music has gone day-time TV, and you know what? That’s just fine. With Diplo representing the commercial side of dance music on CBS This Morning, it’s evident that his meteoric rise is directly correlated to dance music’s explosion in America within the last five years.
Seeing Diplo, or Wesley, in any setting outside of a human hamster ball steam-rolling a sea of fans always takes a moment to get used to. But as Diplo describes electronic music as the sound of our day, remarking on its accessibility, he explains that finding his current fame was no walk in the park.
Not a classically-trained musician, the Mad Decent label head tells the hosts that his true abilities lie in his creative process, describing the grinding busy work as he slowly established his brand. Diplo divulges on his leap of faith into the music world at age 23 – bouncing between jobs at the zoo, Subway, and an elementary school before taking pop’s top spot. Charlie Rose crowns “Lean On” the song of the summer as the hosts dive into Wes’ work with pop icons Madonna and Justin Bieber, and all the while, Diplo fields their questions with a slick charm.
Though, Gayle King turns the tables in asking Diplo point blank if his “badboy” persona is all just an act. Frankly, it makes you wonder. Considering the way in which Wes describes his rise to fame, relentless work ethic, and desire to push creative boundaries from Jack Ü and Major Lazer to everything in between, Diplo probably doesn’t deserve such a bad rap. In fact, he proves electronic music can be intelligent, and if others were as dedicated, then anyone – even a kid from Florida with no classical music training – can grab a laptop, start creating, and maybe one day take over the world.
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