The vocal snippet by Simian is possibly one of the most – if not the most – recognizable sample in electronic music. “We are your friends / You’ll never be alone again.” It’s the kind of message that unites fans of dance music regardless of their race, creed, or social make-up. And while many of us still subscribe to the ideology that makes that lyric so compelling, mainstream culture has bastardized the purity of dance music so much over the past 5 years that it now resembles a husk of what it once was; now it’s some kind of deranged art form built around making the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time in the fear #EDM is some kind of fad about to get kicked to the ground.
Warner Bros. and Studio Canal are now in the boat trying to capitalize on the #EDM machine.
The film, We Are Your Friends, stars Zac Efron, Wes Bentley (that guy who always plays the creepy supporting character), and The Walking Dead‘s Jon Bernthal and presents #EDM in a manner which tries to imitate the purity and simple rush that many of us experienced the first time we were exposed to dance music. Efron plays the male lead, a kid with high hopes of becoming a renowned DJ who gets to go from 125 BPM to 128 BPM all over the world. Along with his buddies, a ragtag group of party promoters, he navigates through California’s electronic music community to follow his dream of making it big, meeting a various array of characters who will serve as bumps in the road ahead of him.
And seeing as it’s a big budget, Hollywoodized version of the struggles DJs go through, he’s more than likely going to rise above it all: just as the hero would in any other underdog story.
The trailer presents a pretty picture for sure: parties, a thumping soundtrack, and tongue-in-cheek sensibility litters the preview like wristbands on the ground at Coachella. However, while the trailer makes the movie out as seeming to try and understand the ethical code of DJs – including a Hallelujah inducing, snarky clip where a female partygoer requests a song which the DJ swiftly shoots down - the filmmakers seemed to have overlooked a major opportunity. The initial trailer gives the impression that much of the idiosyncrasies of dance music culture will be washed away for the sake of fine tuning the film for the basic, modern moviegoer.
In other words, while it may have unique, spot on moments throughout, the film looks like it could be in danger of dumbing down the history and cultural resonance of dance music in order to spoon feed it more easily to a specific demographic; I wouldn’t be surprised if they wind up targeting the 20-something festivalgoer versus the nerdy house fanatic. And while it’s exciting that dance music has gotten to a level which has prompted filmmakers to make a film to join the countless others about hip-hop, rock ‘n’ roll, and the blues, it’s still a tad disappointing to see the struggle of becoming a renowned DJ mitigated to an underdog story (especially one that takes place within the world of the big room, major league, festival #EDM circuit).
Thankfully, the movie is directed by relative unknown director Max Joseph who, in addition to being the man behind the camera for MTV’s Catfish series, he also was the documentarian responsible for 12 Years of DFA, the incredible, introspective documentary about DFA Records from 2013. Hopefully the same regard and respect for the music is a common thread in his big screen debut as a director but, again, seeing as it’s still an initial trailer, we will have to wait and see.
That said: reading a room can be extremely difficult and if Zac Efron can do that as easily as his character can in this movie, kudos to him.
Watch the first trailer for We Are Your Friends below. The film due for release on August 28.