Rage Against The Mainstream

Who sets the rules in music?
Imagined by TIMES, la Gaîté Lyrique, and Tracks ARTE.

Rage Against the Mainstream is a series of talks offering a critical examination of the concept of ‘global music’, which is often presented as inclusive yet is shaped by the dynamics of standardisation, exoticisation and, at times, cultural domination.

What are the new rules of the mainstream?

At a time when a song can go viral within hours, the music industry is no longer the sole driving force behind the music that gets people dancing around the world.

Are European diasporas helping to challenge Western dominance in music? Does an artist need to be understood by everyone to be heard everywhere? What explains the resurgence of traditional or folk sounds in contemporary music?

Rage Against the Mainstream gives a voice to artists, researchers, journalists, and cultural actors from across Europe and beyond who view music as a space of resistance, friction, and dissent. Rather than rejecting the mainstream outright, the project seeks to expose its underlying mechanisms, including its implicit norms, dominant aesthetics and postcolonial blind spots.

Trad Futurism: Is Music’s Future Hyperlocal?

09/04/206
Gaîté Lyrique

Are we witnessing the decline of standardised Western pop music? How will the music of the future draw on the past? What if the future of global music lies in reinventing tradition?

With: NZIRIA (experimental project of the artist and DJ Tulia Benedicta)
Hmenou (Tunisian artist and producer based in Marseille)
Łukasz Warna-Wiesławski (curator, music journalist, publicist, label owner and DJ)
Moderation by Tracks ARTE.

Club Caribe : The Explosion of Latino-Caribbean Electronic Music

16/05/206
Nuits sonores Festival

“Now everyone wants to be Latino, but they lack spice, battery and reggaeton,” sings Bad Bunny. As Latin American music jumps to the top of global charts, alternative electronic scenes from the region are also finding new audiences around the world. Their history, however, is decades-old. Notably in Spanish-speaking Caribbean areas, the cradle of countless musical traditions.

From raptor house born in the barrios of Caracas, in Venezuela, to tracks inspired by Colombia’s North Coast’s picó culture : how do electronic music producers create new sounds while keeping true to their roots and identity?

With: DJ Babatr (artist)
Edna Martinez (artist, producer, and DJ)
BClip (artist)
Moderation : Daphnée Denis (Tracks | ARTE)

Decolonizing the Dancefloor
(Talk & Screening)

11/06/206
Gaîté Lyrique

In the face of an increasingly standardised club scene dominated by techno and mainstream pop, a number of collectives are shaking up the dancefloor. They are creating transcultural club spaces that challenge the dominance of Western music and seek to attract audiences beyond their own communities. Examples include Vietnamese vinahouse in London, budots in Amsterdam, remixed way way in Marseille, and neoperreo and merengue nights in Paris. These scenes are disrupting clubbing habits and expanding musical horizons.

How can these musical scenes be nurtured and sustained without reducing them to cultural stereotypes or over-simplifying them? Can these parties and collectives ultimately influence mainstream club culture?

With: Claudia Rivera (content creator based in Paris and the founder of Lo Nuestro)
Haroun Ben Hmida (also known as D3MOR, the founder of Radio Flouka and Flouka Records)
Fanny Viguier et Vincent Frédéric-Colombo (LA CREOLE, multidisciplinary collective)
Moderation: Tracks / Paul Burgaud