The Grammys announce 2013 nominees, Diplo receives Producer of the Year nod
Dance music's presence in last year's Grammy awards was undeniable, marking the first time a DJ had been nominated for the Best New Artist category. The DJs and producers who were big in our world had finally crossed over into mainstream relevance by way of Skrillex's five nominations and three wins. Although there doesn't seem to be any milestone entries this year, Diplo's nomination for Best Producer is an accolade that is long overdue. Only three highly-recognizable dance music artists were nominated in 2012, but this time around there's a much healthier selection. But does anyone know who the hell Al Walser is? or did we just get trolled by the Grammys?
DANCE (RED) SAVE LIVES this World AIDS Day – Live from Stereosonic, Melbourne 2012
This weekend at the Stereosonic Music Festival in Melbourne, Australia, Tiesto and a number of other big name dance music acts will be performing in celebration and honor of World AIDS Day and in collaboration with (RED) and the continued attempt to raise awareness for the transmission, treatment, and elimination of HIV around the world. Dancing Astronaut is lucky enough to host the live stream today, beginning at 3PM EST.
Diplo shares his Kingston dancehall diaries with Vanity Fair
Diplo, progenitor of a more globally-minded form of dance music, has kept a bit of a running travel log with Vanity Fair over the last year or so. In his latest installment, the American producer and DJ steps out into the world of dancehall in Kingston, Jamaica with photographer Shane McCauley. Dancehall, in case you're unfamiliar, is a "beat-heavy descendant of reggae" as Vanity Fair puts it. Diplo seems to travel back and forth between Jamaica and his home base in LA to work on new music with quite some frequency and he writes to us in his latest photo essay of the scene's intricacies and main characters. Check out some of the photos below and click through to see the full slideshow on Vanity Fair.