Alexander Foing
June 25, 2015

Final Reflective Paper CE
1. Summary of the project that was completed
My project revolved around a research paper/in-depth study of an emerging
genre. This Genre is a relatively new segment of the Electronic Music realm, and
has been coined “Future Bass”. After a lot of buzz in the 2nd half of 2014, I
wanted to see if this scene could become the next big sound, ie. the next
Dubstep, or trap, or a staple like House or Techno.
This case study involved tracking more than 150 artists, collectives, and
labels to measure their individual growth and paint a picture of the exploding
scene. That is to say, this case study was dedicated to illustrating the
metamorphosis of an underground Genre on its way to the mainstream.
This entailed tracking and monitoring various artists/labels over a period of 6
months (from December 2014 to June 2015). I selected 6 relevant geographic
regions that had direct links and gatekeepers (influential artists, labels, blogs) in
the scene, and had around 20 artists represented in each group. These included
Australia, Canada, France, The Netherlands, UK, and USA. My goal was to get a
better grasp of these movements/cultural fads – but also find the underlying
drivers of success in a new digital environment. This environment has
empowered and created a favorable setting for emerging artist to attain high

levels of growth, whether it is through new means of distribution, new marketing
techniques, or because of new gatekeepers.
Due to the heavy quantitative data that has been compiled, I used a
quantitative inductive approach (where data are used to develop theory) in order
to comment on the growth of this evolving sound.

2. Results: how the project did/did not align with expectations
The results of the project were quite interesting. All in all, many of the
artists grew drastically across all platforms, indicative of a growing trend. To
highlight some key examples, there were artists that had more than 200% growth
on the combined growth index model. The artists that experienced these fast
rates of growth include San Holo, Arman Cekin (NL), Oshi, Mura Masa, Troyboi
(UK), Carmada (AUS), Ekali (CAN), and KRNE, Gravez, Ark Patrol (USA). The
record labels/collectives that thrived were Record Record (FR), Soda Island
(CAN), Bitbird, Heroic (NL), Hebinimochi, Moving Castle, and Hegemon
(Worldwide).
Every region that I selected had at least one artist or label experience
extreme growth (> 200%). This confirms that Future Bass is not just a localized
movement, but rather a global phenomenon driven & fueled by the Internet.
Moreover, based on the many averages per platform and per country, it’s safe to
say that there is an overall positive growth trend, with Australia and USA
performing above average. Conversely, Canada and France performed below

average, while UK and Holland yielded neutral results. Lastly, 3 interesting
drivers of growth have been found to increase success & inclusion amongst the
Top 20%. These are the usage of like-gating software, being a member of an
Artist collective/label, and new media fluency (in this case having Instagram).
These are the underlying drivers that have given the scene such amazing growth
in such a short time period.
Regarding shortcomings, things that did not go as planned were some of
the calculations. For the three tests of effectiveness, I realized that a correlation
measurement (regression statistics) would have provided stronger, more reliable
results. However this did not align because the School did not provide SPSS
software that would be able to synthesize and process these types of statistics.
Another shortcoming is that I didn’t have a control Genre or something to
compare the Future Bass numbers with. Instead, I largely worked within the
framework of the genre, using the generated numbers to generate theory
(quantitative inductive approach)

3. Process
To measure the growth and evolution of the genre, I decided to start my
own excel database for research collection purposes. When I started
contemplating my approach, the first hurdle I had to overcome was the artist
selection process. In my opinion, the best way to gage an exploding genre is to
investigate it at the artist level. Since I was no expert in this new genre to begin

with, it took a long time to compile and verify all the names that I would monitor.
After extensive periods searching SoundCloud and Youtube, cross referencing
with blogs and charts, and exploring artist networks I completed my list.
I ended up selecting 6 regions that boasted at least 10+ relevant artists
and other types of links to the Future Bass cosmos. These were Australia,
Canada, Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, and the United States. All these
countries have a rich music history, and in recent times have had a large
influence on electronic music.
Now that the countries and artists had been selected I still needed to
figure out “what” to measure. I ended up looking at all the metrics and found that
more than 90% of all the artists had an active SoundCloud, Facebook, and
Twitter account (the holy trio for an electronic musician). Next, the other two
platforms that were frequently used were Instagram and Youtube. Thus, these
became the 5 main data sources that I would track for each artist.
In terms of the time frame, I began collecting data in December, and knew
that I had around a 6-month period to find trends and explore various sorts of
growth. I collected and journalized the data for each social media platform, and
every artist at the beginning of each month. This way I could see the incremental
growth across all forms of media. Bear in mind that since the scene is still young,
there were many new players that sprang up during the collection period. Thus,
the list of 150 artists and labels was continually updated, with the last injection of

artists on March 1. At the end of the 6 months, I decided the best way to measure
or rank the artists would be to create a combined growth index that took into
account the complete growth across all platforms. The equation I used placed
weights on each of the platforms, with SoundCloud receiving 50%, Twitter 20%,
Facebook 20%, and YouTube and Instagram with 5% each.
To wrap up the quantitative side, I had access to the Next Big Sound
database, which gave me extra layers of data such as Facebook talking about
this, SoundCloud downloads, and YouTube views for selected artists (around
50% of the full excel list). I used these to cross-reference my own database and
formulate some graphs for the results section. In terms of qualitative data I
conducted 3 interviews with people involved in the scene including both artists
and managers.

4. Next steps
The next steps of this project will be to continue the research and extend it
from July – December 2015, in order to have 1 full year’s worth of data. This
means I can let the numbers stabilize, give the genre some more time to reach its
full potential, and more accurately interpret the growth metrics. At the end of the
year, I will have a pretty formed idea of what direction Future Bass is headed. I’ll
also have the option to make visuals or lists based on full year stats. I think blogs
and media outlets will want this kind of information, and I’m pretty sure I’m one of
very few people who will have 1 year’s worth of research on this topic. Same

thing applies to brands, music supervisors, agencies of all kinds; I think they will
cherish the chance to learn about tomorrow’s next crop of artists.
Another topic of further research would be to have a something to
compare the Future Bass genre too, instead of the numbers being all within the
same framework. This would give me another axis to compare the Genre’s
evolution to something else, rather than talking about the evolution based on the
growth of artists within.
Although creating a whole data set of another genre might be a colossal
task, a solution could be to pick another sub-genre or experimental movement
and have a smaller sample size of maybe 40 - 50 artists. I would repeat a similar
methodology measuring the 5 data sources, maybe with different countries, and
possibly with alternative variables.

5. Contribution to the discipline and profession
As I mentioned in my project proposal, there is not enough research being
done in the field of Electronic Music because it moves so rapidly. Especially if we
observe genres and their classification, there is often a barrier and heaps of
misinformation because of the very ambiguous nature of genres, styles, and
emerging sounds. Moreover, it’s really hard to continuously revise standards
when so much content is being created (at professional and amateur levels).
Thus with this information overload, some organization and categorization is
essential for music to be properly consumed.

Therefore, by researching genres my aim was to clarify this grey area in
the EDM theatre. I pretty much documented a Genre that didn’t officially exist yet,
and collected 6 months of data to measure its evolution. At the end of the 6
months, I’m glad to have found and validated some interesting trends and
developments unique to this scene. I’m sure these developments (like-gating,
artist collectives, live streaming) will soon pop up in other genres and will be
applied to different types of music/entertainment.
Furthermore, I think it’s valuable to find and sift through this data since the
music industry is very cyclical, with trends getting recycled all of the time. With
the quick pace at play (even quicker acceleration inside the EDM universe) its
vital to keep tabs so that the industry can see signals/red flags once a movement
reaches critical mass. I’ve also unearthed some of the top talent in the scene,
and I’m confident that some these specimens will become the future headliners
of tomorrow.
Hence, with all the data to back up these profiles, I think I have compiled
an adequate list of key players that will be valuable to brands, music companies,
labels should they choose to connect and engage with a younger demographic.
Given the fact that many of these artists in question are in the beginning of their
careers, it is an apt time for music supervisors, publishers, sponsors, labels,
booking agencies, and advertisers to get the stars of tomorrow while they are still
affordable. Many companies like Red Bull and Vans like to establish long-term

relationships with young emerging artists to develop them, and “hitch a ride”.
With the size and scope of my database, I think I have more than a few relevant
candidates that would excel in this profession.

6. Impact on the student completing the work
This project in a nutshell has been immensely valuable in allowing me to
build a framework of rising Genre. When I started, I was not an expert of Future
Bass. I was comfortable with electronic music, but the evolving Future Bass
sound was a mysterious animal of which I only knew the tip of the iceberg
I knew only a few musicians from select countries, and it wasn’t until I
started researching the artists on a macro-scale that I embraced the community. I
learned a lot about the artistic side of the electronic music, since I was adamantly
following these artists on a month-by-month basis. A main lesson I absorbed is
that an effort should be made not only on the creative side, but also on the
business end of the music creation process. The most successful artists carry
this mentality, and are very entrepreneurial in their approach to marketing their
releases; this means harnessing the direct-to-fan relationship and being open to
new marketing tools such as Like-gating, Instagram, Bandcamp, Snapchat, and
Live Streaming platforms.
Some real interesting things that I came across include that the younger
artists are more adept with social media, and often have an Instagram account to
show for it. For this segment of electronic music, I thought YouTube would be

more popular, however it’s really only the labels and renowned artists with
successful accounts. Lastly, learning about all the relevant gatekeepers (labels
and collectives) in the scene puts me one step ahead of the curve. These new
trends that are happening are strategies that I’ll definitely be considering moving
forward. I’ve realized I am confident that I’ve collected
The main thing I am really taking away from this research project is a story
of growth and opportunity. Indeed, the digital age has empowered net labels and
electronic artists to create, distribute, and market their music without the need of
traditional labels. This has unleashed waves of creativity made possible by the
online mechanisms of YouTube, SoundCloud, iTunes, Spotify and every other
music tech startup from Silicon Valley to Stockholm. It’s now time to catch this
wave and make something of this. Thanks to this Research, I feel I have a good
foundation to take advantage on the creative and business front.

7. Bibliography
No direct sources were used for this Reflective Paper. For a list of sources used
in the Research Process, please consult that Research Paper instead.

8. Appendix
	
  
For visuals and graphs regarding the descriptive results, please resort to the
extended appendix of the actual research paper.