Straight To Ibiza: Inside The Party Capital Of The World
Pitbull’s line in “On the Floor” by JLo still rings loud and clear in my head, thanks to mainstream radio playing the same songs over and over and over again: “Brazil, Morocco, London, straight to Ibiza.” And if you’ve heard Swedish House Mafia’s song ”Miami 2 Ibiza,” or realized that Afrojack’s “Replica” album is called “Sound of Ibiza,” then you may have guessed at some point that Ibiza has some sort of EDM significance.Other notable artists who mention Ibiza in their songs include Vengaboys, Mike Candys, Midnight Beast, and believe it or not, Pink Floyd.
Well, it turns out that this “Ibiza” is in fact a small island off the coast of Spain. But not just any island. It’s the party island. Of the world. Wikipedia offers this: “The relatively small island and its cities have become world-famous for their associations with tourism, nightlife, and the electronic music the island has originated. It is well known for its summer club parties which attract large numbers of tourists.”
Some of the history of Ibiza is actually pretty cool: that is, Ibiza is a major part of the origin of modern dance and electronic music, as well as club scenes. In 1988, Ibiza began to be the dance/electronic club capital of the world, bought strictly for tourism and clubbing. And through the 80′s and 90′s, a new type of electronic music emerged called Balearic Beat/House, also appropriately known as the “sound of Ibiza,” named after none other than the Balearic island of Ibiza. This summer, some of my favorite EDM artists in Ibiza will include:
- Afrojack
- Above & Beyond
- Alesso
- AN21 (Angello’s brother)
- Avicii
- Axwell
- Bob Sinclair
- Benny Benassi
- Bloody Beetroots
- Calvin Harris
- Crookers
- Dada Life
- David Guetta
- Deadmau5
- Fatboy Slim
- Fedde Le Grand
- Felix Da Housecat
- Flux Pavillion
- Hardwell
- Kaskade
- Knife Party
- Laidback Luke
- Martin Solveig
- Max Vangeli
- Nero
- Paul Oakenfold
- Paul van Dyk
- Pete Tong
- Porter Robinson
- Skrillex
- Steve Angello
- Steve Aoki
- Wolfgang Gartner
- Zedd
And now Ibiza is not only home to the biggest EDM concerts in the world, but other genres as well. Not to mention Will.I.Am, Wiz Khalifa and J. Cole at various clubs. Click here for a complete list of all 2012 Ibiza performers broken down by club. Well… Sign me up. I knew clubbing in Spain was already world-renowned, but who knew they had a whole island just for that, with its own unique sound.
Some other cool links to check out:
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