How Major Lazer changed EDM

Based heavily in Caribbean culture Major Lazer offers a dance party that's a bit more specific than its fist-pumping counterparts.
 "The house music thing exploded two years and now people are looking for something different. ... What we do as Major Lazer, we just incorporate everything. We're just DJs at heart and selectors. We love all kinds of music."

They're constantly looking for ways to reinvent themselves in the how-have-you-impressed-me-lately world they inhabit. Diplo has created some of the most memorable moments in the movement and pop music in general, but he's keenly aware of the tradewinds that can carry you away from the hot molten core of EDM. It's easy to get complacent when you spend your days and nights in front of a computer programming beats.

"Dance music is so interchangeable," Diplo bristled. "There's not a lot of face to it. It's a bunch of Dutch DJs with the same haircut. You go see a dance stage at a fucking dance festival and I'm bored out of my fucking mind. That's not going to last very much longer, because kids see that it's the same shit every single time.

Leacock says the group is blending influences like soca pop music from Trinidad & Tobago and reggae dancehall music from Jamaica with hip-hop dynamics and a DJ's light show.

"There's so much saturation right now in the market," Leacock said. "So you have to put a package out there that makes them say, 'Oh, that really blew my mind."'

Whether it's dancehall, trap or any number of the many interpolations of cultures and sounds that his army of super young artists produce, Diplo maintains that it's authenticity and artistic maturity that make everything come together.