A new documentary tracking the origins of dance music culture and the dizzying peaks of the EDM era is coming to streamers.
Waiting for the Drop: Rise of the Superstar DJs features interviews with artists including Carl Cox, Kaskade, Hardwell, Sebastian Ingrosso, Paul Oakenfold, Tiësto, Nervo and Fatboy Slim along with industry figures like Amy Thomson, Stephanie LaFera, James Barton and David Grutman. It also features music by Deadmau5, Tiësto, Ferry Corsten, Hardwell, Arty, Sevenn and Silver Panda.
Waiting for the Drop will be distributed on global digital platforms by Indie Rights, starting with Amazon later this summer.
Made between 2013 and 2023, the doc looks at the rise and fall of dance music in the U.K., the Netherlands and Ibiza in the 1980s and ’90s, then tracks the genre’s explosion in popularity in the early 2010s, an era commonly referred to as the EDM boom.
In this infamous moment, a wave of new dance/electronic sounds and producers took the genre to new heights in the U.S. and beyond, with the genre seeing unprecedented commercial growth, clocking major crossover hits and generating massive revenue, altogether establishing DJs as “the new rockstars.” That is, until the cracks started showing with the collapse of SFX Entertainment, with the doc zeroing in on the impact of greed and social media on the genre and its adjacent culture.
Waiting for the Drop is the directorial debut of journalist and filmmaker Alexei Barrionuevo, who shot the doc at clubs and festivals in Europe and the U.S. at the height of the EDM boom. (Barrionuevo is also a former Billboard staff writer.) Cinematography was done by Darko Nikolich and Lucian Alexandrescu edited and did additional camera work. The film was co-produced by Jalen James Acosta and Agatha Bober.
“EDM was a pivot point in modern youth culture, a time when Millennials, seeking something of their own, seized an opportunity to create a tribe,” Barrionuevo says in a statement. “Crass commercialism infected that celebration as outsiders sought to profit. And the DJs and their enablers, long thirsting for legitimacy and cultural acceptance, leaned in — hard.”
Check out the full trailer for Waiting for the Drop below:
