Depends which music festivals you hit up I guess. But I can totally understand. Now a days, especially at North American festivals, if you aren't into EDM, you're going to feel ''left out''.
Also this is my ''old man yells at cloud rant'' when it comes to EDM. I hate the term EDM because everyone thinks it covers all of dance music, which is completely false. EDM most people think of today really refers to the festival big room house sound. The same simple beat/bassline over and over again. Little percussion and rhythm. The same god damned snare sound with every 16 beat sequence. Simple ''scratchy' synths, with cheesy vocals in the buildups. Rinse, and repeat over. Look up anything by Dmitri Vegas, W&W or Hardwell. Sadly these are some of the faces of dance music these days.
Here is an example of the cookie cutter sound. Same crap over and over again.
https://soundcloud.com/daleri/epic-mashleg
As someone who's been a fan of dance music (the proper term) for 2 decades, the EDM fad which has exploded onto the American music scene is the worst thing to happen to dance music in a long time. Even the hardcore fans and djs/producers themselves are sick of it. Big room is an embarrassment to the dance music culture and scene. Similar to how hip-hop seems to have lost the originality it once had and is now the same old cheesy robot voiced rappers rapping about twitter and hoes. It's all simple, generic cookie cutter crap that caters to the younger crowd because it's easy to listen to and it makes money. If you've never heard it before and go to your first dance festival, you'll probably end up liking it because it's so simple to absorb.
Having said that, it suits festivals perfectly. It's energetic and really puts an emphasis on the ''oomph'' factor. It's not really dancing music. It's jumping music. And because of that, that's why it's mostly what you hear at North American dance festivals. Head over to Europe for some of their festivals and you don't hear that garbage as much as you do over here.
Polak said most of the EDM DJ's at Coachella aren't big room guys. But that is exactly what they will play. They will cater to what they think the American EDM market wants. You'll want to head to the other dance (not EDM) tents to hear the real sound of dance music. EDM might have taken over North America, but don't be fooled into thinking it's taken over where it really matters: in Europe.
Carl Cox, probably the biggest pioneer and most successful DJ of all time, says it best
Big room is a topic me and my friends talk about over and over and just how it's ripping the music apart and how it's best to avoid it and stick with the underground stuff. IMO That's where the real dance music is found. It's soulful, has rhythm, and you can hear the passion that was put into the track when it was produced. That's what dance music is all about. I can't wait for the EDM faze to fade out. Dance music as a whole will be much better for it.
/old man cloud rant