Monday, February 24, 2014 • Page 10
ARTS & Life
Editor: Tatiana Tomich arts@wildcat.arizona.edu (520) 621-3106 twitter.com/dailywildcat
12th planet rocks Rialto Renowned dubstep DJ talks to the Wildcat about the progression of electronic music following his performance at The Rialto on Friday night
seen commercials, we’ve seen Super Bowl commercials, we’ve seen major fashion shows be dedicated to that kind of sound.” Back before Dadzie even became 12th John Dadzie, also known as electronic music producer and DJ 12th Planet, sat in a Planet (he produced drums and bass under small, dingy room down a hallway from The the alias “Infiltrata” until roughly 2006), Rialto Theatre’s green room. He observed that dubstep was decidedly niche. “It’s really cool to see the progression,” this was a prime location for an interview, that the rectangular room’s “impulse response Dadzie said. “From what I remember [of] dubstep … [it was] just 90 people in the club [was] awesome.” Even before he took the stage, he was and 80 of them are dudes, and all of them are producers. To go from that to neon-wearing already into the UA spirit. “Go Wildcats, although one of the members motherfuckers at the rave and cowboy on the Smog City Tour is a Sun Devil, and Clydesdale boots, furry boots — there’s he will hate the fact that I actually said that,” nothing wrong with that.” The outfits that Dadzie alludes to are now Dadzie said, referring to Protohype, a fellow DJ/producer who played immediately before a staple of any electronic music show, and Friday’s performance proved Dadzie’s set. no different. The most colorful Halfway through his concertgoer was a young man performance on Friday, Between the decked out in a rainbow of though, Protohype made years of 2013 Kandi (bracelets made out of the bold declaration to the and 2014 we’ve beads) with an orange mask Tucson crowd that he hailed seen dubstep made out of beads and red and from ASU. He was met with infiltrate major orange fur pants that made an unsurprising flurry of boos him look like a spray-painted and middle fingers, but after corporate Chewbacca. claiming that he just wanted marketing. Having produced and DJ’d to party and be a Wildcat — John Dadzie, 12th Planet music professionally for 15 for a night, he won over the years, Dadzie has been a begrudging crowd. witness to the perpetual ebb It was a night of thudding beats and blaring bass music as the hard hitters and flow of dance music. He cited 1996-2000 of Dadzie’s Smog Records took over The Rialto as the real “coming out party” for electronic on Friday night for the Smog City Tour. Doors dance music, and said he notices similarities opened at 9 p.m. and concertgoers were first between then and now. “I think it really got embraced by the youth greeted by opening act Steady. After Steady came SPL, then Antiserum, then Protohype and college culture starting then, and even and then, at 12:45 a.m., 12th Planet himself more so now, especially fraternities that are on college campuses,” Dadzie said. “Since took over to close out. At the end of the last decade, dubstep 2010, 2009, this is the first time we’ve seen exploded into the mainstream. The subgenre fraternities embrace rave culture.” Around 1:50 a.m. on Saturday, 12th Planet is not simply relevant to mainstream music, concluded his set and has left the stage. but also to mainstream culture. “Between the years of 2010 and 2014, Some of the audience members began a “one we’ve seen dubstep infiltrate major more song” chant, and, despite someone corporate marketing,” Dadzie said. “We’ve on crew trying to cut them off, Dadzie leapt BY Alex guyton
The Daily Wildcat
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Comcast buys Time Warner BY taylor armosino
The Daily Wildcat
Earlier this month, Comcast announced it had agreed to buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion. The deal will have to be approved by the federal government, which is no guarantee. Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said he expects that the merger will be approved. But no changes would be immediate, as the regulatory review process generally takes a long time to complete. For example, Comcast acquired NBCUniversal in 2009, but the regulatory review process took 13 months. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the merger would increase Comcast’s subscriber base from 22 million to 33 million homes, an increase of 50 percent. It would also make Comcast the largest residential broadband provider in the U.S.
Reaction has been mixed in the days following the announcement. It has long been thought that the cable industry would benefit from more competition, not less of it. However, the two companies largely operate in different U.S. markets, so the merger likely wouldn’t be the monopolistic competition killer some are fearing. But there are legitimate concerns about unsatisfactory service. Cable companies notoriously struggle with consumer satisfaction. With a giant merger like this, there would be many moving pieces — especially early in the process. Consumers would likely experience short-term hiccups in service until the dust from the merger settles, but given Comcast’s vast resources, there is no reason why it shouldn’t be able to improve customer service. There are also concerns about whether already rising prices would skyrocket, now that the mega-
alex guyton/The Daily Wildcat
John Dadzie, also known as electronic music producer and DJ 12th Planet, played dubstep and other bass music at The Rialto Theatre on Friday.
back on stage and blasted Doctor P’s remix of the Tetris theme. When the bass dropped, Dadzie launched himself into the crowd, a crowd that might not have been as large several years ago. “I do not have an opinion whether or not EDM is mainstream,” Dadzie said. “I root
for the success of all of the people who are in the culture and that are pushing the music, pushing the boundaries.”
Comcast’s biggest gain from company owns a vast majority of the cable and broadband markets. But the merger would be its increased again, the two companies primarily negotiating leverage when dealing serve different geographic locations. with television networks, content Cable and broadband prices have providers, regulators and more. been increasing for years and that’s In these sorts of negotiations, size likely to continue, but it’s unknown and customer base are inherently important. By absorbing Time whether that increase will accelerate. customers, Comcast Cable’s biggest competitors right Warner’s now are online subscription services would have the upper hand at any like Netflix and Hulu Plus. Comcast negotiating table. With this sort of power, Comcast has its own would be better online streaming able to dictate service, Xfinity TV, Cable is an the price of which will now industry that has programming be accessible to long been thought when hashing 50 percent more of as one that needs out contracts subscribers. As with content the market shifts, more competition, providers. Comcast has done not less of it. Last year, CBS well to change its and Time Warner business strategy. were involved in However, Xfinity TV a pricing dispute. and its on-demand services are clunky and are not held in CBS demanded that Time Warner high regard by consumers. With many pay more for its content, raising the new subscribers potentially gaining price from 50 cents per subscriber per access to these services, the company month to $2. CBS’ rationale was that is likely to significantly improve them it was much more valuable than other — or at least to try. Comcast may not cable networks, such as TNT or USA, undercut competitors like Netflix and because of its high primetime ratings Amazon, but it won’t be left in the and license to carry NFL games. Time Warner went a month with CBS dust, either.
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— Follow Alex Guyton @TDWildcatFilm
blacked out on the air, but ultimately gave in as football season approached. CBS got its price and went relatively unscathed. Time Warner lost about 300,000 subscribers. Disputes like that wouldn’t happen with a new and improved Comcast. It would have more leverage over content providers and thus could hypothetically end up offering lower prices to its customers. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen. There is no denying that the big winner in this merger would be Comcast. It would gain millions of new subscribers in new markets and big-time negotiating leverage. However, this merger may not result in the doomsday scenario that some are predicting. Although the cable industry as a whole could use more competition, Comcast wouldn’t exactly monopolize the market, given that it would be entering geographic locations from which it was previously absent. It would be more powerful and will have a wider reach, but the move would hardly puts its competitors out of business. — Follow Taylor Armosino @tarmosino
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