Move Over Pasquale, Elon Musk Is The New Don Of EDM
As if dance music doesn’t already struggle to be taken seriously, Elon Musk has one-upped his budding career as a producer by throwing a rave at the new Tesla Gigafactory in Berlin. The tycoon dropped his first original track, “Don’t Doubt Ur Vibe” on his own Emo G Records imprint back in June 2020 in which he shared he, “wrote the lyrics & performed the vocals!!” So obviously the next logical step was to become a promoter. At least he didn’t book himself to headline.
Musk isn’t the first billionaire to dive into the world of dance music. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon announced in 2019 that he was joining every other cis white male on the planet and sparking a DJ career as DJ D-Sol. Solomon made headlines in 2020 when at the height of the pandemic he performed at a “socially distanced” party in the Hamptons with The Chainsmokers that was under investigation by the New York governor's office for “egregious social distancing violations.”
And who could forget when Ultra Music Festival oddly gave an opening slot to a bizarrely costumed Colonel Sanders, the deceased founder of KFC. We really can’t imagine why people think dance music isn’t real music!
The rave shouldn’t actually come as a surprise. In March 2020, Musk tweeted a poll asking if Tesla should have a mega rave cave under Berlin Gigafactory “with an epic sound system & woofers the size of a car.” The people agreed that it should happen, with a resounding 90.2% approval rate.
On October 9, 2021, Musk made good on his word and threw the Giga County Fair, or “Gigafest.” Nine thousand people showed up, there were food trucks, a Ferris wheel, and even respected performers like Boris Breja. The event also served as a promotional opportunity for the production of Tesla’s electric vehicles. Musk did his best to address the crowd in German, as he answered questions. He mentioned that Tesla’s goal is to replace 1% of the world’s gas guzzlers per year with electric vehicles. Production at the Gigaplant is expected to begin in December.