This was not what usually happens at electronic dance music concerts.

After approximately four hours of non-stop dancing, the Mullins Center went still. Deadmau5, an Electronic Dance Music (EDM) producer, was ending his concert with a projection that read “RIP Bobby Clifford.” An array of lighters glimmered throughout the otherwise dark arena. Just moments before this, the crowd was enthralled in the intricate beats and spectacular light show of Deadmau5, and now they were remembering one of the men responsible for putting the concert together.

Clifford, who passed away in a car crash on Oct. 6, was the promotional director at MASS Electronic Dance Music Community (MASS EDMC) alongside its founder, Adam Liderman. Liderman and Greg Tessitore founded MASS EDMC in 2008 as a company focused on organizing and promoting EDM concerts in the Five College area. EDM is simply an umbrella term that includes sub-genres such as house, techno, dubstep and trance.

The EDM movement originated in the early ’80s and ’90s when underground “raves” tended to be the main platform that electronic music existed on. The Free Dictionary defines raves as, “an all-night dance party where techno, house or other electronically synthesized music is played.” These raves have been historically overwhelmingly associated with drug use, ecstasy being among the most popular. While some of this stigma has faded from electronic music throughout the years, Liderman said, “The generation above us still doesn’t get it.

“When looking at today’s electronic scene, much of the older generation perceives the music and culture only in the context of the seedier elements of the ’90s rave scene,” added Liderman about the stereotypes that come with EDM concerts. “It’s difficult for them to look at the present scene and see beyond what existed in the past.”

Liderman graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He described his company, MASS EDMC, as “all about the music.”

“It’s why I’m now putting on concerts when three years ago I was considering being a lawyer,” said Liderman.

Although he says he has listened to electronic music for as long as he has had a “musical identity,” Liderman’s vision for MASS EDMC started when he was a freshman student at UMass. Fueled by his dislike for the parties on campus at the time, he began putting together his own gatherings that involved electronic music. “Things caught on and eventually I was turning away hundreds of people at the door,” said Liderman.

Liderman had been looking for a business partner for years, and he finally found one this past December when he met Clifford.

“This kid could do everything I could do and more,” said Liderman. “I was the business-minded, reserved one, and he was the totally out-of-the-box creative, open one.”

Bobby and I would run around campus with a boom box and play music and talk to people,” said Liderman. “I like to think that I have a pretty good instinct for who the students want to see.”

Liderman noted that he believes he is tuned into the musical desires of the student body in the Five College area, but do the students agree?

Sarah McGaffigan, a sophomore at UMass, says yes, while voicing her opinion on the stereotypical drug use at EDM concerts.

“I know that there is definitely drug use associated with electronic music, but there is also drug use associated with all types of music genres,” said McGaffigan. “It just seems to be part of the experience of going to see a show.”

“I think MASS EDMC represents the student body very well,” added McGaffigan. “Other music genres have much more selective fans, such as rap and hip hop, but EDM reaches a wider fan base.”

MASS EDMC has recently been very successful in booking EDM artists Tiesto, Deadmau5 and Afrojack at the Mullins Center. According to a statement released by the Mullins Center, both the Tiesto and Deadmau5 concerts were “very well attended and sold extremely well.”

While the lucrative ticket sales are a sign that many agree with McGaffigan, some students feel their voices are not being heard. Katie Lichtenstein, also a sophomore at UMass, said she has not attended any of the MASS EDMC sponsored events because they are “too expensive and all the same.

“It’s all rave-type concerts and to someone who doesn’t know a lot about that kind of music, it’s all the same,” said Lichtenstein. “I like country music so I don’t get anything out of it.”

Furthermore, Lichtenstein commented on the stigma of drug use with EDM concerts in saying, “the atmosphere created by the electronic dance music encourages people to take ecstasy and those kind of drugs.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, The L.A. Memorial Coliseum has now placed a ban on all raves at their concert venue after the death of a 15-year-old girl, who had taken ecstasy at a concert in their venue. The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported in April of this year, that the the Dayglow concert held in the Mullins Center resulted in “…three ambulances brought 16 people to Cooley Dickinson Hospital Friday night, while four ambulances made 13 transports the following night.”

Christina Gregg can be reached at [email protected].