''What We Started'' is an American documentary film about electronic dance music that premiered on June 15, 2017, at the

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

. The film is directed by Bert Marcus and Cyrus Saidi and produced by Bert Marcus, Cassandra Hamar, Cyrus Saidi and Bert Marcus Productions.

Background

The film chronicles three decades of electronic dance music by focusing on the careers of

Carl Cox Carl Cox (born 29 July 1962) is a British house and techno club DJ, as well as radio DJ and record producer. He is based in Hove, Sussex, England. Cox has won and been nominated for numerous awards. He has performed at numerous clubs and ele ...

and

Martin Garrix Martijn Gerard Garritsen (; born 14 May 1996), known professionally as Martin Garrix and also as Ytram and GRX, is a Dutch disc jockey and music producer who was ranked number one on ''DJ Mag''s Top 100 DJs list for three consecutive years—201 ...

. It also includes other individuals such as

Erick Morillo Erick Morillo (March 26, 1971 – September 1, 2020) was a Colombian-American disc jockey, music producer, and record label owner. Having produced under a number of pseudonyms, including Ministers de la Funk, The Dronez, RAW, Smooth Touch, RBM, D ...

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

Steve Angello Steven Patrik Josefsson Fragogiannis ( el, Στέφεν Πάτρικ Γιόζεφσον Φραγκόγιαννης; born 22 November 1982), better known by his stage name Steve Angello, is a Greek-Swedish DJ, record producer, remixer and record ...

Afrojack Nick Leonardus van de Wall (; born 9 September 1987), better known as Afrojack, is a Dutch DJ, music producer and remixer from Spijkenisse, South Holland. In 2007, he founded the record label Wall Recordings; his debut album '' Forget the World' ...

, Tiesto, Usher and Ed Sheeran. The film consists of interviews with artists involved with EDM's pervasiveness in pop culture. The documentary begins with Carl Cox who walked around the empty cavern of Space in Ibiza, the nightclub where he had served as resident DJ since 2001.

Cast

* Chip Eberhart *

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

* Louis Vega *

Paul Oakenfold Paul Mark Oakenfold (born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Mass ...

Pete Tong Peter Michael Tong, (born 30 July 1960) is an English disc jockey who works for BBC Radio 1. He is the host of programmes such as ''Essential Mix'' and ''Essential Selection'' on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio stre ...

Tiësto Tijs Michiel Verwest (; born 17 January 1969), known professionally as Tiësto ( ), is a Dutch DJ and music producer from Breda. He was voted "the Greatest DJ of All Time" by '' Mix'' magazine in a 2010/2011 poll amongst fans. In 2013, he was ...

Usher Raymond Usher Raymond IV (born October 14, 1978) is an American R&B singer. He was born in Dallas, Texas, but raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, until moving to Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of 12, his mother put him in local singing competitions befo ...

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 20 reviews, as of April 2020. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100 (as of December 2019), indicating "mixed or average reviews", based five reviews. A review in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

described the film's protagonists as "gush ngabout the genre’s milestones and metaphorically high-fiv ngone another while trying not to bore the uninitiated into a drugless stupor". While commending the film for " ryingto present an accessible history of electronic music", it criticized it for its "subcultural cliquishness" and described it as promotional of the

Ultra Music Festival Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an annual outdoor electronic music festival that takes place during March in Miami, Florida, United States. The festival was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes. It was first held on Miami Beach, bu ...

. A review on EDMtunes.com called it "the premier film on Electronic Music history" and "a film that speaks to all dance music enthusiasts." The website

Dancing Astronaut Dancing Astronaut is an American media platform founded in 2009 that primarily covers the electronic dance music industry. The website covers concerts and festivals, reports on entertainment news, reviews music, and publishes original content sy ...

described it as a "dance music film that gets it right." ''The Nocturnal Times'' stated that "What We Started is the best electronic music film of our time, offering a precisely accurate adaptation of the rapidly growing electronic scene and its worldwide domination," and that the film "gets it all right." One reviewer notes that "as one watches WHAT WE STARTED, one of the striking elements which rings forth is the idea of "resiliency", and that "thanks to detailed research and a self-imposed mantra to remain unbiased in the presentation of the documentary, the filmmakers peel back the glossy layers of bright lights and enthusiastic concerts and delve into the darker aspects of culture that all but wiped out EDM prior to its rebirth and resurgence."

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

criticized ''What We Started'' for a lack of focus and a short attention span ("what works in a nightclub set doesn't always work in a film"), and called it "an entertaining survey of how far the music has come" which however "rarely manages to dig below the surface to the art vs. commerce dilemmas that seem to lie at the heart of some of the genre’s biggest flashpoints." Nerd Reactor gave the film 4/5 stars, stating that it "may have its flaws but it’s a fun dynamic ride through the history of EDM". Your EDM called it "brilliant." A review from Quelle Movies rated the film 8 out of 10, “tell a thorough and solid chronicle of EDM’s journey that entices both the fan and the non-initiated” Film Frenzy rated them 3 out of 4 and stated it as “an illuminating and entertaining documentary.”. When the film was released on Netflix on July 1, 2018, it received several other positive blog reviews. Film Inquiry opined that "films like What We Started, are a really big deal...It melds our generations through what we have in common, instead of what is different." Uncle Barky stated that it is "a trip well worth taking, whether you’re a devotee of EDM or a neophyte..."

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

called it "a decent, comprehensive account of dance music’s evolution."

Background

Cast

Reception

References

Further reading