Kaskade Comes Out On Top in 2011

There is no doubt that the year 2011 was the year of Ryan Raddon, or as he’s better known by his stage name Kaskade. Last year stood at forefront of the electronica wave movement, taking center stage on some of the past year’s biggest dance music stories.

By the end of 2011, he was reportedly commanding up to six figures per gig and dominating international airwaves after the release of his double album, “Fire & Ice,” landing in the Billboard Top 20. Deemed DJ Times best DJ in the world, he headlined global festivals, including the groundbreaking IDentity dance tour.

But not all press was good press for the American DJ last year. In July, at the L.A. premiere of a documentary film on the Electric Daisy Carnival, Kaskade tweeted that he would be spinning atop an ad-hoc mobile stage on Hollywood Boulevard.

His tweet “ME+BIG SPEAKERS+MUSIC+BLOCK PARTY!!!” brought thousands of fans to the street, leading to a confrontation with police and a shutdown of the boulevard. The media had dubbed it a “riot.”

“It was disappointing on so many levels,” said Raddon. “It was a bummer how it got played in the media. I always get angry when people take dance music out to be something cheap, where they think it’s all about drugs or no one would come.”

Luckily for Raddon, the mishap didn’t deter his demand as a DJ or his mission to change dance music’s decadent reputation into something more wholesome.

He has already had a great start in this upcoming year with two headlining New Year’s Eve performances: one at the White Wonderland rave in Anaheim and the other at the Marquee in Las Vegas, where he has a year-long monthly club residency.

“It’s still shocking to me to see this acceptance,” Raddon says of his popularity. “I love this music so much, and I didn’t think this day was coming.”

Read the full article over at the LA Times