Kandi is making a comeback in our community. There is proof of this everywhere. The week before Resolution, we were hard-pressed to find a simple bag of block letter beads at the local craft store. Rewind a bit, and we find that Hot Topic even started mass producing pre-strung kandi to sell to their customers. But why? What has made this “rave craft” so popular? For those of you who don’t understand it or want to learn more, we have decided to lay it all out in the open.
Hot Topic’s attempt to sell kandi caused some controversy.
[divider]The Breakdown[/divider]
To people outside of our community, a single piece of kandi might look like a child’s art project. To us, it means so much more… Kandi is all about 4 things combined into one acronym: PLUR. Peace, love, unity, and respect. No matter where or when we wear our kandi, chances are we didn’t make it ourselves… When we create a piece of kandi, it is almost always with the intention of giving it away. This creation is not about receiving anything in return and is not (and should not be) created with that expectation. Rather, it is a means of saying “Welcome home. We love you. You belong here. (And we don’t care how well you dance!)”
So let’s get to the point, what happened? Why did kandi begin being sold in our malls at Hot Topic? Why is kandi showing up more often at shows and clubs? Where have all the beads gone?!
Well, we have a theory.
[divider]The Spread of Kandi[/divider]
Right now the country, and even our EDM community, are going through a lot. Every day, we turn on the news only to hear more about the horrible things going on all around us. While EDM has become more popular, a lot of the media coverage surrounding our community has been terribly negative. Local and national new reports constantly are revealing that many of us are overworked, underpaid, trying to find a job, struggling with health problems, or struggling to find a silver lining in some other way; but kandi gives us that silver lining. Kandi connects us.
We’ve seen groups like “Kandi For A Cause” (which sells beautiful kandi creations for donations to various charities) pop up because of this very fact. Something about putting so much meaning into something we created and chose to give to someone else means a lot to people. In a world of technology and fast paced living, we don’t really take as much time to do these things anymore. Not like we should.
This is where all of the beads have gone… and we don’t mind.
On a smaller scale, but still noteworthy, we’ve seen a high rise in ticket prices for events due to the growing popularity of electronic dance music. Just take a look at the recent Ultra ticket price hikes this year… Not to mention, the fact that we are constantly seeing newer and better festivals popping up means we have even more that we are constantly missing out on. Kandi gives us something EDM related to put all of our love, creativity and energy into while we work hard so we can play hard again. We all want to go to every single festival in the world, and many of us try our best, but the truth is it’s impossible. So we cope with kandi.
Hopefully, the kandi revolution continues (outside of the retail setting, of course). We love seeing something so positive growing so quickly. Wouldn’t it be incredible to see a story on the news relating to our community and our music reporting about Kandi For A Cause instead of drugs? Wouldn’t it be amazing if the media chose to focus on stories about our community’s incredible heart instead of their unfortunate mistakes? The kandi revolution is here… are you ready?
Important things happen in Pacific Northwest nightlife, and DMNW will send you alerts!
