Miami Living Magazine features the best Miami has to offer. Click on any magazine below and enjoy. You can download our free app on iTunes. Ideal for iPad and iPhone users.
Issue link: https://digital.miamilivingmagazine.com/i/1056773
I read that your father was a sociologist. Did his studies and his work have any impact on your life philosophy or anything about how you choose to live your life? DG: It's funny, because my parents were very, very left. And because it was the 1960s, they were hippies. Of course, being a hippy at that time was very common. I was raised like this. So, for me, being rebellious was saying, "I want to be an entrepreneur and I want to make money. I don't want to be like you guys." [Laughs.] I was also super pro-America, and I was only watching American movies and listening to American music. What about things like picking up your father's philosophies on any social causes or on human behavior —things like that? DG: You know, I really hadn't thought about it. Now that you mention it, I would say a lot of the advice I was given stuck with me. Things like believing and treating everyone as equal, and just a certain way of navigating the world, without me even realizing it. What is the difference, culturally, between how your music is received in Europe versus in the states? DG: It's extremely different. There was this magic moment in my career where I brought people together and opened doors for this kind of music in the U.S. with songs like "I Gotta Feeling", "Club Can't Handle Me" and music like that. It was a special moment of pop music that transcended genre, around 2009, 2010, and 2011. Now, in the U.S., it's mainly hip-hop. Among the biggest deejays in Europe, I am probably the one that is in the middle, culture-wise. The bigger deejays in Europe could probably not be as successful in the U.S. Hip-hop has absorbed every culture there was in the United States. Hip-hop stars are the new rock stars in the U.S. They act like it and they dress like it. They don't use the old hip-hop codes; they use the rock 'n' roll codes. I think that kids who would have, in the past, been into rock or alternative music, those same kids today are into hip-hop. They relate to that rebellious, provocative culture. I think it's very interesting how they absorbed this. In Europe, if you want to be cool and different, you would likely be into underground dance music. ML David Guetta's album, 7, is now available on iTunes and at https://davidguetta.lnk.to/ Album7?ref=https://t.co/B2tsQPCnog. Follow him Twitter @davidguetta. Allison Kugel is a syndicated entertainment columnist and author of the book, Journaling Fame: a memoir of a life unhinged and on the record. Follow her on Instagram @theallisonkugel and at AllisonKugel.com.