If you’re unfamiliar with Billboard, it’s a company dedicated to “charting” mainstream music and artists based on sales and plays. (Never mind the songs that actually sound bad) Earlier this week, Billboard announced their 2013 Music Awards finalists, and lo and behold a couple of EDM favorites were mentioned on the list. Before we post the finalists and their respective categories, we should stress as to why this is important. Like we mentioned above, Billboard is a company that follows Mainstream music and artists and their finalists are chosen based on their music sales and plays. Heavy hitters like Skrillex and SHM are not only being recognized for their records but also being chosen to “compete” with mainstream artists like Drake, Nicky Minaj, Taylor Swift, and others. The fact that Swedish House Mafia was nominated despite no long being “together” is pretty incredible and something is to be said of their legacy on the EDM “Scene”.
The clear fact that some of our beloved artists are starting to fall within mainstream “pools” is clearly worrisome, however the silver lining is this: There will always be new, better, music around the corner and it’s up to us(everyone) to come together and support what we love. 
Now for the finalists and their categories:
Skrillex: Top Dance Artist, Top EDM Artist, Top Dance Album, Top EDM Album
Calvin Harris: Top Dance Artist, Top EDM Artist, Top EDM Song
Deadmau5: Top EDM Artist, Top Dance Album, Top EDM Album
Baauer: Top Streaming Artist, Top EDM Song
Swedish House Mafia: Top Dance Artist, Top EDM Artist, Top EDM Album
David Guetta: Top Dance Artist, Top EDM Artist, Top EDM Song, Top Dance Album, Top EDM Album
So what do you, the readers, think is this progression in the right direction, or is everything headed for a collapse?
