The idea of dance music having no content - which alot of the time it doesn't - is missing the point, due to the fact that form is content.
a simple "lack" of content is IMO a false, or at least not a very good, focal point for a discussion about the pervasive vacuousness and rabid conservatisim at the heart of dance music culture that more than just this kiran sande or a few others have felt during the past few years or decade.
of course pure formalism is fine. and form is of course content. but what KIND of form and what kind of content? formulaic, regurgitated content fearful of anything that rocks the status quo boat?
of course repetition and minimalism can be used to amazing effect, but 1. that is FAR from the ONLY way to do it, and 2. no one is reinvigorating these methods. House and techno is largely not only repeating that same, once revolutionary, rhythm blueprint since the late 80s, not bringing more life into it in any way, but actively devolving it, making it more watered down, more middle of the road, more bland, more boring.
Phuture, Thomas Brinkmann, Robert Hood, Mills, or any number of real artists who make dance music often work within a strictly formalist setting, yet their work is rich with nuance, with personality, with (formal, musical) IDEAS. and now the world is filled with thousands of Paul Kalkbrenners.
so the problem with dance music today is not "lack of content", rather that it has set into a rigid, established structure, happy to use only the same 2.5 musical ideas among MILLIONS within global dance music history. it has become an establishment which encourages copy-zombies and shuns any kind of difference or innovation. and i know what i'm talking about, all too fucking well - i live in Berlin.
and that's only musically speaking. i have a huge problem with the social vacuousness of a club culture filled with bird-brained promoters and vapid djs pushing an endless parade of tacky vanity and mindless consumption.
Chomsky recently tweeted: "young people don't waste your focus, anger, and libidinal energy on clubbing, save it to fight capitalism".
which is not the whole story of course but rings scarily true: instead of consciousness and vitality, dance music is largely just distraction and pacification.
dance music should make people feel more alive. but if i go to any of the 99% of dance clubs out there, i invariably feel more numb, more lethargic, more dead. the djs and dancers alike joylessly going through the motions.