music-lead-570.jpg
  • Kelly O

Rolling Stone confirms what we’ve thought about Seattle promoter/DJ/musician Sean Horton for over a decade: He’s a crucial catalyst for bringing world-class electronic-music talent to our city via Decibel Festival and many other events. He has played a huge role in making Seattle an essential node on the global electronic-music circuit. In a recently posted list of the 50 most important people in EDM (compiled by three writers, including former Stranger contributor Michaelangelo Matos), Rolling Stone placed Horton at #43, in between Interscope’s dance-music A&R man Dave Rene and Paxahau’s Jason Huvaere and Sam Fotias, who run Detroit’s Movement festival.

As with any list of this nature, there are several righteous inclusions and many dubious ones—and a lot of businesspeople you've probably never heard of (do you know #1 pick, James Barton of Live Nation?), reflecting how massive of a cash cow this music has become. And you could kill a couple hours thinking about the exclusions, if you really wanted to. But no matter your quibbles with the selections, Horton belongs here—even if he can’t stand the term “EDM.”

Horton and co. are putting on more events than ever—including tonight's Nils Frahm performance at Triple Door—leading up to the 11th annual Decibel Festival, which happens Sept. 24-28 at several Seattle venues. Congratulations, Sean.