How do you keep spectators warm on a Colorado winter night? Make them dance. Run the Jewels, Nas, and deadmau5 will headline the 2016 Aspen X Games.
Including music into the extreme events coming up this weekend has proven a tried and true way to spread hype and earn profits. $150 buys you an All-Music pass for the six concerts, including Kygo, DJ Snake, and Twenty One Pilots in addition to the headliners.
The choice of music, however, has become a point of issue for some fans and athletes.
"We are the worst generation," said professional snowboarder Danny Davis according to Westword, "Eighties music sucks. Nineties music sucks. But it's better than this. Our generation sucks."
At 27, Davis has competed in professional snowboarding events such as the Dew Tour, the X Games, the Grand Prix, and the Olympics for over 10 years.
"Newer bands just don't do it the same," continued Davis. "I just like live music. When I go to see a show, I like to see a show. I'm not super interested in buttons being pushed."
Davis sums up the attitude of a vocal minority in commercial who feel alienated by a certain degree of inauthenticity in the music that X Games organizers have paired with the sporting event.
The annual event run by ESPN appears to have found its groove. For the past few years, they have combined electronic dance music with hip hop. At the 2015 Aspen Winter X Games, headliners included Snoop Dogg, Chromeo, Skrillex, and Wiz Khalifa.
