Over the past few decades, Asian artists have steadily expanded their presence in the dance/electronic genre — but it wasn’t always this way.
“I remember when I first got into music in high school, the first thing I did was sing. You just didn’t see Asian singers. You just didn’t see Asian people in music, period, and if you did, they were really quiet,” Steve Aoki recalled in his 2024 Billboard cover story.
The Japanese-American mogul, one of dance music’s most visible, enduring and successful acts of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander (AAPI) descent, has long been vocal about his ethnic group’s historic lack of representation in the arts and entertainment. While Asian artists continue to be a minority within the larger music industry and the dance/electronic sector specifically, the example set by Aoki and other trailblazers, like Chinese-American DJ/producer Henry Fong, has inspired new generations of DJ/producers, illustrating both the power and importance of representation.
Following in the footsteps of those who have come before them, this newer class of Asian DJ/producers — including millennial talents Dabin and Peggy Gou and Gen Z tag team ISOKNOCK — keeps this ripple effect in motion, serving as a beacon of what’s possible for the dance/electronic tastemakers of tomorrow. Together, these multigenerational Asian voices enrich the dance space, infusing their unique perspectives and, sometimes, elements from their native cultures, into their music.
As the Recording Academy takes a global approach to Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, GRAMMY.com highlights both veteran and rising AAPI DJ/producers who are simultaneously advancing dance/electronic artistry and creating a more inclusive future for fellow Asian acts to follow.
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After meeting at California State Polytechnic College, Pomona, Joseph Chung and Joseph Abella built a rapport based on raving and their shared love for dance/electronic music. With a mutual interest in DJing/producing music to boot, it was only a matter of time until they would try their hand at tending the decks. A few local Los Angeles gigs and an Ableton Live license later, and the rest, as they say, was history for ARMNHMR.
For a decade now, the pair of producers, both of AAPI descent (Chung is Korean-American and Abella is Filipino), have lit up dance music’s live circuit with their stadium-sized sound that balances emotional charge with bass. Last year, they landed their first Las Vegas residency (at the Wynn), making them the first Asian-American duo to book a residency in Sin City. ARMNHMR made history twice that year, also becoming the first Asian-American production pair to play Ultra Music Festival Miami.
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Dabin
As a teenager, Dabin immersed himself in instrumentation, learning to play the piano, drums and guitar. This background is precisely what’s enabled him to approach dance/electronic music production with more of a textured, acoustic edge — an anomaly in a space dominated by sleek digital tools.
His distinctive sound and musical ability have won him success in various forms, like the 2018 JUNO Award for Electronic Album of the Year (for his debut LP, Two Hearts) and his supporting role as a guitarist on several of GRAMMY-nominated dance star ILLENIUM‘s tours. As he’s expanded dance music’s scope, Dabin has also shown aspiring artists within the AAPI ethnic group and beyond that DJ/producers can be rock stars, too.
When his career started, apart from Steve Aoki, the Canadian-Korean producer “didn’t really have an Asian role model in the West to look up to,” he told K Pop Concerts. “I’m out here doing it for all of the Asians!”
In the mid-2010s, Elephante was slowly but surely gaining traction through unofficial remixes of popular songs, ranging from Katy Perry‘s “Dark Horse” to Calvin Harris‘ “Summer.” The Taiwanese-American producer’s festival-positioned brand of big room/progressive house attracted thousands of subscribers, providing an audience for the original productions he’d self-release not long after amassing this following.
The release of his debut EP, 2016’s I Am The Elephante, cemented his status as a rising force, but it didn’t just further expand his listenership — it also validated his decision to quit his consulting job at McKinsey & Company in 2013 to pursue music full-time.
Since his breakout, the producer has evolved his emotive and melodic progressive sound across another EP and three albums while establishing himself as an ally of the next generation of AAPI dance acts. Last year, in collaboration with SABAI and Michael Tam, Elephante launched Hidden Horizon, a collective and record label dedicated to uplifting AAPI DJ/producers to drive the dance industry toward a more equitable future.
Henry Fong
A tally of must-know AAPI acts in dance/electronic music would be remiss not to mention Henry Fong. The Chinese-American DJ/producer first began DJing in 2009 after developing a penchant for the genre during his college years. He parlayed his love for it into a hyphy blend of big room, electro, dancehall, and house that became his sonic signature — and has since carried him into his third decade (and counting) in dance music’s ever-evolving landscape.
Throughout his tenure, he’s put out a litany of releases fashioned for the dance floor, signed to Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak Records and recently debuted his new “Night Market” concept. This emergent event series pays homage to Fong’s heritage by hosting Asian food vendors alongside bumping beats of his own, as well as those from rising AAPI selectors in the scene.
ISOKNOCK (ISOxo and knock2)
Though ISOxo and Knock2 have separate, equally illustrious careers, recent years have shown how formidable they are together. Performing as ISOKNOCK since 2019, the Gen Z San Diegoans have produced some of the most propulsive trap music the dance/electronic subgenre has seen in the past decade.
Last year, this tag team brought their collaborative activity to a crescendo with the revelation of their debut album, 4EVR, and a supporting tour that included a stop at Coachella. This year, the duo is poised to up the ante again with the launch of its joint event, Niteharts Fest. From their seismic rise to dance prominence to their reinvigoration of the trap genre, half-Filipino, half-Indonesian producer ISOxo and his Laotian counterpart represent two of dance music’s most successful new Asian acts.
Laidback Luke
In the early 2010s, Laidback Luke was everywhere — literally. The Mixmash Records founder played more than 150 shows in 2010 alone, capitalizing on his prominence at a time when dance music was extra in demand. Today, the Dutch-Filipino house selector continues to command a presence in the dance circuit, where his in-your-face tracks still hit with vigor — a characteristic of his sound that has, quite literally, stood the test of time.
Since he started his career in 1992, Laidback Luke has adapted with the genre, both sonically and otherwise. For example, to offset the stress that comes with being a successful touring act, he’s turned to martial arts, a physical discipline with roots in AAPI culture. From taking his kung fu instructor on the road with him to winning double-digit medals at the Kung Fu World Championships, Laidback Luke has been a powerful example of how dance music can intersect with one’s heritage.
“Growing up, I didn’t see a lot of Asian DJs, but I am super grateful for some of the few that rose to the ranks, like Steve Aoki, Laidback Luke… I’ve kind of realized what responsibility I have as an Asian DJ. I think that inspiration is so important, especially in the arts, because it’s a way for us to express ourselves,” Manila Killa recently told the Recording Academy.
The Filipino-American musician, who takes his stage name from his birthplace — Manila, the capital of the Philippines — has followed in the footsteps of the few AAPI artists whose presence in the dance genre showed him that he, too, could one day have a career in it. This positive feedback loop continues with him.
After cutting his teeth as one-half of the high-achieving house duo Hotel Garuda in 2014, Manila Killa later turned his focus to his solo project. He’s since nabbed slots at major North American events, like Ultra Music Festival Miami and 88rising’s celebrated Head in the Clouds festival, which features musicians across the Asian diaspora. In this time, his name, lush sound and influence have transcended dance circles alone, thanks in part to official remixes for artists like Chvrches and The Knocks.
Peggy Gou
Intermingling futuristic, nostalgic sounds with ’90s influence, Peggy Gou’s music carries a true sense of inimitability. It deepens with the touches of Korean culture she adds to her tracks, like “It Makes You Forget (Itgehane),” on which she sings in her native language, and “Hungboo,” the first song she ever made, named for the hero of a Korean fairytale.
Her steady efforts and stylish sound have thrust her into the spotlight. In 2018, she fulfilled her goal of becoming the first South Korean DJ to play Germany’s famed Berghain nightclub; in 2019, Forbes featured her on its “30 Under 30: Entertainment & Sports” list. But it wasn’t until 2023 that Gou would effectively blow up, thanks to a viral TikTok of the producer playing her then-unreleased song, “(It Goes Like) Nanana,” at sundown in Morocco. The song went on to become the lead single of her debut album, I Hear You, released last May.
But Gou hasn’t just used the limelight to aggrandize her own career. As she’s realized her own firsts, she’s simultaneously facilitated them for artists across ethnic groups. Her label, Gudu Records, hosts a global slate of talent, including acts from South Korea and Indonesia.
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Shortly after completing audio engineering school, Canadian-Thai producer SABAI joined the operations team at Vancouver-based electronic music label Monstercat. His employment didn’t give him an advantage when it came to signing his music to Monstercat, though — in fact, it took SABAI nearly five years to land his first single on the label. But now, he’s one of dance music’s most compelling newer voices.
Since making his Monstercat debut with “Million Days” in 2020, he’s put out his debut album (2024’s North Star) and established a presence in the global dance market, headlining shows and performing at major festivals stateside and around the world, including in China and Thailand. Along the way, he’s balanced making his signature melodic dreamscapes with creating opportunities for fledgling Asian and AAPI DJ/producers by co-founding the Hidden Horizon collective.
Steve Aoki
After nearly 30 years in music, Steve Aoki is still hurling cakes into crowds — and breaking barriers for AAPI artists. A larger-than-life personality with a stamina that trumps even that of the Energizer Bunny, the Japanese-American dynamo has been on a tear ever since he entered the dance/electronic space.
His track record speaks for itself: Over the course of his career, he’s amassed close to 3 billion streams, scored 10-plus Top 10 radio singles and has performed at nearly every major festival in the world, netting him the Guinness World Record for “Most Traveled Musician in a Single Calendar Year.”
To date, he’s also released a staggering nine albums, five EPs and more than 100 singles, mostly on Dim Mak Records, the label, events company, and lifestyle brand he founded as a college student in 1996. And like its label head, Dim Mak (which is currently home to a multigenre roster of artists, including Laidback Luke and Henry Fong) is still going strong. With stats like these, it’s no wonder why Aoki is widely credited as one of the first AAPI DJ/producers to achieve major success in the global dance scene — a legacy he continues to write while inspiring creatives across musical genres, artistic mediums and ultimately, generations.
In 2019, Korean-American artist TOKiMONSTA became the first Asian-American producer to be nominated in the Best Dance/Electronic Album Category at the GRAMMY Awards (for Lune Rouge), but it wasn’t the first time the second-generation Korean-American talent had made history. The California native, whose stage name borrows from the Korean word for rabbit (tokki), was also the first woman to sign to Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label, deepening her role as an influential figure not just for musicians in general, but for AAPI and women artists specifically — two minority groups in dance music.
Along with facing ethnic- and gender-related adversity, TOKiMONSTA has endured life-changing medical challenges. Shortly after being diagnosed with Moyamoya disease in 2015, she underwent two brain surgeries that left her unable to talk, write or understand music or speech. Though the road to recovery was slow and painstaking, TOKiMONSTA miraculously re-taught herself each function and has since resumed making her laidback, textured and melodious strain of dance music.
TOKiMONSTA’s latest album, Eternal Reverie, arrived in March via her Young Art Records imprint, which turned 10 in 2024. Through her label and her own music, TOKiMONSTA continues to inspire and champion the next wave of fellow genre-benders in the Asian community and beyond.
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ZHU
In ZHU’s earliest days, virtually nothing was known about the enigmatic mind behind the project. As “Faded,” the lead single from ZHU‘s debut EP, The Nightday (2014), raced up the charts amid its christening as a Pete Tong “Essential New Tune” on BBC Radio 1, everyone wanted to know: Who was ZHU?
His manager, Jake Udell, attributed the decision to maintain anonymity to race. “Some of us don’t even know the limitations of our own prejudice. Rather than put those limitations to the test, we’ve created an engaging way for fans to focus on the music rather than who’s behind it,” Udell told Billboard in 2014.
One year later, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the mononymous act revealed himself to be Steven Zhu, a then-25-year-old Chinese-American from the Bay Area. In the decade since, ZHU has become one of the most successful Asian-American DJ/producers thanks to his sensual, dark grooves, as well as his fluid work with fellow artists across genres (Tame Impala, Majid Jordan) and innovation spanning creative industries, fashion (he launched his rave-inspired clothing brand, NIGHTDAY, in 2023) and film included.
In February, he premiered “24 Hours of Grace,” a documentary chronicling the making of his fourth studio album, GRACE (2024), at SXSW. ZHU was the feature’s director, producer and screenwriter, illustrating his dynamic audiovisual storytelling capabilities. The multihyphenate continues to put these talents on display not only via his main artist project but also through his techno alias, BLACKLIZT — inspiring a new generation of artists to blur boundaries and create boldly across mediums.
AAPI Heritage Month: Celebrate The Diversity Of The Asian, Asian American & Pacific Islander Music Community
