Electronic Music in the US?

Electronic music is one of the strongest genres of up and coming music in the 21st century.  It has potential to be to the 21st century what Jazz was to the 20th century.  Though it's been around now for about 20+ years, has an incredible audience in Europe and much appreciation in many other countries, the US hasn't opened it's arms to the dance style music like the rest of the world.

This is curious.

In no circumstance am I saying that no one in the US appreciates this form of music. There is definitely an underground electronic scene, however, I am saying to the level of it's intensity and 'importance' in the world of music, it's rarely heard in the US outside of clubs or TV commercials.  I'm willing to bet if you approached 20 people on a US street today, you'd be lucky to find one person could name 3 world famous Djs.

Why is this?  Is it the lack of 'idol' fashion in a Dj/Producer?  Lack of words or vocals in the music?  Perhaps there is not enough star status in the music, suggesting that American's are more attracted to the 'star of the show' rather than the sonic experience.

The music industry has molded the public to appreciate the performance and entertainment of music rather than the music itself.  Long gone are the days of the radio star, the faceless voice of audible expression.  Today we need a person, a representative.  Americans have a hard time finding that in electronic music.  There are rarely words/lyrics to associate with and if there are lyrics they aren't consistently by the same vocalist.  There's not front-man.

The typical 'band' is made up of individuals playing instruments in rhythm and creating a sonic experience for the listener.  This is obvious; in a rock band there is a guitarist responsible for the guitar, drummer for the percussion, vocalist for the singing, etc.  In this situation you can associate sounds with individuals and with faces. 

During the production of pop music today, all the sounds are computer generated and assembled in a studio out of sight of any fan.  Then when performed, the focus is placed on the singer.  Timbaland is a great example of an electronic producer working in the genre of US Pop.  Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake, Akon, Ginuwine, and Madonna have all had tracks produced by Timbaland.  He's a talented creator of many famous tracks that create focus on the singer as the musician rather than the producer.  In the US, these singers/performers are known for their songs, even when the tracks are developed and produced by the nameless musicians in the background.  

This is the same fashion in which electronic songs are created, and then the performer is either the original producer or a Dj that spins the record during one of their performances.  Generally the producer of specific tracks is rarely known by the common listener, however the listener may recognize a specific Dj and associate songs with them.  For example, recently I was talking with someone about a live Tiesto set that I shared with them.  When a certain record was dropped, my friend quickly spoke up, "Oh...I love this song, I didn't know this song was by Tiesto."  Again, the specific producer of the track did not receive credit, but rather the performer.

It seems to me that in America, the art of a musical composition comes second to performance of the musician and Djs simply can't compete with the performance of America's headliners. Djs don't put on enough of a show, and don't offer faces to associate the music with.  Add some flashiness, dancing, model-isque bodies and expensive outfits to those 130 bpm's and perhaps we'll listen.