Deadmau5 Doesn’t Do Ice Bucket Challenge, Donates $10,000 Instead
Deadmau5 without a doubt is one of the most outspoken EDM artists today. As many artists begin to take the #ALSIceBucketChallenge, Deadmau5 tweeted “Who knew dumping buckets of ice cured Lou Gehrig’s disease.” Instead Deadmau5 has decided to donate $10,000 to the ALS Association.
Who knew dumping buckets of ice cured Lou Gehrig’s disease. And all this time, i thought stupid things like “research” helped…
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) August 18, 2014
Who knew dumping buckets of ice cured Lou Gehrig’s disease. And all this time, i thought stupid things like “research” helped…
— Goat lord (@deadmau5) August 18, 2014
…so on that note, i’ll be donating 10k to Lou Gehrig’s disease research while the rest of the circus does fuck all.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) August 18, 2014
…so on that note, i’ll be donating 10k to Lou Gehrig’s disease research while the rest of the circus does fuck all.
— Goat lord (@deadmau5) August 18, 2014
…and email has been sent to accounting n stuff.. feels good 😀 … and… I’m totally dry. 😀
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) August 18, 2014
…and email has been sent to accounting n stuff.. feels good 😀 … and… I’m totally dry. 😀
— Goat lord (@deadmau5) August 18, 2014
>> Also Watch: Martin Garrix Does The Ice Bucket Challenge, Nominates The King <<
Deadmau5, real name Joel Zimmerman, has never been shy about saying exactly what's on his mind on Twitter, and the Ice Bucket Challenge was no exception. The challenge itself had exploded across social media that August, with everyone from tech CEOs to A-list celebrities filming themselves dumping ice water over their heads to raise awareness — and money — for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), a progressive neurodegenerative disease with no cure. The gimmick worked: the viral campaign ended up raising tens of millions of dollars for the ALS Association over the course of that summer, a number that continued to be cited for years afterward as one of the more successful viral fundraising moments in internet history.
Deadmau5's take was pretty on-brand for him — skeptical of the theatrics but not actually opposed to the cause, since he backed up the snark with an actual four-figure donation instead of a bucket of ice. It's worth noting his tweets are a little rougher around the edges than most artist statements that make it onto a blog, but that bluntness has always been part of his appeal; Deadmau5 built a reputation as one of dance music's most unfiltered voices long before this particular Twitter thread, and this was just one more example of him cutting through a viral trend with a joke and a check instead of a video.
Plenty of other dance music artists ended up doing their own version of the challenge that same week, ice water and all — including, as linked above, Martin Garrix, who did the challenge himself and passed the nomination along. Between the traditional bucket dumps and Deadmau5's cash-instead-of-ice approach, the whole episode ended up being a pretty good snapshot of how differently artists in the same scene chose to engage with a single viral moment.
