You've seen the image: a DJ behind an array of electronics generating pulsating beats to move an adoring crowd. The stuff coming out of the speakers is called Electronic Dance Music (EDM), and over the last few years, it has moved out of the clubs and onto the radio. It's OK if you don't get it - lots of folks didn't care for Rock or Hip-Hop either - but EDM has made a rapid transition into the mainstream music scene, and its cultural trends will be around for a while. You may have even heard of some of the artists: David Guetta, Deadmau5, DJ Tiesto - even Lady Gaga dabbles in Electronic Dance.
You can make the case that the Grammy "Tribute to Electronic Dance Music," where the DJs split time with more recognizable folks like Foo Fighters and Lil Wayne, was where it jumped the shark, but then again, this might be just the beginning. Here's a quick start guide to EDM courtesy of DJ/college student/journalist Maximiliano Sanchez, who has been on the scene for a while.
Who Are the Kids Listening To This Stuff, and Do They Do Drugs?You can make the case that the Grammy "Tribute to Electronic Dance Music," where the DJs split time with more recognizable folks like Foo Fighters and Lil Wayne, was where it jumped the shark, but then again, this might be just the beginning. Here's a quick start guide to EDM courtesy of DJ/college student/journalist Maximiliano Sanchez, who has been on the scene for a while.
It's a young crowd, although you will spot a grandmother every now and then, and yeah, there are lots of drugs.
I've been involved in the rave scene and attending festivals since I was about 16 years old. When I first attended these festivals it was still an underground scene filled with fanatical teenagers and old-school hippie weirdos, but now these raves and festivals have become the entertainment of choice for many young people. It's not just an urban thing either: the latest Skrillex (EDM artist nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy) tour stops at festivals in Asbury Park, New Jersey and Gulf Shores, Alabama. Colleges are also EDM hotspots - some DJs do college tours similar to the kind Dave Matthews was doing before he blew up.
The crowds vary by location, but my best guess on the overall demographics is:
35% Hispanic
33% White
30% European-American
2% African-American
I realize "White" and "European-American" can mean the same thing. For this estimate, European-Americans are first or second generation immigrants - EDM is very popular in Europe.
As for the drugs, MDMA (Ecstasy) has now become the drug of choice for most festival followers around the world. At these raves you can find "X" everywhere. It's quite astonishing but I would say about 70% of the crowd is on Ecstasy or some other type of drug that will keep them dancing. It's in line with the heyday of recreational drug use of in the '60s, something that comes with the culture.
Why is X so popular? Because it keeps you dancing and it's easy to get, at least near a festival. Dedicated EDM supporters take X for the unique euphoric sensation, and for a feeling of love it seems to spread (before you judge, remember that Deadheads have similar stories). This love is like no other; being part of a group of fans singing along, dancing and feeling every ounce of bass in your body can fire your neurons like no other musical experience.
Remember that first big concert you went to where you could feel the music and revel in it with thousands of other people who felt the same thing? That's how I felt when I went to my first EDM festival down in Miami and heard House Music for the first time. Unlike a typical concert, there are no ballads in this world, but you get that same feeling when your favorite song comes blasting through the speakers and you absolutely can't help but sing along and dance. Melding with this crowd and exploding in euphoria after every track became my own personal definition of House Music. It changed my life that day, not just the music, but also the lifestyle and culture that came along with it.
The Dawn of EDM: House Music Goes Mainstream
A groundbreaker here was Madonna's 1990 hit single "Vogue" - the same song she performed when she led a chariot of shirtless Spartans at the Super Bowl halftime show. "Vogue" was House Music, just a few steps away from EDM, and it was a #1 hit.
Club culture and Pop music were starting to bend at the turntables. With a mix of dance infused Pop grooves, melodies, and drums that flow together with Madonna's punctuated lyrics, it brought House Music to the masses under the guise of Dance-Pop. The next decade saw the birth of EDM in America, thanks to the rise of rave culture and the evolution of House Music.
What exactly is Electronic Dance Music?
From our interview with Dave Stewart:
I read in the New York Times about Girl Talk - Greg Gillis - who chops up massive rock choruses on top of huge sort of hip-hop beats. He has a mad party going on and drives the audience into a frenzy by his sheer enthusiasm by being a fan. And they all feel like they're part of it. So people get on stage with him, and they dance, then they all do certain things at certain times. Like a football match when they all do the wave. People have always liked joining in, and the technology's almost at the breaking point where to join in you don't have to be a mad sort of nerd, technology freak.
But people will only turn up to see you if you're great at doing it, and a great performer. You think, what is a great DJ? And you go to a place where there is one, and you say, Oh, I see, I get it, he's in tune with the audience. Also some of them are just great performers. They've got it down like it's almost a conceptual art piece.
Categorizing EDMI read in the New York Times about Girl Talk - Greg Gillis - who chops up massive rock choruses on top of huge sort of hip-hop beats. He has a mad party going on and drives the audience into a frenzy by his sheer enthusiasm by being a fan. And they all feel like they're part of it. So people get on stage with him, and they dance, then they all do certain things at certain times. Like a football match when they all do the wave. People have always liked joining in, and the technology's almost at the breaking point where to join in you don't have to be a mad sort of nerd, technology freak.
But people will only turn up to see you if you're great at doing it, and a great performer. You think, what is a great DJ? And you go to a place where there is one, and you say, Oh, I see, I get it, he's in tune with the audience. Also some of them are just great performers. They've got it down like it's almost a conceptual art piece.
EDM is a vast category of music, anything from House, Techno, Break Beat, Dubstep and Trance can fall under Electronic Dance Music. House Music is by far the most popular genre of EDM, distinguished by its repetitiveness. If you are used to a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure, then EDM might sound like mushy oatmeal, just a bunch of electro-noise and drums thrown together, but there is a method to it.
Based on old production techniques of dance music like Funk and Disco, producers use repetitive grooves, drums, and basslines solely for the purpose of getting you to move your feet. In House, producers use these rhythms that might sound like loud thumps and white noise, and build them upon each other, creating an anticipation effect. These layered melodies keep building up until the track finally drops to another repetitive groove. This formula is what makes House Music so appealing to anyone listening in a club or festival. These loud kick drum heavy rhythms, including anything from chopped vocals to sounds resembling ringtones, are responsible for that hypnotic dancing you see. EDM has blurred the lines that once existed between Pop and Dance music. Those wacky LMFAO songs, and many other hits of today are the spawn of EDM.
So what is a DJ?
In Miami, when I first started going to nightclubs, DJs were almost irrelevant. We didn't care who was DJing a certain night or what music they were playing. The DJs would just spin the popular songs, which could be anything from Hip-Hop to Rock, and we would dance and have a good time. The best a DJ could do was keep the music moving with a tight beat mix, seamlessly blending songs together. Today, DJs are the determining factor in choosing one nightclub over another; we go not just to hear the hottest EDM tracks but also to see how these DJs perform and what kind of energy they put out.
To make each show special these DJs don't just play track after track, they mix and match different tracks - anything from an exclusive acapella to a drum loop of another track. For example, at a club in Orlando I saw Avicii mix a track he created with a vocal sample of Etta James's "Somethings got a Hold on You" and it made the crowd (including me) go absolutely wild. Turns out he was testing the reaction of the crowd - something important to young people who are used to being asked for instant feedback. The track was eventually produced and named "Levels," which became Avicii's most popular song.
Some DJs make the fan experience even more memorable by producing special "edits." This is where two tracks are already mixed, matched, and produced as one track before the show; most of the time the DJ will wait for the perfect moment to mix these special "edits" in their sets.
There is also a vital difference in EDM between a DJ and a producer. The most prominent DJs are also producers of EDM, but this skill set is what makes them superior to any other DJ spinning at a nightclub. Being a DJ today is actually quite simple compared to being a producer. In basic terms, a producer is the creator and mastermind behind the tracks you hear in nightclubs, while the DJ is just the one pushing the play button. The producer is the one who physically creates the track by doing anything from recording MIDI files, writing the notes, and even mastering the track. Consider world-renowned DJ/producer David Guetta, who has a countless number of singles the he solely produced using EDM elements. In his hit single "Memories," he creates the melodies, drums, and everything else but the vocals, which are supplied by Kid Cudi. Therefore, he is the producer of the track. Mr. Guetta is one of the DJ/producers who have helped shift dance music into the mainstream. By creating a variety of these flawlessly mastered tracks and asking the hottest singers to add their vocals, Guetta has created a new hit factory fueled by Dance Music.
The spread of this rave culture and the massive festivals that cater to its thousands upon thousands of fans shares an eerie resemblance to the culture and festivals common in the late '60s and '70s. On December 16, 2011, the Swedish House Mafia, one of the biggest names in the EDM scene, held the first ever Dance Music event hosted in Madison Square Garden. With over 20,000 people in attendance, this was not just any other music festival, it was a breakthrough for Dance Music events in the US. To put it in perspective, the first Rap show took place in the Garden in 1985, with about 22,000 people checking out performances by LL Cool J, Run-DMC and other stars of the movie Krush Groove. Rap was still considered a novelty at the time, but had no trouble selling out The Garden. Hip-Hop was here to stay, just like those EDM DJs mixing and mashing tracks for massive crowds today.
What Can Make a DJ Stand Out?
Lots of factors set one DJ apart from another, some are obvious, and others are subtle. Timing is extremely important; the way a DJ mixes through different tracks can separate him from the rest. And just as we expect singers to move around the stage, a DJ also needs to move, even if he is tethered to his console. The energy a DJ emits through his music and his interaction with the crowd is very important - we want to see and feel their energy, not just hear it.
The DJ creates the atmosphere at the club or festival. Whether it's a bass-filled Dubstep track or a progressive melodic piano break, every track has its own energy that a DJ can utilize.
Another big, hairy deal in this world is exclusivity of tracks. It's all about what's hot right now, and unreleased, exclusive tracks hyped on Twitter and YouTube can ignite a spark of energy in a crowd during a DJ set. When it comes to EDM, the freshest and newest music is what we want to hear.
It's not for everyone, but these repetitive, four to the floor, bass-bumping beats give many young music lovers exactly what they crave: energy and stimulation. There are lyrics on these tracks, which usually serve as affirmations while the bass runs through your sneakers, but for the most part, the beat is the big deal and the words are an afterthought.
EDM tracks are released daily, mainly through Beatport and iTunes, and Pop music continues to draw from its influence. Another driving factor: this stuff is cheap. You don't need to tote around a bunch of musicians and their gear to create and perform songs of the EDM variety. The economics worked in favor of Hip-Hop as well: 2 turntables and a microphone cost a lot less than a band.
February 21, 2012
Maximiliano Sanchez is a student at Florida State University
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