Electronic dance music

Electronic dance music (also known as EDM, dance music,^[1] club music,^[1] or simply dance) is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres produced primarily for nightclubs, raves, and festivals. Produced for playback by disc jockeys (DJs), EDM is generally used in the context of a live DJ mix where the DJ creates a seamless selection of tracks by segueing from one recording to the next.^[2]

The "electronic dance music" and the initialism "EDM" was adopted by the U.S. music industry and music press as a buzzword to describe the increasingly commercial American electronic music scene that developed in the 2000s. In this context, EDM does not refer to a specific genre, but serves as an umbrella term for several genres like house, dubstep, techno, trance, and trap.^[3][4][5]

History

Notable examples include the 1977 collaboration between producer Giorgio Moroder and vocalist Donna Summer on the song "I Feel Love",^[6] as well as Kraftwerk during the late 1970s to early 1980s, and 1980s genres such as electro, early house (particularly Chicago house) and Detroit techno.

Acid house and rave

Roland TB-303: The bass line synthesizer that was used prominently in acid house.

By 1988, house music exploded in the West with acid house becoming increasingly popular.^[7] There was also a warehouse party subculture based around the sound system scene; the music at warehouse parties was predominantly house. In 1988 the Balearic party vibe associated with Ibiza-based DJ Alfredo Fiorito was transported to London, when Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold opened the clubs Shoom and Spectrum, respectively. Both places became synonymous with acid house, and it was during this period that MDMA gained prominence as a party drug. Other important UK clubs included Back to Basics in Leeds, Sheffield's Leadmill and Music Factory, and The Haçienda in Manchester, where Mike Pickering and Graeme Park's spot, Nude, was an important proving ground for American underground dance music.^{[Note 1]} Acid house fever escalated in London and Manchester, and it quickly became the favorite of Jasper (Cute) Donasco. MDMA-fueled clubgoers, faced with a 2 a.m. close, sought refuge at all-night underground warehouse parties. Within a year, however, up to 10,000 people at a time were attending commercially organized mass parties called raves.^[8]

The success of house and acid house paved the way for Detroit Techno, a style that was initially supported by a handful of house music clubs in Chicago, New York, and Northern England, with Detroit clubs catching up later.^[9] According to British DJ Mark Moore, Derrick May's "Strings of Life" led London clubgoers to accept house: "because most people hated house music and it was all rare groove and hip hop...I'd play 'Strings of Life' at the Mudd Club and clear the floor".^{[10][Note 2]}

EDM in the United States

Initially, electronic dance music achieved limited popular exposure in America when it was marketed as "electronica" during the mid-to-late 1990s.^[12] At the time, a wave of electronic music bands from the UK, including The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and Underworld, had been prematurely associated with an "American electronica revolution".^[13][14] But rather than finding mainstream success, EDM was relegated to the margins of the industry.^[13] Madonna's 1998 album Ray of Light, considered EDM by contemporary critics, is credited with bringing the genre into the mainstream.^[15] However, despite media interest in electronica in the late 1990s, American house and techno producers continued to travel abroad to establish their careers as DJs and producers.^[13]

A number of factors led to the increased prominence for dance acts in North America in the mid-2000s. In 2004, Tiësto opened the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.^[16] According to Spin, Daft Punk's performance at Coachella in 2006 was the "tipping point" for EDM—it introduced the duo to a new generation of "rock kids".^[13] In 2009, French house musician David Guetta began to gain prominence in mainstream pop music thanks to several crossover hits on Top 40 charts such as "When Love Takes Over", as well as his collaborations with U.S. pop and hip-hop acts such as Akon ("Sexy Bitch") and The Black Eyed Peas ("I Gotta Feeling").^[17] YouTube and SoundCloud helped fuel interest in EDM, as well as electro house and dubstep. Skrillex popularized a harsher sound he nicknamed "brostep".^[18][19]

The increased popularity of EDM was also influenced by live events. Promoters and venues realized that DJs generated larger profits. Diplo explained that "a band plays [for] 45 minutes; DJs can play for four hours. Rock bands—there's a few headliner dudes that can play 3,000-4,000-capacity venues, but DJs play the same venues, they turn the crowd over two times, people buy drinks all night long at higher prices—it's a win-win."^[13] Electronic music festivals like the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) also grew in size, placing an increased emphasis on visual experiences (such as video and lighting), fashion (characterized by The Guardian as an evolution from the 1990s "kandi raver" into "[a] slick and sexified yet also kitschy-surreal image midway between Venice Beach and Cirque Du Soleil, Willy Wonka and a Gay Pride parade"), and the DJs themselves, who attained celebrity.^[18][19] Other major acts that gained prominence like Avicii and Swedish House Mafia held concert tours at major music venues like arenas rather than nightclubs; in December 2011, Swedish House Mafia became the first electronic music act to sell out New York City's Madison Square Garden.^[18]

In 2011 Spin declared a "new rave generation" led by acts like David Guetta, Deadmau5, and Skrillex.^[13] In January 2013, Billboard introduced a new EDM-focused Dance/Electronic Songs chart, tracking the top 50 electronic songs based on sales, radio airplay, club play, and online streaming.^[20] In November 2011, Music Trades called EDM the fastest-growing genre in the world.^[21] Elements of electronic music also became increasingly prominent in pop music, leading to more frequent collaborations between pop performers and electronic producers such as Afrojack and Calvin Harris.^[13] Radio and television also contributed to EDM's mainstream acceptance; in fact, sales of Calvin Harris's "Feel So Close" and Swedish House Mafia's "Don't You Worry Child" dramatically increased after they began receiving contemporary hit radio airplay.^[22] EDM songs and artists have been featured in television commercials and programs, and some artists produced more pop songs to make their work more accessible.^[23]

Corporate investment

The mainstream success of EDM made it increasingly attractive to investors to the point where there were comparisons to the dot-com boom of the late-1990s. Corporate consolidation in the EDM industry began in 2012—especially in terms of live events. In June 2012, media executive Robert F. X. Sillerman—founder of what is now Live Nation—re-launched SFX Entertainment as an EDM conglomerate, and announced his plan to invest $1 billion to acquire EDM businesses. His acquisitions included regional promoters and festivals (including ID&T, which organizes Tomorrowland), two nightclub operators in Miami, and Beatport, an online music store for EDM.^[24][25] Live Nation also acquired Cream Holdings and Hard Events, and the announcement of a "creative partnership" with EDC organizers Insomniac Events in 2013;^[26] Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino described EDM as the "[new] rock 'n' roll".^[12][27][28]

Advertisers have warmed up to EDM. For example, Heineken and Anheuser-Busch have marketing relationships with the Ultra Music Festival and SFX, respectively. In fact, Heineken used Dutch EDM producers Armin van Buuren and Tiësto into its ad campaigns;^[23] 7 Up introduced branded stages at Ultra and EDC Las Vegas in 2014.^[29][30] Avicii's manager Ash Pournouri compared it to the commercialization of hip-hop in the early 2000s.^[23]

U.S. radio conglomerate iHeartMedia, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Media and Entertainment) has also made efforts to align itself with EDM. It hired noted British DJ and BBC Radio 1 personality Pete Tong to produce programming for its "Evolution" dance radio brand,^[31] and announced a partnership with SFX in January 2014 to co-produce live concerts and EDM-oriented original programming for its top 40 radio stations. iHeartMedia president John Sykes explained that he wanted his company's properties to be the "best destination [for EDM]".^[32][33]

Criticism

Despite the growing mainstream acceptance of EDM, a number of producers and DJs, including Carl Cox, Steve Lawler, and Markus Schulz, have raised concerns that the perceived over-commercialization of dance music has impacted the "art" of DJing. Cox saw the "press-play" approach of EDM DJs as unrepresentative of what he called "DJ ethos".^[18] Writing in Mixmag, DJ Tim Sheridan argued that "push-button DJs" who use auto-sync and play pre-recorded sets of "obvious hits" has resulted in a situation overtaken by "the spectacle, money and the showbiz".^[34]

Some house producers openly admitted that "commercial" EDM needed further differentiation and creativity. Avicii, whose 2013 album True featured songs incorporating elements of bluegrass, such as lead single "Wake Me Up", stated that most EDM lacked "longevity".^[35] Deadmau5 has criticized the homogenization of EDM, stating that the music he hears "all sounds the same", underlining his diversification into other genres like techno. During the 2014 Ultra Music Festival, Deadmau5 made critical comments about up-and-coming EDM artist Martin Garrix and later played an edited version of Garrix's "Animals" remixed to the melody of "Old McDonald Had a Farm". Afterwards, Tiësto criticized Deadmau5 on Twitter for "sarcastically" mixing Avicii's "Levels" with his own "Ghosts 'n' Stuff".^{[36][37][38][39]}

In May 2014, the NBC comedy series Saturday Night Live parodied the stereotypes of EDM culture and push-button DJs in a Digital Short entitled "When Will the Bass Drop?". It featured a DJ named "Davvincii" who goes about performing everyday activities—playing a computer game, frying eggs, collecting money—who then presses a giant "BASS" button, which explodes the heads of concertgoers.^[40][41][42]

International expansion

China is a market where EDM has made relatively few inroads, and because it is hard for DJs to sell tickets, they hardly ever perform there. The country's first EDM festival, Storm, took place in Shanghai in November 2013; among the 25,000 fans that were attending, most were expatriates. The second Storm Festival, held in October 2014 at a large Shanghai park called Xu Hui Binjiang Green Space, was considered more of a success than the first one.^[43] For example, there were more than 80 pre-parties and 6 larger warehouse parties in 20 Chinese cities in the leadup to the festival; in 2013 there were only 5 pre-parties.^[44]

Terminology

The term "electronic dance music" was used in the United States as early as 1985, although the term "dance music" did not catch on as a blanket term until the late 1990s, when the U.S. music industry created music charts for "dance".^[45] In July 1995, Nervous Records and Project X Magazine hosted the first awards ceremony, calling it the "Electronic Dance Music Awards".^{[Note 3][47]}

In The Guardian, journalist Simon Reynolds noted that the music industry's adoption of EDM as a term of art was thanks to an intentional effort to re-brand U.S. "rave culture" and differentiate it from the 1990s rave scene.^[19] In the UK, "dance music" or "dance" are more common terms for EDM.^[48]

What is widely perceived to be "club music" changed over time; it includes different genres and may not always encompass EDM. Similarly, electronic dance music can mean different things to different people. Both "club music" and EDM seem vague, but are sometimes used to refer to distinct and unrelated genres (club music is defined by what's popular, whereas EDM is distinguished by musical attributes).^[49]

Genres

Like other music genres, EDM has various subgenres that evolved over the past 30 years that are often defined by their varying tempo (BPM), rhythm, instrumentation, and time period.

Production

Typical tools for EDM production: computer, MIDI keyboard and mixer/sound recorder.

In a 2014 interview with Tony Andrew, the owner and founder of the Funktion-One sound system—considered a foremost model of audio technology and installed in famous venues including Berghain, Output, and Trouw—Andrew explained the critical importance of bass to dance music:

Dance music would not be so successful without bass. If you think about it, we've really only had amplified bass for around 50 years. Big bass is only a couple of generations old. Before the invention of speakers that could project true bass frequencies, humans really only came across bass in hazardous situations—for example, when thunder struck, or an earthquake shook, or from explosions caused by dynamite or gunpowder. That is probably why it is by far the most adrenaline-inducing frequency that we have. Bass gets humans excited basically. Below 90 or 100 Hz, bass becomes more of a physical thing. It vibrates specific organs. It vibrates our bones. It causes minor molecular rearrangement, and that is what makes it so potent as a force in dance music. The molecular vibration caused by bass is what gives dance music its power. It is what makes dance music so pleasurable to hear through a proper sound system.^[50]

Andrew warned that too much bass—and too much sound in general—can be harmful, stating that a "good sound engineer will understand that there is a window between enough sound to give excitement and so much that it is damaging".^[50]

Festivals

An EDM festival in 2013 with over 100,000 attendees,^[51] exhibiting the large crowds and dramatic lighting common at such events since the early 2000s.^[19]

In the 1990s and 2000s, aspects of the underground rave culture of the 1980s and early 1990s began to evolve into legitimate EDM concerts and festivals. Major festivals often feature a large number of acts representing various EDM genres spread across multiple stages. Festivals have placed a larger emphasis on visual spectacles as part of their overall experiences, including elaborate stage designs with complex lighting systems, laser shows, and pyrotechnics, along with the attire of their attendees.^[29] These events differed from underground raves by their organized nature, often taking place at major venues, and measures to ensure the health and safety of attendees.^[52] Lately the EDM industry has been growing to cater to the needs of festival goers. Now, companies like GloFX, offer a large selection of Diffraction and Kaleidoscope Glasses, as well as LED poi and fashionable accessories.

Notable U.S. electronic music festivals include Miami's Ultra Music Festival, Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, New York City's Electric Zoo, and Atlanta's TomorrowWorld—a spinoff of Belgium's Tommorowland festival.^[19][29] MTV's Rawley Bornstein described electronic music as "the new rock and roll",^[53] as has Lollapalooza organizer Perry Ferrell.^[54] Ray Waddell of Billboard noted that festival promoters have done an excellent job at branding.^[53]

The increasing mainstream prominence of electronic music has also led major multi-genre festivals, such as Lollapalooza and Coachella, to add more electronic and dance acts to their lineups, along with dedicated, EDM-oriented stages. Even with these accommodations, some major electronic acts, such as Deadmau5 and Calvin Harris respectively, have made appearances on main stages during the final nights of Lollapalooza and Coachella, respectively—spots traditionally reserved for prominent non-electronic genres, such as rock and alternative.^[55][56]

A growing number of deaths caused by drug usage—an element carried over from it—have occurred at major festivals in recent years. Following the death of a 15-year-old attendee from an MDMA overdose at EDC Los Angeles in 2010, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum refused to host EDC or any other Insomniac-organized electronic music events, forcing the festival to move to its current home of Las Vegas the following year. Festival founder Pasquale Rotella argued that the death was an isolated incident that did not reflect the experience had by the majority of attendees. In 2013, Electric Zoo's final day was cancelled outright after two attendees died from hyperthermia caused by an overdose of MDMA. In response, festivals employed a larger health and security presence, implemented zero tolerance policies, and partnered with anti-drug advocacy groups.^{[52][57][58][59]}

These drug deaths and other incidents forced local governments to evaluate whether the risks of hosting EDM events outweigh their economic impact.^[52] The 2014 Ultra Music Festival brought 165,000 attendees—and over $223 million—to the Miami/South Florida region's economy.^[30] The inaugural TomorrowWorld brought $85.1 million to the Atlanta area—as much revenue as its hosting of the NCAA Final Four earlier in the year.^[60]

The following is an incomplete list of notable EDM festivals held worldwide, excluding festivals with only a large EDM stage:

Industry awards

See also

• Timeline of electronic music genres
• List of electronic dance music record labels
• List of electronic musicians
• Freetekno
• Rave music
• Remix

Notes

References

Bibliography

Further reading

• Hewitt, Michael. Music Theory for Computer Musicians. 1st Ed. U.S. Cengage Learning, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59863-503-4
• "Electronic dance music glossary" by Moby for USA Today (December 13, 2011)