Where did EDM originate? I have fallen in love with EDM

edm is a marketing tool used to attract young kids into thinking they're part of a giant music movement, when, in fact, it's been around longer than they've been alive. a lot of people these days do not understand or even know what the "real" meaning of edm is. i asked some kid about a month ago what kind of music he produced he said "edm". i wanted to reach through the internet and slap him. when i asked him what kind he said "uh.. dance music i guess". i've only been making music for about 6 months and i'm still leaning things, but i've been around electronic music since i was a kid and spent a good amount of time learning the different between "edm" genres (house, big room house, deep house, dubstep, etc). but really, edm is whatever you want to call it. if you say you produce edm, whatever, not my problem. (hooray for my first post)
 
deadbea7 said:
edm is a marketing tool used to attract young kids into thinking they're part of a giant music movement, when, in fact, it's been around longer than they've been alive. a lot of people these days do not understand or even know what the "real" meaning of edm is. i asked some kid about a month ago what kind of music he produced he said "edm". i wanted to reach through the internet and slap him. when i asked him what kind he said "uh.. dance music i guess". i've only been making music for about 6 months and i'm still leaning things, but i've been around electronic music since i was a kid and spent a good amount of time learning the different between "edm" genres (house, big room house, deep house, dubstep, etc). but really, edm is whatever you want to call it. if you say you produce edm, whatever, not my problem. (hooray for my first post)
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What a powerful first post!
 
"edm" kids rustle my jimmies. i just think that edm is a stupid acronym for a massive part of today's (and a long time ago's) music. it's insulting to some producers for somebody to call their music "edm". i do like dance music, but i like music better.
 
deadbea7 said:
"edm" kids rustle my jimmies. i just think that edm is a stupid acronym for a massive part of today's (and a long time ago's) music. it's insulting to some producers for somebody to call their music "edm". i do like dance music, but i like music better.
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I remember during the mid-to-late nineties, anything with synths and a dance beat was labeled "electronica". Seriously, replace "edm" with " electronica" and its the nineties all over again.
 
I actually quite like the term... electronica works just as well though.

It's a substitute for all the thousands of sub genres that exist... Do we really need to differentiate between techstep and neurofunk? Are Skream and Knife Party both contained under the heading of 'dubstep'? Is every track that's over 170bpm and isn't house drum and bass?

Genres and sub genres of EDM/electronica only exist so people can argue about them in the youtube comment section and so people can show off that they know the difference between deep house and minimal house.

They don't even work as sub-genres: Calibre has much more in common with Skream than Noisia does, so why are Calibre and Noisia both deemed 'drum and bass' and Skream 'Dubstep'.

We could do with a few subgenres maybe, but not more than half a dozen.

If 'rock' will do for everything from Elvis to Pink Floyd to Bon Jovi, then we can use one word to describe the whole of electronic music.

OK rant over. :D
 
scrapheaper said:
They don't even work as sub-genres: Calibre has much more in common with Skream than Noisia does, so why are Calibre and Noisia both deemed 'drum and bass' and Skream 'Dubstep'.

If 'rock' will do for everything from Elvis to Pink Floyd to Bon Jovi, then we can use one word to describe the whole of electronic music.
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If you listen to Calibre's old stuff, you'll notice it has more resemblance to Noisia's style than Skream. Also, there's a great difference between the dubstep did by Skream, to what Calibre or Noisia do. Dubstep is somewhat a "derivative" sub-genre to drum and bass because of the syncopated drum lines and wobbling bass.

Also, you can't put Cannibal Corpse and Pink Floyd under the same "rock" genre.

I think that EDM is more of a marketing tool than a proper way of labeling a genre.
 
Ddream said:
If you listen to Calibre's old stuff, you'll notice it has more resemblance to Noisia's style than Skream. Also, there's a great difference between the dubstep did by Skream, to what Calibre or Noisia do. Dubstep is somewhat a "derivative" sub-genre to drum and bass because of the syncopated drum lines and wobbling bass.

Also, you can't put Cannibal Corpse and Pink Floyd under the same "rock" genre.

I think that EDM is more of a marketing tool than a proper way of labeling a genre.
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It might be fair to call calibre's old stuff dnb, but his new stuff is still called dnb and it bears almost no resemblance to noisia. You can argue about whether skream is more different from skrillex or calibre is more different from noisia, but let's face it: they're both pretty different, and skream and calibre have much more in common with each other than either do with either skrillex or noisia.

No, you can't put metal under rock. What does that have to do with anything? The name 'Rock' is still attached to an incredibly diverse range of styles of music.
Metal is perhaps one of the few genres that works (apart from the stupid number of metal subgenres).

I don't think EDM is a marketing tool. It's just more convenient to use because it can't be wrong. If you call anything dubstep these days, someone will have a go at you.
 
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scrapheaper said:
It might be fair to call calibre's old stuff dnb, but his new stuff is still called dnb and it bears almost no resemblance to noisia. You can argue about whether skream is more different from skrillex or calibre is more different from noisia, but let's face it: they're all pretty different, and skream and calibre have much more in common with each other than either do with either skrillex or noisia.

No, you can't put metal under rock. What does that have to do with anything? The name 'Rock' is still attached to an incredibly diverse range of styles of music.

I don't think EDM is a marketing tool. It's just more convenient to use because it can't be wrong. If you call anything dubstep these days, someone will have a go at you.
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If you watch some Noisia's interviews on youtube, you'll see them saying their music can't be classified as drum and bass, as they do music they want to, in different styles. They just want to put out different ideas and be innovative. They used to have a style more focused on neurofunk back then, and sometimes their tunes are still mainly focused on neurofunk.

The metal thing I said was just something to make explicit how "labeling" of genres are stupid, if done in a way to generalize things.

Now, about EDM, it is a marketing tool, as music nowadays (specially electronic music) are pretty much equal, and need "something different" to sell. This "different" thing is it's own labeling as "EDM". I bet that if you pick any minimal dnb song and try to sell it (specially in US) as "minimal dnb", it will fail miserably. Now, pick the same song and label it "EDM" and BOOM. New #1 on charts.

I'll use an example here, that I just listened to: On Skrillex new album, there's this song called "Coast is Clear", which (if you pay attention) is basically a drum and bass song. Now, we know Skrillex does this so called "EDM", right? If he release this as a single, and somehow this single is labeled "drum and bass", it won't sell as much as his known "EDM" label.
 
I think the reason skrillex sells well is because he's famous and has millions of followers.
If skrillex released the track as himself, but as a dnb single, it would still as really successful, the only difference is that the yt comments section would be full of people arguing about whether this is dnb or not.

If someone else (like me, for example) released the same track as EDM, then it wouldn't have the same impact.
 
I would say that I understand where you are coming from, but remember that this is not the first title to encompass all dance music. In the 80's and 90's dance all fell under the umbrella of 'house' music, and in the 70's it was Disco. I actually find edm to be a bit more fitting in the modern world... honestly... and If I tell you I produce EDM... you can assume, in my case, that I am not limited by genre... I have a passion for trance, but I also enjoy ambient, and dubstep and incorporate them both into my pieces. With the organization I work with they might contract me to work on something that incorporates big room or trap.. In reality digital producers are all artistic individuals... genres are simply guidelines to finding what you want to listen to...it's not there to limit what you create :-) Best to you!
 
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To me, EDM is a name used to rebrand any type of electronic dance music since the last peak and fall of the genere about 10 years ago. It's all about marketing for both music sales and for the tours and concerts that bring in billions. Definitely not an underground based music scene - not like anyone loving it cares that much.

As someone who has been DJing and collecting dance music of all genres since the early 90's, I can tell you that it will eat itself with the homogeneous music, high concert prices, and lack of underground music. May take 3 to 5 years, but it will die yet again.
 
Monkey Mouse said:
To me, EDM is a name used to rebrand any type of electronic dance music since the last peak and fall of the genere about 10 years ago. It's all about marketing for both music sales and for the tours and concerts that bring in billions. Definitely not an underground based music scene - not like anyone loving it cares that much.

As someone who has been DJing and collecting dance music of all genres since the early 90's, I can tell you that it will eat itself with the homogeneous music, high concert prices, and lack of underground music. May take 3 to 5 years, but it will die yet again.
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I feel the term can apply to any kind of electronic music, but the subgenres of edm which do have a serious underground following know what the correct subgenre is because they're hardcore fans and want to sound knowledgeable and dedicated.
Techno is a kind of EDM, but all the techno fans are too snobby to use the term when talking about blawan.

(Notice how I mention techno, and then namedrop blawan to show that I'm a really knowledgeable person and truely appreciate techno. It's this kind of subtle showing off which really pisses me off, and people who don't like the term EDM do it A LOT.)
 
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