Electronic Dance (EDM)

In most modern music such as Rock and Hip-hop, the audiences listen to their favorite artists performing passionately live on the stage. However, people listen to electronic dance music through the DJs. Armin vanBuuren, named DJ Mag's Top DJ, explained that his job was not like a painter who paints something creative in his gallery, but a painter working with "music palette." They cooperate with popular artists, mixing sounds in their own unique way to bring the dancing floor's atmosphere to the climax. By making music from music, DJs become one of the most sought-after icons in today's music world. Deadmau5, a famous DJ dressed in mickey mouse-like costume, are in hot pursuit and are always imitated by fans on the dance floor. DJs are gradually moving out from underground nightclubs to large theaters, arenas, and stadiums.  Those stadiums are usually used to host grand rock shows and now DJs can do the same. They even went to some large electronic music festivals such as Ultra Music Festival and Electric Daisy Carnival. A large music festival can have over hundred thousands people attending. Moreover, it becomes the major components of large Rock Festivals such as Lollapolopza. A festival like this can easily contain a huge hard-core dance crowd and seemingly the crowd is still expanding. 

Tempting Investors

Electronic Dance Music draws great attention to lots of tempting investors. In 2012, March, 60,000 tickets at $100 lowest for a music festival at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey were sold out in only three hours. This striking speed of sales proved its popularity and the audiences' desire to experience the “electronic shock”. Lots of other success like this attracted potential investors such as Live Nation and E.E.G. Live, the two biggest corporate promoters. These investors see the excitement, power and potential of electronic music like Rock and Roll used to be. The investors' support will greatly stimulate electronic music a step forward to the extent that the domination of electronic music becomes irresistible.

Electronic dance music had been gradually showing its head since 1980s, and eventually 2011 was the dance's music world. Electronic music first became popular in cities like New York and Chicago; then it started to monopolize the clubs in Europe, and now it is back to the States. It used to be a very private underground music enjoyed by its loyal fans. It has been always a kind of music in the party where people hope to have a memorable night and not tell their coworkers. But now with the technology growth and shifting taste of music, Electronic Dance Music is everywhere; there are increasingly more new comers embracing this kind of music. One of the main reasons behind that was its easy accessibility. Many artists can create their own music in his own house with less than 1000$ equipment. Also, Internet becomes a good advertising tool for electronic music artists. Therefore, an easy way to create music and an efficient way to spread the music make the electronic music so popular in new generation. Secondly, dance nightclub culture has become a fashion to young adults. Many people socialize in the nightclub, and many college students meet their new friends in a party playing dance music, so dance music is not only a genre now but part of their life.

Future of Electronic Dance Music

A big difference in Electronic Dance Music is that people are enchanted by the rhythmic dancing beats instead of lyrics and various melodies. So then lots of people began to question whether the musicality, or traditional tones has been vanishing with the ruling of electronic dance music. Flux Pavilion, a London-based Dubstep producer-songwriter said that Electronic Dance Music indeed needed to focus on developing the music and unfortunately it was very hard to put real emotion on this kind of energetic music. However, he justified that electronic music, functioned as a community, bringing hundreds and thousands of strangers together, breaking the wall of music and globally connecting people together. Also, it has broadened other musicians’ mind to do collaboration and blend electronic technology into their music. Musicians have always said that music is about “from personal to universe,” and electronic music successfully accomplishes the job, but it still needs more development for it to move forward. Even though it is ruling the music world now but no one knows someday it would fade away in this rapid upgrading world. The future for Electronic Dance Music is uncertain, but now it seems to stay in the mainstream for a while. 

Sources:

Anonymous (2011, November). House Music: How it Sneaked its way into Mainstream Pop. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/house-music-pop-music_n_922912.html

Greg Kot (2012, June). Eletronic dance music has its spring awakening. Retrieved from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-08/entertainment/ct-ae-0610-kot-electronic-music-20120608_1_electric-daisy-carnival-electronic-music-dance-music

Carla Babb (2012, October). Eletronic Dance Music Bounds into Mainstream. Retrieved from http://www.voanews.com/content/electronic-dance-music-bounds-into-mainstream/1531910.html

Ben Sisario (2012, April).Electronic Dance Concerts Turn up Volume, Tempting Investors. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/business/media/electronic-dance-genre-tempts-investors.html?pagewanted=all