Culture Through My Looking Glass: EDM-A Modern Rock Genre

Like every form of art, there's different styles and like music, there's different circles of musicians that are more comfortable to listen to while your sipping that nice frappachino from Starbucks.

Unfortunately, technology has changed overtime. The most modern advancement of musical technology was electric instruments such as guitars and their basses. You could play these on different sounds through a foot pedal and push a metal stick, called a whammy bar, up and down to make a whiny sound with the notes. But now those electric advancements in instruments have gone away and are being replaced by machines such as synthesizers, sequencers, and computers. This type of modernized music is decent in some usages but not as something to listen to without the use of moderation. This type of music is known as Electronic Dance floor Music (EDM).

Luckily, I can listen in on this type of music through particular artists who use these machines but keep to the old habits of using guitars and drums. I did a little digging and discovered that some modern artists who fall under the EDM category are mindful in their over usage of the electronic sound. First, EDM is essentially 21st century techno music, not the music of the previous decade (I will miss you 90's awesomeness). Second, EDM is more or less the minimal use of electronic so that it doesn't cover up the original sound of the guitar or the bass. Finally, EDM can be classified under pop music or as a technological form of rock.

EDM though has been gaining popularity as its other art form, which is Dub-step. Although Dub-step might not be considered music by some people who don't mind EDM, the general population uses Dub-step for other purposes, such as raves. In a rave, your stuck in the dark and covered in glow sticks. So although Dub-step does have a practical use, that is the only use it has. Sadly, Dub-step should not be considered as music.

Electronic music on one hand is useful for some who do not want to completely give up on finding a piece of music that still involves some use of classical electric guitar or electric bass. On the other, EDM's sister Dub-step does not seem to have more than one useful purpose. The modernization of music is more or less enforced by the what popular demand wants to hear on public radio, which means all other forms of music from the previous century are deemed obsolete and should be removed for the purpose society to go forward, but that isn't true. You don't have to throw out your collection of Orgy songs for the sake of someone who wants to sip chai tea to the sounds of Blood on the Dancefloor, but there is always something that you could do and that involves one question: what is music to you and how much do you value that music? TTFN!

For more information on these newer forms of techno, here are some wiki sources on what the genres cover. If you want to get to know some artist of the EDM genre and its sub-genres, I have provided you a listening of Band Aid Covers the Bullet Hole by Scarling, one EDM artist that I listen to.