Gotta let loose of some words about this thing called EDM.
and my words are coming from a totally narrow-minded perspective, and i even know of EDM only thru the radio playing in the backround in the morning here n there (not that i listen to radio, my wife does!)
Ok, the music i like or respect i would categorize as beeing part of a cultural movement with its own dresscodes , style of living, art, way of thinking. In my case i feel a slight connection to jazz, soul/funk, early hiphop/boombap (from 70s/to late90s despite some honorable exceptions nowadays), electronic pioneers like J-M Jarre, Kraftwerk and so on, & techno/minimal (starting early/mid 90s).
Techno & Hiphop, both got the same origin in a way, take the funky drumming of james brown & the hypnotic mystic melodies from early synths of kraftwerk then you can land at J-Dilla as well as a Juan Atkins-Tune, pioneers like Afrika-Bambaata or Derrick May know both musical leylines for sure.
So, thru the years , to learn how music is connected in its origin & in order to honour that heritage was mindblowing & eye-opening.
But with every good thing, if a critical mass of people like something in its essence, the industry (which may simply be a mirror of the majority of society, maybe not) jumps on the bandwaggon, strip things down, squeeze out the soul, and spit a bloody cough into the face of the masses , which has before been a nice deep breath of fresh air.
Before, in the essential form , the deep breath has been something catalystic, an emotional cure for the original artist and its listeners, universal communication, and now it is something lifeless & poisened, catching the people not on a higher consciousness level , but on an instinctual basic level selling the plastic dreams of money, fame, drugs , sex & bullshit. (sorry, but the frustration of decades must be washed away here, stop reading if it doesn´t fit your opinion : )
Ok, now this EDM thing, as i said, techno & hiphop got the same origin in a way, as well as D & B or Dubstep, which are stepchilds in a good way, trap music in a bad!
But with EDM, for me it sounds like you take the worst part of both worlds, put em together to form some more bullshit.
The autotune effect, which is simply degrading a human vocal to something lifeless without natural dynamic, a cybernetic fiasco, cannot stand to listen to a 3 min song using it, sorry, just my opinion.
I can see how this fits into a world with poisened environment but building drones & artifical intelligence, but this is another alley, and a bit simplified / depessive point of viewing it.
The superiour untalented wanna be rappers talking about unsubstantial things, just hired to be on this song, not even feeling it, not even seems to feel anything, but willing to talk whatever is needed to get their money & fame. Damn, i want to hear knowledge & wisdom, everyday life stories, good wordplay, spirituality, whatever, but not that degraded mumbling of an uninspired kid, im sorry....no, i´m pissed.

What the industry always do, the build clones of successful artists/music , without owning the inspired unique view of that individuum that pioneered that particular style or songs, so what happened this style of music has been cutoff from its former stream of cultural origin, and just beeing scientifically reproduced instead of beeing unique & inspired.
But steady diluting & whitewashing our musical cultures (which is universal communication & soul expression) is a criminal act to our human civilization i think.
More brutality, less self-respect, sexism, greed...all this might be a consequence of following the wrong path of bad paragons & industry puppets. Its not at first a problem of the music industry, it is for sure a problem of humankind , a question of selfconsiousness ,homegrown culture, altruism, egoism, whatnot.
But the industry is a big part of the game.
And too many people just know their few hundred songs from the radio, they wherent fed with the soul food, they don´t know better sometimes.

Btw, the loudness war is as well a sign of that quantity-over-quality-attitude, stuck out of the mass (of bullshit) thru being the loudest, instead of being the dopest, or deepest...sounds like primary school, right...
Dunno, a bit tired of typing actually to write more, and maybe i should cut the term EDM, as its not really about that typical style...but the word itself sucks, if its build in a DAW or ran thru a mixer, its electronic music, so what does this meen? Not even a genre label.
Man, i dunno ...

Quotes that comes to mind: "Fuck EDM" Oliver Koletzki / "How do you know you are shoping in beatport? No techno in the so called techno charts" Johannes Heil

 

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Man, you hit the problem quite accurate. In the last decades music evolution has followed the mankind/industrial one faster and stricter than ever before. There are alot of reasons for this and the main one is the accessibility of information and new ideas. The industry is not what it used to be and it never will be. In all this EDM craze we are being shoveled with all kinds of shit (latest as you pointed out - the trap wave).
This, however doesnt mean that there is no good music coming from the electronic genres - it just happens more (mostly exclusively) in the underground scenes. I also miss the "old" MTV where you could hear/see with certain regularity artists like Aphex Twin and Underworld. The tastes have being changed to easy-digestible and profanity. This is what the major studios are bringing to us now. Talents like Leftfield and Yello are long-forgotten and on their place we have to listen to Gangnam Style booming from every local on the streets.
There has been little to no thought in this morphing process. And still, there are artists like Shpongle, Desert Dwellers, Argaman, Kollektiv Turmstrasse (just to name a few, being in completely different genres as they are) that are still bringing quality sounds all over.
The main problem is that nowadays people like to get it easy in all aspects and this doesnt exclude entertainment. You can see this trend in movies, theater and basically all everyday relationships. In two words: I do feel your pain, bro...

 

calm down mate, it's just a term so people that know nothing about music can say "hey what u listen to?" "yo i dig some EDM lately" etc

we shouldn't care about names, only about facts and substance.
for one, i do NOT like a lot of modern music and i don't even care to listen to it anymore, but if people younger than me or other people like it, who am i to say it's shit? if a song is liked by even 1 person, for me it's not shit.

someone here on the forum had a quote from duke ellington that said
There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

now you can interpret this whatever you want and i don't care or know what he actually meant when said this, but i see it as: "there's music i like, and music that i don't like".
that's it.

there's nothing you can do, you're a dinosaur. people want this new "other kind" of music, well let them have it. i'm perfectly fine with the small group of people that keep producing stuff i like. and besides, we can always clean some dust off of old records and cds, right? ;)

cheers and have a good sunday

 

Thx for the nice words, brother. You feel me!

Funny sidefact: the band yello u mentioned as longforgotten , but sampled by an artist of this mumble/trap/whatever wave. And yello pioneered the staccato / sampled vocal sample style, at least in mainstream , their tune oh yeah had been used in severall Hollywood movies, I first heard in Ferris Buellers day off, and in that movie I first saw & fall in love with a sampler , which was the emulator ii, which maybe yello used for those sampled vocals

 

That quote from duke ellington is nice , and totally hit it. As I’m father of three boys, I’m totally aware of what u are talking about, to each his own, and yes I’m kind of a dinosaur, 40 years on the planet. It’s good music anywhere and always will be , in every generation whatever the time. I just want to say, we need a bit more rebellion in that younger generation , not against each other but against convention & (industry) rules , this is needed to stay fresh & original. Maybe that younger generations are a bit too customized / conservative as they should be in that age. But maybe they are rebellious, which is good, and that is why I don’t like their music that much , which will be ok with me, would be natural. Just let me say little quick:
Fuck the system ....ahhhh, now I feel like 20 again
Cheers

 

@Exidus remember Orbital - Lush 3 video, so down to earth , and in a way basic /pure tune, but so much longevity! Same with Future Sound of London - Lifeforms double Album, such sustainability , this is whats needed, u need organic material for everygreens, none of the invitro stuff

 

I do! I also remember Jaydee with his Plastic Dreams and Orbital - The Box and the insane Faithless experiments
And I actually started listening to electronic music with J M Jarre in the end of the 80's...
I am also in my 40's so I think that this is why we have this "obsolete" views upon electronic music
We might be sounding like couple of old geeks to some of the younger ones here

 

Yeah, sure @oldgeeks, but who cares, just for the sake of your nice words, it’s worth that this thread has been created
I can remember as a little child, dunno maybe 4,5,6,7...i played Lucifer from Alan Parson on my dads stereo (as soon as the needle hit the record, i started jumping from one couch to another due to the excitement the synth chords gave me) and till that day I was excited the moment I heard a synth somewhere, from Hancock’s rockit to new order to faltermayer to a-ha to 19 from hardcastle to grandmaster flash ....u know what I’m talking about I guess

Same with the younger generations being internet /cellphone natives , we are same but with synths , think about that

 

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some thoughts i would like to share ...
First thanks to @Exidus for mentioning Leftfield here,it is very nice to see this on here : Rhythm and Stealth is art to me.
Second thanks to @Retrolize77 for mentioning FSOL if you like them as much as i do also have a listen to Amorphous Androgynous(FSOL)

About edm: the term simple was introduced by the so called "music industry" in the U.S little after bands like the Prodigy & Chemical Brothers started to become popular in the U.S (& some d&b) from the U.K.
they got it from I.D.M which was a term used in Europe & U.K to describe experimental electronic music like APHEX TWIN,AUTHECHRE m-ziq and so on...

i wonder who remembers the era of the Orb,Orbital,early William Orbit & the Emu Orbit rack?

Then Skrillex happened (what everyone calls brostep) & many festivals in North America(nothing like the underground clubs in Europe & true raves in the U.K)...
everyone then wanted to know about growls & wubs without even knowing the true dubstep sound from the U.K(i love Skrillex & his sound btw,just don't like that after that everyone try to copy his sound,youtube endless vid how to make that sound in fm8 anyone ?)
same thing happened when "Rollo" from Faithless made Insomnia using the pizzicato sound from the jd800/990...everyone copy their sound & then we had the cheasy "eurodance" sound in Europe...
Trance music...good in the start,underground producers made good tracks...then became popular the "music industry" made it commercial & the scene got saturated...
i still remember my old days with breakbeat music & labels like suburban base & early xl recordings & early jungle & drum & bass...
i still remember holding my first copy of future music magazine with the novation drumstation on the cover & wanting it so bad & the copy with Derrick May on the cover....good days old days!
About trap (the electronic one) Baauer started it and then....well you know... Flume started future bass then everyone is a future bass producer...

Beatport : there was a time not long ago every track had the same drop..

At the end all is good,in every side you look at it if younger generations make edm & such as long as they stay away from drugs & other bad things(including just to want 2 be famous & make money & not get deeper into the art of music) i'm ok with it..i guess

Now i want to go back in time & make a track with an Xp-50 or wavestation.
Love you all peace
edit : i will edit my typos.

 

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Aha, many interesting things u mention here.
How the term EDM came up,prodigy & chemical brothers for me it was jungle/breakbeat/d&b & for the former dust brothers triphop, I know , just genre names to identify. The prodigy album with firestarter (dope tune, diesel power too) came out 1-2 weeks before the 2nd chemical brothers dropped, at least I bought it in that timespan, both. Trip hop, yeah,Bristol ruled it with portishead ,massive attack, trick...then sneaker pimps debut , morcheeba debut,...creative times. Dj krush, vadim, ronisize (brown paper bag was huge) 4hero (heroes anybody)later Adam f debut,
From the amorphous a. album which I got on cd I liked goat the most I think.
Papua new Guinea, was fsol debut, right
lifeforms was so outstanding, their first album after the major deal money I think, superb. ISDN was a bit disappointing , dead cities partly out of this world , great record.
Black dog was nice, remember
The jd 800 was a hell of a synth, and yes , early trance was very good, especially eye q records from Frankfurt stood out , Stevie be-Zet, Ralf hildenbeutel , a.c. Boutson ruled it , Vernon’s wonderland still is a fantastic timeless classic.
About the thing with the faithless Pizzicatos:

U remember the early 90s dominator sound?
very brutal /harsh sounding. Acts like scooter brought this sound I always hated on a more polished major level I think, and till that day, it’s the (In more or less slight variations) leadsound in most of those trance/techno alike -eurotrash whatever pop tunes, till that day , superb ugly guess it’s the poormans Version of 303 (always same sound, if well programmed very rich sounding) , in that Pop dominator case always horrible sounding , as well if well programmed : ) hehe
U guys in here rule, peace n love

@spyfx ->https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/28/1995-dance-music-britpop-orbital-leftfield-underworld

 

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yes very nice ! i miss Fabio & Grooverider show from radio1...
who remembers james brown is dead track ? lol
Eskimos & Egypt white vinyl ?
mc 303 ?
raveolution 309 ?
u-96 ?
Roni size & ltj -bukem
french kisses ?
usura-open your mind ?
Sorry i'm crazy today & enjoy emancipator,Bonobo,Grammatic,Zhu,utah jazz...

sorry i'm crazy today
@Retrolize77 about your other thread about boom bap samples....check e-lab,raw cutz & some samplephonics sample packs

 

James brown is dead , yeah I really liked it back then ... as well as 2unlimited - no limit (super weak industry garbage from nowadays perspective, so who am I to judge if kids nowadays like some 808s n shit ...lol, usura had a nice overall sound, that single, the kickdrum was nice I think . Had all the klf & the shamen singles, that was when UK set the trend for most parts of the worldwide music industry. Have u ever saw the „watch the klf burn a million bucks“ movie?
The chillout album was great!
Remember the analog kick from dance 2 trance - power of American natives? Deep forest? Sven vaeth - esperanza, french kiss was really nice, programmed on a dx 100 I think , which was the go to bass synth for rhythm & sound later on, often used in Detroit techno. U96, really bad stuff, but I had the single, the melody of the movie was catchy,
Remember the terminator /Conan theme, even catchier!!!

For the drums, got that vinylistic stuff from elab, samplephonics checked as well, gotta check for raw cutz, thx

 

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Yall just old heads. Stop worrying about how people are doing things different as whats wrong with music. Its an argument as old as time.

As one of the top dudes in the Trap Scene, I take offense to this. I have met so many people at my shows that tell me that listened to hip-hop before and got into "EDM" through my music. Ive also heard this the other way around.

Do what you wanna do but spending time analyzing new music and hating on it is only making your music not get created.

 

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hi my friend ,just some thoughts i would like to share with you nothing more
know that one day you will get "old" too if you are young now,time will take care of it
also "knowing" the past sometimes serves you as a "compass" for the now and the "future"
no one is worrying here about how people make music,we are just having a friendly & interesting conversation,that is all

i love trap music too,it is not bad imho,(just some guys making it now because it got popular)

i agree... no one is "hating" only love here for me...
music "analysis" sometimes is good & interesting
At the end all is good music is music is music & unites people

 

I’m not hatin, but prove me wrong and show me a good EDM & a trap tune, good from musical standpoints, not from sales, allright? I’m willing to learn right here! No offense

 

I ran over the top right here, I just can’t stand overprocessed vocals in songs with natural instrumentation, maybe that’s it

 

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