New music craze echoes the past
ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC IS BECOMING THE NEW CLASSICAL
STORY AND PHOTOS BY SAM WESTON
Sum m er concerts are alm ost
upon us and as Portland supplies
some o f the best live music
around, th ere’ s one genre
I ’ m excited to experience
once again. Electronic Dance
Music, or EDM, is the newest^
craze of the current generation
o f th is generation know n for
student debt and A D H D ..>
| If you’re a music fan of any kind, you will have run into
this genre at some point on the radio or chatted to that
one guy a t the party who calls him self a “ Basshead.” So
why is this rising genre so popular? Why would someone
go see a person basically push play and dance around
fo ran hour?-
1 W ell, w hy not ask people w ho go see classical
composers? After all, both structure their performances
in a similar manner.
I For example, initially, Beethoven and Skrillex do not
appear similar. However, both are musicians who do not
perform the music them selves, but compose music to
be channeled by another medium. As Beethoven guides
a violinist to play his creation for him , Skrillex guides
his turntables to channel his beats.
Both types of music rely on multiple instruments and
m usicians to produce the music being played. If you
forget the formality of classical compared to today’s EDM
scene, EDM is really just today’ s classical symphonic
music.
8 Clackamas Print MAY 31,2017 theclackamasprint.com
EDM, dubstep, trap, house, drum and bass, techno or so much electronic and techno heavy music being made
g any number of other names is a craze that has gained that delves on the brink of being timeless musical hits.
much popularity since the ’90s but has its roots as early ODESZA, Flume, Tycho, Illenium, James Blake, Massive
as the 1930s. Synths and turntables have been used Attack, Moby and Purity Ring are all artists that have
for the creation o f electronic sounds for decades now. utilized this synth,electronic style and made music that
W ith an increased use o f technology, their presence is not simply the rave/club style of music.
has increased in our m usic. It is very hard today to
find music that doesn’t include some form of synth or
electronic sound.
It was only a matter of time that we began to make
music solely w ith com puters and it m akes sense as
to why. Every sound, drum and beat being made was
recordedand cleaned to mim ic classical sound. If you
1 listen to the end results of EDM music, you won’t find
a better quality sound.
I’m not saying this is a necessarily a good thing,-but
to understand why this is so widely popular, you must
look at music’ s obsession with perfection. Pretty much
every major artist out there uses some form of voice
cleaning/alteration or synth in their music to perfect
the sound. This not only makes the music cleaner to
listen to but it makes the process easier.
In the docum entary “ Press Pause P lay,” m ultiple
artists, including Moby, explain how today’ s music is
so much easier to make compared to 10-20 years ago. Above: German techno artist Pantha Du Prince
The software and tools available to everyone make it preforms at the Doug Fir Lounge on May 28 in
insanely easy and affordable for anyone to produce a Portland.
| potential billboard hit.
However, just because it’s easy does not mean that all Below: Odeza preforms at the inuagral vertex festial
£ electronic artists, and artists in general, are lazy. There is in Buana Vista, Colarado, on August 6 2016.