Electronic dance music (EDM), also known as
dance music, club music, or simply dance,
is a broad range of percussive electronic
music genres made largely for nightclubs,
raves and festivals. It is generally produced
for playback by disc jockeys who create seamless
selections of tracks, called a mix by segueing
from one recording to another. EDM producers
also perform their music live in a concert
or festival setting in what is sometimes called
a live PA. In Europe, EDM is more commonly
called 'dance music', or simply 'dance'.In
the late 1980s and early 1990s, following
the emergence of raving, pirate radios and
an upsurge of interest in club culture, EDM
achieved widespread mainstream popularity
in Europe. In the United States at that time,
acceptance of dance culture was not universal;
although both electro and Chicago house music
were influential both in Europe and the United
States, mainstream media outlets and the record
industry remained openly hostile to it.There
was also a perceived association between EDM
and drug culture, which led governments at
state and city level to enact laws and policies
intended to halt the spread of rave culture.Subsequently,
in the new millennium, the popularity of EDM
increased globally, largely in Australia and
the United States. By the early 2010s, the
term "electronic dance music" and the initialism
"EDM" was being pushed by the American music
industry and music press in an effort to rebrand
American rave culture. Despite the industry's
attempt to create a specific EDM brand, the
initialism remains in use as an umbrella term
for multiple genres, including house, techno,
trance, drum and bass, and dubstep, as well
as their respective subgenres.
== History ==
Various EDM genres have evolved over the last
40 years, for example; electro, techno, house,
trance, drum and bass etc. Stylistic variation
within an established EDM genre can lead to
the emergence of what is called a subgenre.
Hybridization, where elements of two or more
genres are combined, can lead to the emergence
of an entirely new genre of EDM.
=== Precursors in the 1960s and 1970s ===
In the late 1960s bands such as Silver Apples
created electronic music that was intended
to be danced to. Other early examples of music
that influenced later electronic dance music
include Jamaican dub music in the 1970s, the
synthesizer-based disco music of Italian producer
Giorgio Moroder in the late 1970s, and the
electro-pop of Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic
Orchestra in the mid to late 1970s.
==== Dub ====
Author Michael Veal considers dub music, a
Jamaican music stemming from roots reggae
and sound system culture that flourished between
1968 and 1985, to be one of the important
precursors to contemporary electronic dance
music. Dub productions were remixed reggae
tracks that emphasized rhythm, fragmented
lyrical and melodic elements, and reverberant
textures. The music was pioneered by studio
engineers, such as Sylvan Morris, King Tubby,
Errol Thompson, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and Scientist.
Their productions included forms of tape editing
and sound processing that Veal considers comparable
to techniques used in musique concrète. Dub
producers made improvised deconstructions
of existing multi-track reggae mixes by using
the studio mixing board as a performance instrument.
They also foregrounded spatial effects such
as reverb and delay by using auxiliary send
routings creatively.Despite the limited electronic
equipment available to dub pioneers such as
King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry, their
experiments in remix culture were musically
cutting-edge. Ambient dub was pioneered by
King Tubby and other Jamaican sound artists,
using DJ-inspired ambient electronics, complete
with drop-outs, echo, equalization and psychedelic
electronic effects. It featured layering techniques
and incorporated elements of world music,
deep bass lines and harmonic sounds. Techniques
such as a long echo delay were also used.
==== Hip hop ====
Hip hop music has played a key role in the
development of electronic dance music since
the 1970s. Inspired by Jamaican sound system
culture Jamaican-American DJ Kool Herc introduced
large bass heavy speaker rigs to the Bronx.
His parties are credited with having kick-started
the New York hip-hop movement in 1973. A technique
developed by DJ Kool Herc that became popular
in hip hop culture was playing two copies
of the same record on two turntables, in alternation,
and at the point where a track featured a
break. This technique was further used to
manually loop a purely percussive break, leading
to what was later called a break beat. In
the 1980s and 1990s hip-hop DJs used turntables
as musical instruments in their own right
and virtuosic use developed into a creative
practice called turntablism.
==== Disco ====
In 1974, George McCrae's early disco hit "Rock
Your Baby" was one of the first records to
use a drum machine, an early Roland rhythm
machine. Its use of a drum machine was anticipated
by Sly and the Family Stone's "Family Affair"
(1971), which anticipated the sound of disco,
with its rhythm echoed in "Rock Your Baby".
The use of drum machines in "Family Affair"
and Timmy Thomas' "Why Can't We Live Together"
(1972), which used a 1972 Roland rhythm machine,
influenced the adoption of drum machines by
later disco artists. Disco producer Biddu
used synthesizers in several disco songs from
1976 to 1977, including "Bionic Boogie" from
Rain Forest (1976), "Soul Coaxing" (1977),
and Eastern Man and Futuristic Journey (recorded
from 1976 to 1977).
European acts Silver Convention, Love and
Kisses, Munich Machine, and American acts
Donna Summer and the Village People were acts
that defined the late 1970s Euro disco sound.
In 1977, Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte
produced "I Feel Love" for Donna Summer. It
became the first well-known disco hit to have
a completely synthesised backing track. Other
disco producers, most famously American producer
Tom Moulton, grabbed ideas and techniques
from dub music (which came with the increased
Jamaican migration to New York City in the
seventies) to provide alternatives to the
four on the floor style that dominated. During
the early 1980s, the popularity of disco music
sharply declined in the United States, abandoned
by major US record labels and producers. Euro
disco continued evolving within the broad
mainstream pop music scene.
==== Synth-pop ====
Synth-pop (short for 'synthesizer pop'; also
called 'techno-pop') is a subgenre of new
wave music that first became prominent in
the late 1970s and features the synthesizer
as the dominant musical instrument. It was
prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by
the use of synthesizers in progressive rock,
electronic, art rock, disco, and particularly
the "Krautrock" of bands like Kraftwerk. It
arose as a distinct genre in Japan and the
United Kingdom in the post-punk era as part
of the new wave movement of the late 1970s
to the mid-1980s.
Early synth-pop pioneers included Japanese
group Yellow Magic Orchestra, and British
bands Ultravox, the Human League and Berlin
Blondes. the Human League used monophonic
synthesizers to produce music with a simple
and austere sound. After the breakthrough
of Gary Numan in the UK Singles Chart in 1979,
large numbers of artists began to enjoy success
with a synthesizer-based sound in the early
1980s, including late-1970s debutants like
Japan and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
and newcomers such as Depeche Mode and Eurythmics.
In Japan, Yellow Magic Orchestra's success
opened the way for synth-pop bands such as
P-Model, Plastics, and Hikashu. The development
of inexpensive polyphonic synthesizers, the
definition of MIDI and the use of dance beats,
led to a more commercial and accessible sound
for synth-pop. This, its adoption by the style-conscious
acts from the New Romantic movement, together
with the rise of MTV, led to success for large
numbers of British synth-pop acts (including
Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet) in the United
States.
=== Hybridity of the Genre ===
Electronic music is a genre which stems and
brings influences from a number of different
musical genres, most with Jamaica or Afrodiasporic
origins. After sound system culture made its
way to England, reggae music became a popular
method for addressing experiences of Afrodiasporic
immigrants, and the number of dub listeners
grew, electronic dance music was created.
The genre is based upon a bass line with origins
in roots reggae, percussion from hip-hop breakbeats,
and soundscaping and vocal excerpts, used
to produce a harmony among the other two elements.
A lot of musical genres would not be in existence
without hybrids and mixing. There are certain
musical genres that could be considered umbrella
genres as well as a stand alone genre. These
hybrid genres are different, even if they
borrow elements from the same points. They
each create their own identity which allows
artists to fuse multiple of their identities
together in one song. Rather than try to confine
themselves to one genre, they create their
own. However, there are parts of each genre
that tend to get lost when the are combined.
A lot of music genres have distinct origins
and history that is tied to music which links
back to the region's culture. It is best for
artists to be careful when mixing genres that
they know and understand each cultural significance,
or it could result in the erasure of the history
and culture of a region.
=== Dance music in the 1980s ===
==== Post-disco ====
During the post-disco era that followed the
backlash against "disco" which began in the
mid to late 1979, which in the United States
lead to civil unrest and a riot in Chicago
known as the Disco Demolition Night,[13] an
underground movement of "stripped-down" disco
inspired music featuring "radically different
sounds"[14] started to emerge on the East
Coast.[15][Note 1] This new scene was seen
primarily in the New York metropolitan area
and was initially led by the urban contemporary
artists that were responding to the over-commercialisation
and subsequent demise of disco culture. The
sound that emerged originated from P-Funk[18]
the electronic side of disco, dub music, and
other genres. Much of the music produced during
this time was, like disco, catering to a singles-driven
market.[14] At this time creative control
started shifting to independent record companies,
less established producers, and club DJs.[14]
Other dance styles that began to become popular
during the post-disco era include dance-pop,[19][20]
boogie,[14] electro, Hi-NRG, Italo disco,
house,[19][21][22][23] and techno.[22][24][25][26][27]
==== Electro ====
In the early 1980s, electro (short for "electro-funk")
emerged as a fusion of electro-pop, funk,
and boogie. Also called electro-funk or electro-boogie,
but later shortened to electro, cited pioneers
include Ryuichi Sakamoto, Afrika Bambaataa,
Zapp, D.Train, and Sinnamon. Early hip hop
and rap combined with German and Japanese
electropop influences such as Kraftwerk and
Yellow Magic Orchestra inspired the birth
of electro. As the electronic sound developed,
instruments such as the bass guitar and drums
were replaced by synthesizers and most notably
by iconic drum machines, particularly the
Roland TR-808. Early uses of the TR-808 include
several Yellow Magic Orchestra tracks in 1980–1981,
the 1982 track "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa,
and the 1982 song "Sexual Healing" by Marvin
Gaye. In 1982, producer Arthur Baker, with
Afrika Bambaataa, released the seminal "Planet
Rock", which was influenced by Yellow Magic
Orchestra, used Kraftwerk samples, and had
drum beats supplied by the TR-808. Planet
Rock was followed later that year by another
breakthrough electro record, "Nunk" by Warp
9. In 1983, Hashim created an electro-funk
sound with "Al-Naafyish (The Soul)" that influenced
Herbie Hancock, resulting in his hit single
"Rockit" the same year. The early 1980s were
electro's mainstream peak. According to author
Steve Taylor,
Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock serves as a
"template for all interesting dance music
since".
==== House music ====
In the early 1980s, Chicago radio jocks The
Hot Mix 5 and club DJs Ron Hardy and Frankie
Knuckles played various styles of dance music,
including older disco records (mostly Philly
disco and Salsoul tracks), electro funk tracks
by artists such as Afrika Bambaataa, newer
Italo disco, B-Boy hip hop music by Man Parrish,
Jellybean Benitez, Arthur Baker, and John
Robie, and electronic pop music by Kraftwerk
and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Some made and
played their own edits of their favorite songs
on reel-to-reel tape, and sometimes mixed
in effects, drum machines, and other rhythmic
electronic instrumentation. The hypnotic electronic
dance song "On and On", produced in 1984 by
Chicago DJ Jesse Saunders and co-written by
Vince Lawrence, had elements that became staples
of the early house sound, such as the Roland
TB-303 bass synthesizer and minimal vocals
as well as a Roland (specifically TR-808)
drum machine and Korg (specifically Poly-61)
synthesizer.
"On and On" is sometimes cited as the 'first
house record', though other examples from
around that time, such as J.M. Silk's "Music
is the Key" (1985), have also been cited.
House music quickly spread to other American
cities such as Detroit, New York City, and
Newark—all of which developed their own
regional scenes. In the mid-to-late 1980s,
house music became popular in Europe as well
as major cities in South America, and Australia.
Chicago House experienced some commercial
success in Europe with releases such as "House
Nation" by House Master Boyz and the Rude
Boy of House (1987). Following this, a number
of house inspired releases such as "Pump Up
The Volume" by M|A|R|R|S (1987), "Theme from
S'Express" by S'Express (1988), and "Doctorin'
the House" by Coldcut (1988) entered the pop
charts.
==== Techno, acid house, rave ====
In the mid 80s house music thrived on the
small Balearic Island of Ibiza, Spain. The
Balearic sound was the spirit of the music
emerging from the island at that time; the
combination of old vinyl rock, pop, reggae,
and disco records paired with an “anything
goes” attitude made Ibiza a hub of drug-induced
musical experimentation. The scene was mainly
centered around a club called Amnesia where
its resident DJ, Alfredo Fiorito, pioneered
Balearic house. Amnesia became known across
Europe and by the mid to late 1980s it was
drawing people from all over the continent.By
1988, house music had become the most popular
form of club music in Europe, with acid house
developing as a notable trend in the UK and
Germany in the same year. In the UK an established
warehouse party subculture, centered on the
British African-Caribbean sound system scene
fueled underground after-parties that featured
dance music exclusively. Also in 1988, the
Balearic party vibe associated with Ibiza's
DJ Alfredo was transported to London, when
Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold opened the
clubs Shoom and Spectrum, respectively. Both
places became synonymous with acid house,
and it was during this period that MDMA gained
prominence as a party drug. Other important
UK clubs included Back to Basics in Leeds,
Sheffield's Leadmill and Music Factory, and
The Haçienda in Manchester, where Mike Pickering
and Graeme Park's spot, Nude, was an important
proving ground for American underground dance
music. The success of house and acid house
paved the way for Detroit Techno, a style
that was initially supported by a handful
of house music clubs in Chicago, New York,
and Northern England, with Detroit clubs catching
up later. The term Techno first came into
use after a release of a 10 Records/Virgin
Records compilation titled Techno: The Dance
Sound of Detroit in 1988.One of the first
Detroit productions to receive wider attention
was Derrick May's "Strings of Life" (1987),
which, together with May's previous release,
"Nude Photo" (1987), helped raise techno's
profile in Europe, especially the UK and Germany,
during the 1987–1988 house music boom (see
Second Summer of Love). It became May's best
known track, which, according to Frankie Knuckles,
"just exploded. It was like something you
can't imagine, the kind of power and energy
people got off that record when it was first
heard. Mike Dunn says he has no idea how people
can accept a record that doesn't have a bassline."
According to British DJ Mark Moore, "Strings
of Life" led London club goers to accept house:
"because most people hated house music and
it was all rare groove and hip hop...I'd play
'Strings of Life' at the Mudd Club and clear
the floor". By the late 1980s interest in
house, acid house and techno escalated in
the club scene and MDMA-fueled club goers,
who were faced with a 2 a.m. closing time
in the UK, started to seek after-hours refuge
at all-night warehouse parties. Within a year,
in summer 1989, up to 10,000 people at a time
were attending commercially organised underground
parties called raves.
=== Dance music in the 1990s ===
==== Trance ====
Trance emerged from the rave scene in the
United Kingdom in the late 1980s and developed
further during the early 1990s in Germany
before spreading throughout the rest of Europe,
as a more melodic offshoot from techno and
house. At the same time trance music was developing
in Europe, the genre was also gathering a
following in the Indian state of Goa.
Trance is mostly instrumental, although vocals
can be mixed in: typically they are performed
by mezzo-soprano to soprano female soloists,
often without a traditional verse/chorus structure.
Structured vocal form in trance music forms
the basis of the vocal trance subgenre, which
has been described as "grand, soaring, and
operatic" and "ethereal female leads floating
amongst the synths". Trance music is broken
into a number of subgenres including acid
trance, classic trance, hard trance, progressive
trance, and uplifting trance. Uplifting trance
is also known as "anthem trance", "epic trance",
"commercial trance", "stadium trance", or
"euphoric trance", and has been strongly influenced
by classical music in the 1990s and 2000s
by leading artists such as Ferry Corsten,
Armin Van Buuren, Tiësto, Push, Rank 1 and
at present with the development of the subgenre
"orchestral uplifting trance" or "uplifting
trance with symphonic orchestra" by such artists
as Andy Blueman, Ciro Visone, Soundlift, Arctic
Moon, Sergey Nevone&Simon O'Shine etc. Closely
related to Uplifting Trance is Euro-trance,
which has become a general term for a wide
variety of highly commercialized European
dance music. Several subgenres are crossovers
with other major genres of electronic music.
For instance, Tech trance is a mixture of
trance and techno, and Vocal trance "combines
[trance's] progressive elements with pop music".
The dream trance genre originated in the mid-1990s,
with its popularity then led by Robert Miles.
AllMusic states on progressive trance: "the
progressive wing of the trance crowd led directly
to a more commercial, chart-oriented sound,
since trance had never enjoyed much chart
action in the first place. Emphasizing the
smoother sound of Eurodance or house (and
occasionally more reminiscent of Jean-Michel
Jarre than Basement Jaxx), Progressive Trance
became the sound of the world's dance floors
by the end of the millennium. Critics ridiculed
its focus on predictable breakdowns and relative
lack of skill to beat-mix, but progressive
trance was caned by the hottest DJ."
==== Breakbeat hardcore, jungle, drum and
bass ====
By the early 1990s, a style of music developed
within the rave scene that had an identity
distinct from American house and techno. This
music, much like hip-hop before it, combined
sampled syncopated beats or break beats, other
samples from a wide range of different musical
genres and, occasionally, samples of music,
dialogue and effects from films and television
programmes. Relative to earlier styles of
dance music such as house and techno, so called
'rave music' tended to emphasise bass sounds
and use faster tempos, or beats per minute
(BPM). This subgenre was known as "hardcore"
rave, but from as early as 1991, some musical
tracks made up of these high-tempo break beats,
with heavy basslines and samples of older
Jamaican music, were referred to as "jungle
techno", a genre influenced by Jack Smooth
and Basement Records, and later just "jungle",
which became recognized as a separate musical
genre popular at raves and on pirate radio
in Britain. It is important to note when discussing
the history of drum & bass that prior to jungle,
rave music was getting faster and more experimental.
By 1994, jungle had begun to gain mainstream
popularity and fans of the music (often referred
to as junglists) became a more recognisable
part of youth subculture. The genre further
developed, incorporating and fusing elements
from a wide range of existing musical genres,
including the raggamuffin sound, dancehall,
MC chants, dub basslines, and increasingly
complex, heavily edited breakbeat percussion.
Despite the affiliation with the ecstasy-fuelled
rave scene, Jungle also inherited some associations
with violence and criminal activity, both
from the gang culture that had affected the
UK's hip-hop scene and as a consequence of
jungle's often aggressive or menacing sound
and themes of violence (usually reflected
in the choice of samples). However, this developed
in tandem with the often positive reputation
of the music as part of the wider rave scene
and dance hall-based Jamaican music culture
prevalent in London. By 1995, whether as a
reaction to, or independently of this cultural
schism, some jungle producers began to move
away from the ragga-influenced style and create
what would become collectively labelled, for
convenience, as drum and bass.
=== Dance music in the 21st century ===
==== Dubstep ====
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music
that originated in South London in the late
1990s. It is generally characterized by sparse,
syncopated rhythmic patterns with bass lines
that contain prominent sub-bass frequencies.
The style emerged as an offshoot of UK garage,
drawing on a lineage of related styles such
as 2-step, dub reggae, jungle, broken beat,
and grime. In the United Kingdom the origins
of the genre can be traced back to the growth
of the Jamaican sound system party scene in
the early 1980s.The earliest dubstep releases
date back to 1998, and were usually featured
as B-sides of 2-step garage single releases.
These tracks were darker, more experimental
remixes with less emphasis on vocals, and
attempted to incorporate elements of breakbeat
and drum and bass into 2-step. In 2001, this
and other strains of dark garage music began
to be showcased and promoted at London's night
club Plastic People, at the "Forward" night
(sometimes stylised as FWD>>), which went
on to be considerably influential to the development
of dubstep. The term "dubstep" in reference
to a genre of music began to be used by around
2002 by labels such as Big Apple, Ammunition,
and Tempa, by which time stylistic trends
used in creating these remixes started to
become more noticeable and distinct from 2-step
and grime.
==== Electro house ====
Electro house is a form of house music characterized
by a prominent bassline or kick drum and a
tempo between 125 and 135 beats per minute,
usually 128. Its origins were influenced by
electro, electroclash, electropop, synth-pop,
and tech house. The term has been used to
describe the music of many DJ Mag Top 100
DJs, including Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike,
Hardwell, Skrillex, and Steve Aoki. Italian
DJ Benny Benassi, with his track "Satisfaction"
released in 2002, is seen as the forerunner
of electro-house who brought it to the mainstream.
By the mid 2000s, electro-house saw an increase
in popularity, with hits such as the Tom Neville
remix of Studio B's I See Girls in 2005 (UK
#11). In November 2006, electro-house tracks
"Put Your Hands Up For Detroit" by Fedde Le
Grand and the D. Ramirez remix of "Yeah Yeah"
by Bodyrox and Luciana held the number one
and number two spots, respectively, in the
UK Top 40 singles charts. Since then, electro-house
producers such as Feed Me, Knife Party, The
M Machine, Porter Robinson, Yasutaka Nakata
and Dada Life have emerged.
== Popularization in the United States ==
Initially, the popularization of electronic
dance music was associated with European rave
and club culture and it achieved limited popular
exposure in America. By the mid-to-late 1990s
this began to change as the American music
industry made efforts to market a range of
dance genres as "electronica." At the time,
a wave of electronic music bands from the
UK, including The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers,
Fatboy Slim and Underworld, had been prematurely
associated with an "American electronica revolution".
But rather than finding mainstream success,
many established EDM acts were relegated to
the margins of the US industry. In 1998 Madonna's
Ray of Light, an album heavily influenced
by club music trends and produced with British
producer William Orbit, brought dance music
to the attention of popular music listeners.
In the late 1990s, despite US media interest
in dance music re-branded as electronica,
American house and techno producers continued
to travel abroad to establish their careers
as DJs and producers.By the mid-2000s, Dutch
producer Tiësto was bringing worldwide popular
attention to EDM after providing a soundtrack
to the entry of athletes during the opening
ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics — an
event which The Guardian deemed as one of
the 50 most important events in dance music.
In 2003, the influence of dance music on American
radio resulted in Billboard creating the first-ever
Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart. By 2005, the
prominence of dance music in North American
popular culture had markedly increased. According
to Spin, Daft Punk's performance at Coachella
in 2006 was the "tipping point" for EDM—it
introduced the duo to a new generation of
"rock kids". As noted by Entertainment Weekly,
Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack" helped introduce
EDM sounds to top 40 radio, as it brought
together variations of electronic dance music
with the singer’s R&B sounds. In 2009, French
house musician David Guetta began to gain
prominence in mainstream pop music thanks
to several crossover hits on Top 40 charts
such as "When Love Takes Over" with Kelly
Rowland, as well as his collaborations with
US pop and hip hop acts such as Akon ("Sexy
Bitch") and The Black Eyed Peas ("I Gotta
Feeling"). YouTube and SoundCloud helped fuel
interest in EDM, as well as electro house
and dubstep. Skrillex popularized a harsher
sound nicknamed "brostep", or dubstep.The
increased popularity of EDM was also influenced
by live events and gigs. Promoters and venues
realized that DJs could generate larger profits
than traditional musicians; Diplo explained
that "a band plays [for] 45 minutes; DJs can
play for four hours. Rock bands—there's
a few headliner dudes that can play 3,000–4,000-capacity
venues, but DJs play the same venues, they
turn the crowd over two times, people buy
drinks all night long at higher prices—it's
a win-win." Electronic music festivals notably
the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) and Ultra
Music Festival also grew in size, placing
an increased emphasis on visual experiences,
and the DJs themselves, who began to attain
a celebrity status. Other major acts that
gained prominence including Avicii and Swedish
House Mafia held concert tours at arenas rather
than nightclubs; in December 2011, Swedish
House Mafia became the first electronic music
act to sell out New York City's Madison Square
Garden.In 2011, Spin declared a "new rave
generation" led by acts like David Guetta,
Deadmau5, and Skrillex. In January 2013, Billboard
introduced a new EDM-focused Dance/Electronic
Songs chart, tracking the top 50 electronic
songs based on sales, radio airplay, club
play, and online streaming. According to Eventbrite,
EDM fans are more likely to use social media
to discover and share events or gigs. They
also discovered that 78% of fans say they
are more likely to attend an event if their
peers do, compared to 43% of fans in general.
EDM has many young and social fans. By late
2011, Music Trades was describing electronic
dance music as the fastest-growing genre in
the world. Elements of electronic music also
became increasingly prominent in pop music.
Radio and television also contributed to dance
music's mainstream acceptance.
=== US corporate interest ===
Corporate consolidation in the EDM industry
began in 2012—especially in terms of live
events. In June 2012, media executive Robert
F. X. Sillerman—founder of what is now Live
Nation—re-launched SFX Entertainment as
an EDM conglomerate, and announced his plan
to invest $1 billion to acquire EDM businesses.
His acquisitions included regional promoters
and festivals (including ID&T, which organises
Tomorrowland), two nightclub operators in
Miami, and Beatport, an online music store
which focuses on electronic music. Live Nation
also acquired Cream Holdings and Hard Events,
and announced a "creative partnership" with
EDC organizers Insomniac Events in 2013 that
would allow it to access its resources whilst
remaining an independent company; Live Nation
CEO Michael Rapino described EDM as the "[new]
rock 'n' roll".US radio conglomerate iHeartMedia,
Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Media and Entertainment)
also made efforts to align itself with EDM.
In January 2014 It hired noted British DJ
and BBC Radio 1 personality Pete Tong to produce
programming for its "Evolution" dance radio
brand, and announced a partnership with SFX
to co-produce live concerts and EDM-oriented
original programming for its top 40 radio
stations. iHeartMedia president John Sykes
explained that he wanted his company's properties
to be the "best destination [for EDM]".Major
brands have also used the EDM phenomena as
a means of targeting millennials and EDM songs
and artists have increasingly been featured
in television commercials and programs. Avicii's
manager Ash Pournouri compared these practices
to the commercialization of hip-hop in the
early 2000s. Heineken has a marketing relationship
with the Ultra Music Festival, and has incorporated
Dutch producers Armin van Buuren and Tiësto
into its ad campaigns. Anheuser-Busch has
a similar relationship as beer sponsor of
SFX Entertainment events. In 2014, 7 Up launched
"7x7Up"—a multi-platform campaign centered
around EDM that includes digital content,
advertising featuring producers, and branded
stages at both Ultra and Electric Daisy Carnival.
Wireless carrier T-Mobile US entered into
an agreement with SFX to become the official
wireless sponsor of its events, and partnered
with Above & Beyond to sponsor its 2015 tour.In
August 2015, SFX began to experience declines
in its value, and a failed bid by CEO Sillerman
to take the company private. The company began
looking into strategic alternatives that could
have resulted in the sale of the company.
In October 2015, Forbes declared the possibility
of an EDM "bubble", in the wake of the declines
at SFX Entertainment, slowing growth in revenue,
the increasing costs of organizing festivals
and booking talent, as well as an oversaturation
of festivals in the eastern and western United
States. Insomniac CEO Pasquale Rotella felt
that the industry would weather the financial
uncertainty of the overall market by focusing
on "innovation" and entering into new markets.
Despite forecasts that interest in popular
EDM would wane, in 2015 it was estimated to
be a £5.5bn industry in the US, up by 60%
compared to 2012 estimates.SFX emerged from
bankruptcy in December 2016 as LiveStyle,
under the leadership of Randy Phillips, a
former executive of AEG Live.
=== Criticism of over commercialization ===
Following the popularization of EDM in America
a number of producers and DJs, including Carl
Cox, Steve Lawler, and Markus Schulz, raised
concerns that the perceived over-commercialisation
of dance music had impacted the "art" of DJing.
Cox saw the "press-play" approach taken by
newer EDM DJs as unrepresentative of what
he called a "DJ ethos". Writing in Mixmag,
DJ Tim Sheridan argued that "push-button DJs"
who use auto-sync and play pre-recorded sets
of "obvious hits" resulted in a situation
overtaken by "the spectacle, money and the
showbiz".Some house producers openly admitted
that "commercial" EDM needed further differentiation
and creativity. Avicii, whose 2013 album True
featured songs incorporating elements of bluegrass,
such as lead single "Wake Me Up", stated that
most EDM lacked "longevity". Deadmau5 criticized
the homogenization of popular EDM, and suggested
that it "all sounds the same." During the
2014 Ultra Music Festival, Deadmau5 made critical
comments about up-and-coming EDM artist Martin
Garrix and later played an edited version
of Garrix's "Animals" remixed to the melody
of "Old McDonald Had a Farm". Afterwards,
Tiësto criticized Deadmau5 on Twitter for
"sarcastically" mixing Avicii's "Levels" with
his own "Ghosts 'n' Stuff".In May 2014, the
NBC comedy series Saturday Night Live parodied
the stereotypes of EDM culture and push-button
DJs in a Digital Short entitled "When Will
the Bass Drop?". It featured a DJ who goes
about performing everyday activities—playing
a computer game, frying eggs, collecting money—who
then presses a giant "BASS" button, which
explodes the heads of concertgoers.After years
of rapid growth, the American popular EDM
market started to wane in 2016 when a number
of artists famous for producing so-called
'big room' electro-house started to diversify
stylistically. This development was directly
referenced by two such DJs - David Guetta
and Showtek - in a techno-influenced single
released in April 2016 titled 'The Death of
EDM'.
== International popularisation ==
In May 2015, the International Music Summit's
Business Report estimated that the global
electronic music industry had reached nearly
$6.9 billion in value; the count included
music sales, events revenue (including nightclubs
and festivals), the sale of DJ equipment and
software, and other sources of revenue. The
report also identified several emerging markets
for electronic dance music, including East
Asia, India, and South Africa, credited primarily
to investment by domestic, as well as American
and European interests. A number of major
festivals also began expanding into Latin
America.China is a market where EDM had initially
made relatively few inroads; although promoters
believed that the mostly instrumental music
would remove a metaphorical language barrier,
the growth of EDM in China was hampered by
the lack of a prominent rave culture in the
country as in other regions, as well as the
popularity of domestic Chinese pop over foreign
artists. Former Universal Music executive
Eric Zho, inspired by the US growth, made
the first significant investments in electronic
music in China, including the organisation
of Shanghai's inaugural Storm festival in
2013, the reaching of a title sponsorship
deal for the festival with Anheuser-Busch's
Budweiser brand, a local talent search, and
organising collaborations between EDM producers
and Chinese singers, such as Avicii and Wang
Leehom's "Lose Myself". In the years following,
a larger number of EDM events began to appear
in China, and Storm itself was also preceded
by a larger number of pre-parties in 2014
than its inaugural year. A new report released
during the inaugural International Music Summit
China in October 2015 revealed that the Chinese
EDM industry was experiencing modest gains,
citing the larger number of events (including
new major festival brands such as Modern Sky
and YinYang), a 6% increase in the sales of
electronic music in the country, and the significant
size of the overall market. Zho also believed
that the country's "hands-on" political climate,
as well as investments by China into cultural
events, helped in "encouraging" the growth
of EDM in the country.
== Terminology ==
The term "electronic dance music" (EDM) was
used in the United States as early as 1985,
although the term "dance music" did not catch
on as a blanket term [95]. Writing in The
Guardian, journalist Simon Reynolds noted
that the American music industry's adoption
of the term EDM in the late 2000s was an attempt
to re-brand US "rave culture" and differentiate
it from the 1990s rave scene. In the UK, "dance
music" or "dance" are more common terms for
EDM.[4]What is widely perceived to be "club
music" has changed over time; it now includes
different genres and may not always encompass
EDM. Similarly, "electronic dance music" can
mean different things to different people.
Both "club music" and "EDM" seem vague, but
the terms are sometimes used to refer to distinct
and unrelated genres (club music is defined
by what is popular, whereas EDM is distinguished
by musical attributes).[96] Until the late
1990s, when the larger US music industry created
music charts for "dance" (Billboard magazine
has maintained a "dance" chart since 1974
and it continues to this day).[93] In July
1995, Nervous Records and Project X Magazine
hosted the first awards ceremony, calling
it the "Electronic Dance Music Awards".[Note
4]
== Production ==
Electronic dance music is generally composed
and produced in a recording studio with specialized
equipment such as samplers, synthesizers,
effects units and MIDI controllers all set
up to interact with one another using the
MIDI protocol. In the genre's early days,
hardware electronic musical instruments were
used and the focus in production was mainly
on manipulating MIDI data as opposed to manipulating
audio signals. Since the late 1990s the use
of software has increased. Many modern electronic
music production studio generally consists
of a computer running a digital audio workstation
(DAW), with various plug-ins installed such
as software synthesizers and effects units,
which are controlled with a MIDI controller
such as a MIDI keyboard. This setup is generally
sufficient to complete entire productions,
which are then ready for mastering.
=== Ghost production ===
A ghost producer is a hired music producer
in a business arrangement who produces a song
for another DJ/artist that releases it as
their own, typically under a contract which
prevents them from identifying themselves
as a personnel of the song. Ghost producers
receive a simple fee or royalty payments for
their work and are often able to work in their
preference of not having the intense pressure
of fame and the lifestyle of an internationally
recognized DJ. A ghost producer may increase
their notability in the music industry by
acquainting with established "big name" DJs
and producers. Producers like Martin Garrix
and Porter Robinson are often noted for their
ghost production work for other producers
while David Guetta and Steve Aoki are noted
for their usage of ghost producers in their
songs whereas DJs like Tiësto have been openly
crediting their producers in an attempt to
avoid censure and for transparency.Many ghost
producers sign agreements that prevent them
from working for anyone else or establishing
themselves as a solo artist. Such non-disclosure
agreements are often noted as predatory because
ghost producers, especially teenage producers,
do not have an understanding of the music
industry. London producer Mat Zo has alleged
that DJs who hire ghost producers "have pretended
to make their own music and [left] us actual
producers to struggle".
=== Bedroom production ===
A bedroom producer is an independent musician
who creates electronic music on their laptop
or in a home studio. Unlike in traditional
recording studios, bedroom producers typically
use low cost, accessible software and equipment
which can lead to music being created completely
"in the box," with no external hardware is
used.
== Festivals ==
In the 1980s, electronic dance music was often
played at illegal underground rave parties
held in secret locations, for example, warehouses,
abandoned aircraft hangars, fields and any
other large, open areas. In the 1990s and
2000s, aspects of the underground rave culture
of the 1980s and early 1990s began to evolve
into legitimate, organized EDM concerts and
festivals. Major festivals often feature a
large number of acts representing various
EDM genres spread across multiple stages.
Festivals have placed a larger emphasis on
visual spectacles as part of their overall
experiences, including elaborate stage designs
with underlying thematics, complex lighting
systems, laser shows, and pyrotechnics. Rave
fashion also evolved among attendees, which
The Guardian described as progressing from
the 1990s "kandi raver" to "[a] slick and
sexified yet also kitschy-surreal image midway
between Venice Beach and Cirque du Soleil,
Willy Wonka and a gay pride parade." These
events differed from underground raves by
their organized nature, often taking place
at major venues, and measures to ensure the
health and safety of attendees. MTV's Rawley
Bornstein described electronic music as "the
new rock and roll", as has Lollapalooza organizer
Perry Ferrell.
Ray Waddell of Billboard noted that festival
promoters have done an excellent job at branding.
Larger festivals have been shown to have positive
economic impacts on their host cities the
2014 Ultra Music Festival brought 165,000
attendees—and over $223 million—to the
Miami/South Florida region's economy. The
inaugural edition of TomorrowWorld—a US-based
version of Belgium's Tomorrowland festival,
brought $85.1 million to the Atlanta area—as
much revenue as its hosting of the NCAA Final
Four (the national championship of US college
basketball) earlier in the year. The increasing
mainstream prominence of electronic music
has also led major US multi-genre festivals,
such as Lollapalooza and Coachella, to add
more electronic and dance acts to their lineups,
along with dedicated, EDM-oriented stages.
Even with these accommodations, some major
electronic acts, such as Deadmau5 and Calvin
Harris have made appearances on main stages
during the final nights of Lollapalooza and
Coachella, respectively—spots traditionally
reserved for prominent non-electronic genres,
such as rock and alternative.Russell Smith
of The Globe and Mail felt that the commercial
festival industry was an antithesis to the
original principles of the rave subculture,
citing "the expensive tickets, the giant corporate
sponsors, the crass bro culture—shirtless
muscle boys who cruise the stadiums, tiny
popular girls in bikinis who ride on their
shoulders – not to mention the sappy music
itself." Drug-related incidents, as well as
other complaints surrounding the behaviour
of their attendees, have contributed to negative
perceptions and opposition to electronic music
events by local authorities; After Ultra Music
Festival 2014, where a crowd of gatecrashers
trampled a security guard on its first day,
Miami's city commissioners considered banning
the festival from being held in the city,
citing the trampling incident, lewd behavior,
and complaints by downtown residents of being
harassed by attendees. The commissioners voted
to allow Ultra to continue being held in Miami
due to its positive economic effects, under
the condition that its organizers address
security, drug usage and lewd behavior by
attendees.
== Association with recreational drug use
==
Dance music has a long association with recreational
drug use, particularly with a wide range of
drugs that have been categorized under the
name "club drugs". Russell Smith noted that
the association of drugs and music subcultures
was by no means exclusive to electronic music,
citing previous examples of music genres that
were associated with certain drugs, such as
psychedelic rock and LSD, disco music and
cocaine, and punk music and heroin. Similarly,
the 1980s grunge scene in Seattle was associated
with heroin use.
Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), also
known as ecstasy, "E", or "Molly", is often
considered the drug of choice within the rave
culture and is also used at clubs, festivals
and house parties. In the rave environment,
the sensory effects from the music and lighting
are often highly synergistic with the drug.
The psychedelic amphetamine quality of MDMA
offers multiple reasons for its appeals to
users in the "rave" setting. Some users enjoy
the feeling of mass communion from the inhibition-reducing
effects of the drug, while others use it as
party fuel because of the drug's stimulatory
effects. Another drug para-Methoxyamphetamine
(4-MA) also known as pink ecstasy, PMA, "Death"
or "Dr. Death", it is similar to MDMA but
they can take up to an hour to produce effects,
which can result in hyperthermia and subsequently,
organ failure. People who take PMA are often
mistaken for it being identified as MDMA.MDMA
is occasionally known for being taken in conjunction
with psychedelic drugs. The more common combinations
include MDMA combined with LSD, MDMA combined
with DMT, MDMA with psilocybin mushrooms,
and MDMA with the disassociative drug ketamine.
Many users use mentholated products while
taking MDMA for its cooling sensation while
experiencing the drug's effects. Examples
include menthol cigarettes, Vicks VapoRub,
NyQuil, and lozenges.
The incidence of nonmedical ketamine has increased
in the context of raves and other parties.
However, its emergence as a club drug differs
from other club drugs (e.g. MDMA) due to its
anesthetic properties (e.g., slurred speech,
immobilization) at higher doses; in addition,
there are reports of ketamine being sold as
"ecstasy". The use of ketamine as part of
a "postclubbing experience" has also been
documented. Ketamine's rise in the dance culture
was rapid in Hong Kong by the end of the 1990s.
Before becoming a federally controlled substance
in the United States in 1999, ketamine was
available as diverted pharmaceutical preparations
and as a pure powder sold in bulk quantities
from domestic chemical supply companies. Much
of the current ketamine diverted for nonmedical
use originates in China and India.
=== Drug-related deaths at electronic dance
music events ===
A number of deaths attributed to apparent
drug use have occurred at major electronic
music concerts and festivals. The Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum blacklisted Insomniac Events
after an underaged attendee died from "complications
of ischemic encephalopathy due to methylenedioxymethamphetamine
intoxication" during Electric Daisy Carnival
2010; as a result, the event was re-located
to Las Vegas the following year. Drug-related
deaths during Electric Zoo 2013 in New York
City, United States, and Future Music Festival
Asia 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, prompted
the final day of both events to be cancelled,
while Life in Color cancelled a planned event
in Malaysia out of concern for the incident
at Future Music Festival Asia and other drug-related
deaths that occurred at the A State of Trance
650 concerts in Jakarta, Indonesia.In September
2016, the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina
banned all electronic music events, pending
future legislation, after five drug-related
deaths and four injuries at a Time Warp Festival
event in the city in April 2016. The ban forced
electronic band Kraftwerk to cancel a planned
concert in the city, despite arguing that
there were dissimilarities between a festival
and their concerts.
== Industry awards ==
== 
See also ==
Timeline of electronic music genres
List of electronic dance music record labels
List of electronic musicians
List of electronic dance music venues
Freetekno
Dance music
Rave music
Remix
Sampling (music)
== Notes
