I. When I Fell In Love with Electronic Dance Music

I remember my first experience with electronic dance music (EDM) as if it happened yesterday. That moment has since been forever ingrained into my memory. On a hot summer’s night in San Francisco during his Freaks of Nature tour, DJ Ryan Raddon, more famously known by his stage name Kaskade, planted a seed into my heart that, over the years, has blossomed into a fervent passion for EDM.

Growing up, I was trained as a pianist in the classical style, and much to the chagrin of my music teacher, had my fair share of exposure to rock bands and pop stars. However, I found my listening experiences with most music genres to be ephemeral. Sure, the music was pleasant and appealing, but I could never truly resonate with those sounds.

Perhaps my reasons for failing to connect with most musical genres rested in the limiting sound-producing capabilities of traditional instruments utilized in making those sounds or the predictability of the composition techniques employed in organizing those sounds. I longed for a musical genre that could unequivocally capture the spectrum of human emotions through its liberating sounds, and transform the passive listening of musical performance into an unforgettable, cathartic, perhaps even metaphysical, experience.

I remember standing in the front lines of the audience, watching DJ Ryan Raddon expertly spin the turntables amidst a stunning backdrop of visuals and lights, while the audience listened and danced to the electronic dance music groove. I felt the warm embrace of each independent textural layer of the music. As my mind was soothed by atmospheric musical lines, my body effortlessly swayed to the spontaneous beat of metrical dissonance.

The musical journey of that concert was intense. At times, I felt the sharp pierce of the clashing progression of abrasive, electro-influenced synths. At other times, I was shrouded by the ethereal harmonies of mesmerizing reverberations.

The peak of the performance was accompanied by an immense buildup and release of adrenaline that I experienced with the DJ’s drop, the point where after a suspenseful, musically minimalist break, the beats and the drums effectively rise and fire, causing the entire dance floor to erupt in a volcanic explosion of ecstatic dance movements.

Today, the art of the disk-jockey has enabled the proliferation and integration of electronic dance music into popular culture, introducing novel forms of cross-genre musical collaborations and forging interactive connections between composer and audience. Whether in the open-air ambience of music festivals or in the relaxing atmosphere of nightclubs, DJs continue to push the boundaries of musical composition and performance through an eclectic blend of beats and sounds.

In this essay, I will explore the origin and growth electronic dance music through the contributions of the disk-jockey in an effort to elucidate how the genre has transformed into a pervasive musical and cultural phenomenon from its humble, underground beginnings. In addition, in order to delineate the production and reception of electronic dance music, I will be highlighting the repertory of Grammy-nominated DJ-producer Ryan Raddon, artistically known by his stage name, Kaskade, and a musical figure who along with the likes of producers deadmau5 and Wolfgang Gartner, has contributed significantly to the revival of American EDM in the early twentieth-first century.

DJ Ryan Raddon has built a reputable identity as a innovator of the electronic dance music scene and has captured critical acclaim. In the past decade, he has released eight full-length studio albums, including his Grammy nominated Fire & Ice, topped the musical charts with remixes of popular artists as well as his original works, appeared in major summer music festivals, and headlined between 150 to 200 shows per year.

In his Grammy-nomination video, Raddon reveals what inspires his creative process; through this interview, it is evident that his musical talent is expressed in illustrative forms and functions.

As a songwriter influenced by the San Francisco melody-drive electronic sound, he believes that it is the lyrics and the melodies that make a record stand out and be timeless. As a producer, he seeks to transmit his artistic voice through his music, utilizing modern electronic music production techniques to enhance the instrumental quality of the vocals and melodies that he infuses into his original works.

In a reflection of his recent Atmosphere tour, Raddon recalls

“I was there, eyes open and shut, hands in the air and marveling at how we [the audience] all found each other.”

As demonstrated in a reference to his track “It’s You, It’s Me”, Raddon as the DJ Kaskade, strives to intimately connect with his audience

“like when we were young, but not even close to being alone,”

and constantly seeks novel ways to transform each performance into a memorable musical experience for his fans.

II. The Origins of Electronic Dance House Music and Kaskade’s Musical Roots

Although electronic dance music encompasses a broad range of musical categories, including styles such as techno, house, and trance, all music produced under the EDM umbrella has been historically defined by its relationship to the dance floor; the music is made with the expectation that it will be played and experienced in dance environments, it will be creatively presented and recontextualized by the performer, and it will be consumed and judged through eclectic forms and means by the audience. I will begin by examining the roots of electronic dance music in its dance genre precursor, disco.

Electronic dance house music originated in the United States during the early-to-mid 1980s in the nightclubs of Chicago. As it is musically and technically influenced by the disco era, EDM can be considered as the reincarnation of disco, a remnant of a bygone musical period that, over the past decades, has manifested into a distinguishable genre of its own. Many of the technological practices associated with electronic dance music creation arose during the disco era; disk-jockeys would mix and overlap records to produce a continuous flow of sound, switching back and forth between records through newly developed compositional techniques such as beatmatching, the synchronization of the beats of consecutive tracks, and slip-cueing, the aesthetic hold and release of records, to weave together seamless sequences of beats and rhythms.

In a segment of his Its You Its Me Redux performance in San Diego, Ryan Raddon demonstrates the classic DJ technique of beat-matching as he effortlessly transitions the rhythm from the slower, soulful outros of the track “Its You, Its Me” into the more uptempo beats of “LLOVE.” His successful temporal extension of the sonic flow is reflected in the enthusiasm of the audience as they cheer on during the fade-in of the subsequent record.

With these technologically-based techniques, DJs provided a novel setting for their audience to dynamically interact with music, shaping the dance floor as a sonic experience that carries the dancer from the confinements of reality into an alternate dimension of freedom and expressivity through her spontaneous, fluid movements.

Like disco, electronic dance music is characterized by a relatively fast four by four meter in the range of 120 to 150 beats per minute (BPM) and explicitly articulated by a repeating bass drum pattern that kicks in each beat. Disco, and subsequently electronic dance music, is constructed around the practice of dancing to recorded music, which serves as the disk-jockey’s palette. A repetitive, machine-driven beat, coupled with syncopated rhythms, provides the canvas for a performer to colorfully blend elements of funk and soul, the predominant records played in disco, enabling the DJ to paint a diverse sonic landscape of various musical influences.

For example, Ryan Raddon’s first album, It’s You, It’s Me, infuses elements of Chicago house music with 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul, musical characteristics referential to that of the disco genre. When “Meditations to the Groove” opens up the album, the listener is instantly transported into a comfortable relaxed ambience marked by a disco-like vibe. With emphasis placed on the amplified bass-heavy beat, this track attempts to seduce its audience onto the dance floor, uniting them to move under one groove. In addition, a soulful female vocal provides a slow and concentrated dissonant melody, adding a smooth and stylish demeanor to the track’s sonic quality.

Through their mixes, DJs create original production works with recognizable digital samples, instrumentation, vocals and or basslines, forging a communal language shared by dancers as diverse musical elements converse with one another structurally and affectively in their ambience. In fact, in her article “Disco’s Revenge: House Music’s Nomadic Memory,” Dr. Hillegonda Rietveld describes electronic dance music as a

“fluid groove machine within which the musical memories of underground disco are inscribed and re-enacted, embedded and embodied.”

Nevertheless, despite its roots in disco, electronic dance music contrasted from disco in many ways; these differences that would enable the electronic genre to take a life of its own. Although the distinctive sounds of disco was often considered as artificial (i.e. machine-made), most disco records were made with session musicians rather than through electronic production. Whereas disco places focus on the vocal, EDM emphasizes the instrumental, and if any vocal records do occur, they are often subjected to considerable timbral manipulation to enhance the instrumental focus of the EDM piece.

In the titular track of Raddon’s “It’s You, It’s Me”, the listener notices how the repetition of the following female vocals “You never know who’s waiting for you, You never know when love is coming your way, But if tonight i look again into your eyes, Then its you and its me and love, Then its you and its me and love” is juxtaposed among the instrumental lines of synthesized electronic guitar sounds and the percussive aesthetics of drum machines.

In addition, another track on the album, “Seeing Julie” reveals its disco ancestry through the “the gospel-style of its vocals and the funk of its base lines”, yet its instrumentation is largely electronic, its minimal composition featuring sung and instrumental melodies, and its slow, swing-like solos create a very natural feel.

III. The Role of Technology in Electronic Dance Music Production

As music technology improved over the years, opportunities for diverse compositional techniques in electronic dance music also arose; EDM itself began to move away from its disco roots and split into a multitude of electronic sound trajectories. While some artists incorporated synth-influenced percussive beats in their works, others sought to pursue more ambient, instrumental-based music. As reflected in his album Fire and Ice, especially in his collaborative track “Lick It” with producer Skrillex, Ryan Raddon’s electronic sound became more experimental, featuring intense elements of dub and big riffs, increasing complex interactions and reflections of rhythm, and more frequent levels of textural manipulation.

In their conversation transcripted in “Off the Record, Turntablism and Controllerism in the 21st Century”, Attias and vanVeen discuss the hallmarks of DJ virtuosity and authenticity, and how technology has changed the production and live performance of electronic dance music both visually and aurally; both conclude that the advent of new musical technologies provides infinite opportunities for live remixing possibilities and novel sound interactions. In spite of his focus on lyrics and melodies, Ryan Raddon considers electronic dance music production tricks to keep his music “current and fresh sounding”; they serve as an aesthetic facelift to stylize and enhance the core content of his work.

In electronic dance music, technology is directly integrated into the act of composition, thus blurring the distinctions between producer, songwriter, and the recording artist as the role of the EDM DJ often encompasses all three. In addition, the EDM DJ does more than just play records: he serves as the intermediary between the producer and the dancing audience, charged with the role of shaping the music heard and creating a single, continuous set that lasts an hour or more in length. Despite the abundance of music production technologies such as software that organizes and visualizes the DJ performance processes, the EDM DJ must be closely acquainted with the detailed characteristics of their tracks that they have chosen to infuse in a continuous performance. Otherwise, if an EDM DJ fails to ride the tension created by the heightening of the mix, his slightest imperfection will be blatant, reflected in the response of his audience as a sparse, if not an empty, dancefloor.

The backbone of EDM production rests in its utilization of electronic technologies, such as synthesizers, drum machines, sequencers, and samplers, in generating novel forms and unique permutations of rhythm, meter, and sound. The typical disk-jockey setup is as follows: a pair of headphones, two turntables and a mixing board; the EDM DJ must use this equipment to create a continuous flow of music by matching and synchronizing beats, aligning the periodicities of musical measures, and adjusting and maintaining a consistent tempo.

In addition, the disk-jockey commonly employs supplementary devices such as the effect processor, enabling the DJ to manipulate the records in real time. For example, compare the original track of Kaskade’s “Dynasty” to its remix by Swedish electronic duo, Dada Life.

The listener can clearly distinguish the modifications and mutations introduced into the original production track; effects such delay, reverb, echo, pan, and flange, collectively known as “EFX,” enabled Dada Life to transform the sonic landscape of “Dynasty” from relaxing and dance-like to intense and erratic.

In general, EDM technology fulfills four essential functions in terms of music production: synthesis, processing , sampling, and sequencing. Synthesis refers to the electronic generation of sound through oscillators and noise generators, while processing to the modification sound with amplifiers, gates, and filters. The DJ’s mixing board, with each input channel connected to a turntable, enables the DJ to facilitate the processing of records during live and often improvisational performances; for example, up and down movements of vertical faders permit the DJ to control the volume of each record independently through up and down movements, while horizontal sliding of the cross faders allow the him to control the balance between channels.

In the video recording of Ryan Raddon’s It’s You It’s Me Redux performance in San Diego, the camera provides us with a bird’s eye view of Kaskade’s musical equipment: four turntables connected to central mixing board; in addition, certain frames focus on his use of equalizer (“EQ”) knobs, each controlling a different range of the frequency spectrum. As the DJ transitions the flow of music from Haley’s “This Is How It Goes” to Nelly Furtado’s “All Good Things Come to An End”, we can see Kaskade cuing up the next record: he holds “All Good Things Come to An End” at the desired point and uses EQs to manipulate the timbre of “This Is How It Goes” as it fades. Once when the currently playing track reaches the desired point of synchronization, Kaskade releases the cued track with a dramatic entrance that is greeted by the audience’s cheer of approval.

Sampling refers to the process of obtaining periodic snapshots of sound; EDM producers often use samples derived from acoustic instruments and discrete “sound bytes” from sources such as speeches, movie lines, or musical popular culture. In particular, sampling plays an important part of track construction, especially in the creation of mashups which, as Ryan Raddon describes in his blog, is a musical collage,

“a juxtaposition of song fragments put together to create a new piece of art.”

Sequencing, the control of the instruments and events that appear in a track, directs the interplay and marriage of sound samples in mashup construction. Kaskade’s “Turn It Down Animals”, a mashup of his original recording “Turn It Down” and Martin Garrix’s “Animals,” exemplifies heavy sequencing.

In “Turn It Down Animal”s, the listener can distinctly tease apart the call and response interaction between the ambient vocal lines of “Turn It Down” and the forceful synthesized progressions of “Animals”, yet the DJ’s novel placement of electronic sound samples from his chosen records defines a sonic experience unique to the mashup.

IV. From Night Clubs to Music Festivals: a DJ and the Evolving Dance Floor

Although studio production of EDM tracks is still technologically mediated, the hallmark of a respected EDM performer, through the familiar form of the disk-jockey, is his ability to select, combine, and manipulate records into new, continuously streaming compositions in front of a continuously evolving audience, thus making live, improvisational performance an integral component of electronic dance music production and culture. In “Off the Record”, van Veen remarks how

“dancefloors instinctively respond to longer-held mixes as the affect of blended sounds creates heightened tension as the tracks play off each other.”

Dancers use their bodies to physically interact with electronic dance music, and a DJ must be able to expertly distinguish subtle differences in rhythm and pitch of his selected tracks to create a sustained, fluid stream of sound. Because an EDM audience is unpredictable in its response to a DJ performance, the DJ must remain in a continuous process of interaction with his dancers. His virtuosity is rooted in his demonstration of technologically-based compositional techniques in public practice with inherent performance risk. His mark of a true artist rests in his ability to ride the tension manifested in the unmediated movements of his audience.

In his blog post, “It’s You, It’s Me”, Ryan Raddon recounts the struggles of his years as an electronic dance music artist. Although he had been honing his craft since his twenties, his circumstances were desperate. He put his heart and soul into his first album of the same title, yet he knew that if his listeners could not relate to the vibe of his music, he would have to “prepare myself for that eventuality that music would just be a hobby.” Since the beginning of his musical career, Kaskade understood that, in order to establish his mark as a true EDM DJ-producer, he needed to create music that his audience would resonate with and remember.

Unlike other contemporary EDM artists, Kaskade’s signature mark in electronic dance music is his infusion of melodies and lyrics with complex rhythm and meter. He keeps his music fresh through unique sound designs and production tricks, but it is his emphasis on the lyrical, of which he expertly captures in his debut album, that propelled him into the EDM spotlight and enabled him

“to lead with my heart and create the slap and bass that would paint the audio pictures I was put here to make.”

Though it first emerged in the underground nightclubs of Chicago and Detriot, today, electronic dance music has paved its way into mainstream music culture, consumed in exclusive, nightclub environments, massive nighttime dance parties (“raves” and similar events), and daytime, open-air festival settings. In her article “Memory and Nostalgia in Youth Music Cultures”, Eileen M. Wu discusses how the often-cited rave ethos of “PLUR”, which stands for “peace, love unity, and respect”, characterized the San Francisco EDM scene in the 1990s and 2000s. These rave events depended on the coming together of diverse individuals to experience a collective energy, fostering not only a deep appreciation for the electronic sound, but also a strong sense of communion. No matter the type of the venue, dancers turn to the EDM DJ for an experience on the dancefloor that enables them to zone into their bodies and minds to feel the music within themselves and within the crowd,

“a distinct sensation of being alone together.”

Kaskade is one of the few exemplary EDM artists whose illustrious professional music career has grown in tangent with the evolution of electronic dance music in terms of its production and reception. In “Out of Nowhere: The EDM Story”, he refutes the popular media notion of how “EDM could just pop onto the music scene, *poof* and then dominate festivals, nightclubs, arenas, charts and even be given our own category at the Grammys.”

As reflected in our earlier exploration of electronic dance music’s roots in disco, since its emergence in the early 1980s, the genre has overcome many obstacles in its development and refinement, yet there has always been opportunities for rising artists to enter and shape the genre. In fact, Kaskade emphasizes that the strength of the EDM scene lies in its slow, but steady growth.

He remarks how EDM artists have been “lurking and making back alley pushes to help music as a whole for ages,” and how the genre’s musical potential has generated “some of the most creatively-savvy and long-lasting players in the music industry.”

Yet because of the broad range of EDM subgenres, as well as the increasing popularity of EDM in pop culture, DJs face another set of challenges: catering their electronic sound to ever growing, diverse sets of audiences. As electronic dance music hits mainstream, Kaskade laments for the artists who, after experiencing success, deviates dramatically from their musical roots and releases new tracks along the same cookie-cutter success formula in order to satisfy the demands of the majority, ultimately leaving some fans betrayed because the once intimate musical relationship they had shared with the artist is gone.

When Kaskade looks back fondly at Its You, Its Me, the record that garnered him initial success, he still finds meaning in his first single, but he refuses to recycle that one vibe, believing that “when a track is finished, it’s the end of the sentence.” Yet, despite his experimentations in sound, Kaskade asserts that the holistic approach he utilizes to create music has been and will always remain the same:

“one part heart, one part soul, one part technology, and one part muse.”

Raddon’s love for electronic dance music creation is deeply reflected in his artistic endeavors, enabling him to stay entrenched in his musical roots.

Kaskade, as an EDM DJ, shapes the jouissance journey of his audience on the dancefloor. Rhythm and meter, as well as their close interactions with texture and timbre, are the driving characteristics of electronic dance music, inciting, as what Mark J. Butlers describes in the introduction of Unlocking the Groove, “the force that inspires audiences to move with such fervor.”

The fundamental traits of rhythm and meter — duple organization, cyclical structure, metrical dissonance, underdetermination, and process — form the structure of EDM tracks that facilitates the DJ’s freedom in combining records through a “balance of predictability and irregularity.” The modular design of electronic dance music allows for not only great flexibility in composition, but also creative potential in its alteration and recontextualization.

This hallmark of the electronic sound enables disk-jockeys to construct musical experiences for its audience that not only promotes active participation but leaves ample room for individual interpretation and reflection.

In Disco’s Revenge, Rietveld notes that traditionally,

“the interaction between dancers and DJ on the dance floor has a particular dynamic that is simultaneously authoritarian and democratic.”

The disk-jockey, through her ability to construct a continuous musical experience, is bestowed with great power, but with leadership, she is also burdened with the responsibility of ensuring that her musical experience she weaves together is the one that is desired by her audience.

The crowd and the DJ dynamically and consistently interact. The audience welds a powerful influence on an evening’s set of music, and the DJ, in order to receive the maximal response from the dancers, must always be one step ahead of the crowd, attuning to the energy of the floor and arranging the mix to suit the particular moment in time.

Today, the scenery in which EDM listeners experience the electronic sound has changed dramatically, moving out of the intimate, underground nightclub and morphing into massive, daylight stadium style sets and musical festivals to accommodate EDM’s growing popularity. With their musical services now in international demand, EDM DJs must strike a balance between “the big feel of huge crowds, anthems, and mayhem” and the subdued, “small and dirty gig-type atmosphere.”

Whether it’s sharing his musical roots though intimate performances in his Its You Its Me Redux tour to designing spectacular individual experiences for massive audiences in his Atmosphere and Freaks of Nature tour, Raddon strives to perform across the spectrum, providing his listeners with a unique musical journey through every live performance.

The most successful of electronic dance music DJs, such as Kaskade, understand how to shape the energy and intensity within the set that is subsequently translated into the movement of his audience. Whether in a massive arena that holds tens of thousands or in an intimate nightclub that houses a hundred, no matter the size of his audience, a DJ’s goal is to seduce the crowd and to fuel its desire to keep dancing in a seemingly neverending musical journey.

V. A Concluding Reflection

Throughout this essay, I have explored the musical endeavors of electronic dance music producer-DJ Ryan Raddon, famously known as Kaskade, highlighting his artistic, technical, and stylistic contributions to the genre in parallel to EDM’s development, production, and reception. From its roots in disco to its establishment as a distinct musical genre, disk-jockeys have greatly shaped and influenced the technologically-based composition of electronic dance music. Because EDM focuses on the instrumental, its flexible musical structure and design enables artistic manipulation and recontextualization of its rhythm, meter, timbre, and texture, providing ample opportunities for DJs to create novel sonic landscapes of electronic sounds.

In addition, because electronic dance music is created for the intention of dance, the genre enforces a dynamic conversation between the DJ and his audience. To perform successfully, a DJ must effortlessly navigate the energy of the dancefloor and permit his audience to influence the progression of an evening’s music.

The most outstanding EDM DJs, such as Kaskade, have spent decades honing their skills and brazenly experimented with electronic sounds in order to create the musical experiences that their audience could resonate with. As the genre penetrates into mainstream popular culture, EDM DJs face a wave of challenges in crafting the next generation of electronic sounds.

However, it is through their steadfast refinements and contributions to this genre that has made electronic dance music into the cultural and musical phenomenon that it is today. As an avid listener and participant of EDM, it is only fitting that I conclude my intellectual argument with these personal, aesthetic considerations.

My first encounter with electronic dance music that night was nothing short of surreal. During Kaskade’s performance, I was not just listening to the music. I was moving with the music. I was at one with myself, I was at one with the audience, and I was at one with the DJ. While dancing in the ambience of those novel electronic sounds, I could truly grasp the continually transforming musical tapestry spun by the disk-jockey on his turntables. It was an electrifying night of musical euphoria.

During my first encounter with electronic dance music, I found myself connecting with this musical genre on a physical and cognitive level in a setting characterized by an overwhelming presence of technology. There was no traditional instruments in sight, yet the presence of a rich, musical symphony blasting from sets of huge speaker stacks is undeniable.

To a first timer of EDM, the possibility of a one-man orchestra seems implausible, yet up on stage stood sole DJ Ryan Raddon effortlessly manipulating a set of turntables and a complex mixing board, selecting and blending a diverse array of distinctive sounds in real time.

It is a marvel how the described technological scene of an electronic dance music performance can still generate such an exhilarating human experience. I remember the smile etched across my face as I sensed the musical meter in my body and I felt supernaturally invigorated by the energy that emanated from my fellow dancers.

The collective joy experienced by the crowd was evident in our faces, and Kaskade’s fluid mastery of a continuous rhythm was manifested in the beats that were visible in the spontaneous creativity of our seemingly perpetual movements.