NEW MUSIC, OLD SOUND

The Rise of Electronic Dance Music | The Buss

By Erin Schroeter

Published on 11–05–2014

Photo by Erin Schroeter

Before his two-hour set at the Royale Nightclub on Oct. 17, Boston-based EDM DJ Michael Marra said that EDM is not new.

“Our generation has really started embracing EDM, although the music has been around for a while. A lot of music now is sampled with riffs and baselines from ’80s music,” said Marra, “It’s definitely different but it’s not totally new.”

While electronic music has increased in popularity over these past decades and has become more widely accepted, it’s important to recognize that it is not entirely new. Electronica is new music coming from an old sound.

Marra, who makes mashups, remixes and his own original tracks, plays in low-key bars, packed nightclubs and even boat cruises.

“I like using vocals everybody knows and then putting my own twist on it — everybody loves it,” he said. “You’ve got to use things that people are familiar with to make people have the best party possible.”

In many of Marra’s mixes, he incorporates new pop music as well as older tunes to make a wide variety of sound.

When an average person listens to EDM, it triggers images of neon lights flashing, speakers blasting and a suspenseful buildup leading to an impressive drop. Modern music culture stresses the idea that the millennial generation is the first to truly embrace electronic music and form a culture out of it. But is this really the case?

The music culture of the 1980s consisted of snapshots of shredding guitars of glam metal, new wave, funky hip-hop rhyme and dance-pop disco dominated throwback playlists.

The 1980s are most commonly remembered for the first real increase in use of digital recordings and synthesizers to make truly new, post-disco electronic music. Electro, house and dance genre of music took the forefront.

“I enjoy electronic music because there’s so many different types of artists playing around with new sounds that appeal to me,” Christina Goulas, a senior at Suffolk University and fan of Marra said. “Michael Marra is great because he plays music that people know and everyone can dance to — I appreciate that the most.”

Michael Cole, a graduate student at Berklee College of Music and electronic producer of This is Sky, makes experimental electronica. His music does not follow the typical structure of the popular electronic music we find so much of today — that suspenseful buildup and impressive drop.

The reason he gravitated towards making electronic music is because “you can make absolutely any sound with anything you want starting from scratch,” Cole said. “It’s a window of opportunity for creation.”

Music is constantly evolving from generation to generation. Electronica is a perfect example of that. Without the influential work from musicians of past decades, EDM music wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is today.

“Electronic music has been around longer than most people know,” Cole said. “The electronic music in the ’70s and ’80s didn’t do so well, because it was so new and people weren’t used to it. However, when you look at the millennial generation, we grew up with technology at the forefront of life, so generally it’s more accepted nowadays.”