The Prejudice Against Electronic Dance Music (EDM): How Could We Have Our Own Interpretation for It
The impressions that Electronic Dance Music (EDM) gives others are usually darksome: dull and repetitive tempos, live houses, techno sounds, etc. The mainstream doesn’t recognize it as music but as artificial melodies synthesized by metalized instrumentation. However, fans of EDM have completely different thoughts. In David Michael’s article “How do electronic music fans think differently”, he reveals how fans of EDM perceive EDM differently compared to the mainstream: viewing EDM as a vent to present and interpret their emotion by intertwining it with events in life. As a part of the EDM lover community, my perspectives are also largely aligned with David’s arguments, and even more aggressive in some aspects.
“Is this the same song you just played? I can’t tell the difference.” “What? Of course this is a different song!” That’s the conversation David usually had with his friends whenever he played EDM in the car, and it also happens when I strive to recommend my EDM playlist to others.
From the view of the mainstream, EDM, as sounds which sorely composed of “dull” and “impassive” tempos, is not qualified to be treated as a genre of music. The seeming monotonous tempos of EDM are boring or even annoying to people when trying it for the first time, and gradually use up their expectations for it. Furthermore, the lack of lyrics in EDM could also make the audience unable to embrace it directly. For pop, country or other mainstream music, the lyrics always rank first among the components of a song. It epitomizes the emotion that the song wishes to convey to the audience. The lyrics always allow the listeners to sing along with the singer, which establishes a cozy as well as a harmonious atmosphere for the listeners to approach their idols. In the masses’ opinions, instrumental elements (which EDM relies most on) are only embellishments that beautify the song, and it is the vocal spearheading the entire composition.
But are the facts of EDM like how people have been stereotyping it for years? If any EDM fan is being asked about this question, the questioner would only get a firm “no”. The mainstream also has had adverse impressions on the EDM community for years: do drugs, immortal, irresponsible, and don’t have jobs. These are just one-way recognitions based on negative news, and the EDM community is glued together for 2 appealing reasons: pure love and self-expression.
Before I became a loyal fan of EDM, I am one of those groups that can’t identify the difference between EDMs. But when I listened to The Ocean by Mike Perry for the first time, I couldn’t stop loop-playing it. There’s a reason people favor EDM and it could be varied as long as they resonate with a specific tempo, where people commence falling in love with it. “The thing that I like the most about EDM is the energy its tempo can have. Depending on the song, the energy is different and I don’t know why but for me, the energy of an EDM song is much easier to feel and connect to rather than in other genres. I also really like the low frequencies and rhythms.” commented Tibor Novakovic, who has been listening to and learning about EDM for 8 years. It’s literally just a glimpse before you become a fanatic in EDM. The procedure is captious but rewarding: EDM fans undergoing this squint towards forming a more united community compared to those of the mainstream. In the raving culture scene, the friendliness and overall respect people show are incomparable in other musical concert scenes. If you are separated from your group, you could literally get adopted to another group and hug and dance with each other along with the tempos. The vibes and the way you could get treated in the raving scene are unique and unforgettable for people who ever participate, and it’s a community teeming with love beyond the border of race, ethnicity, and stereotype.
Admittedly, EDM doesn’t have many conversions in terms of melodies and mostly contains no lyrics as a contribution to the song (which could only deliver vague emotion to its listener), we (the lovers of EDM) have our interpretation of it. “Different people want to get different things out of their music. I like to give my own interpretation of what the musical selection’s melodies, harmonies, dissonance, and rhythms are telling me.” What Michael and I have a strong agreement on is that EDM exists to build a bridge between the external and internal. It gives space to its fans to draw imaginations on things and is not directed by lyrics like other genres. While listening to EDM, I always indulge myself in my own spiritual world: when there’s an ethereal melody, I could either place myself in an airy or aquatic space; when there’s a coalesce of intensive and soothing tempos, I could witness the wax and wane within the world; when the song reaches the high tide, I could feel that I have climbed over another summit over the Himalayas. One of my friends who also favors EDM has a habit of listening to Millions Days by SABAI before campaigns like public speaking and debates since the high tide section allows him to imagine himself addressing his arguments confidently while exposed to the audience. “It gives me the power to make my presentation successful, and without this feeling beforehand I can’t be comfortable doing this,” said him.
“I think I really noticed the difference when I came to the realization that there are so many songs that I am crazy about and have been listening to for years, and yet have no idea what the lyrics are. I came to realize that I often pay much more attention to the music than the lyrics or even the intended meaning of the song,” claimed David about the commonality among all EDM fans. Instrumentations are valued more in a song, and we relish the time appreciating the sound mixing, combing, separating, and eventually turning into what the song is about. Nowadays there’s also EDM composition with lyrics going viral on the internet, but lyrics are not the protagonist: it serves more as a binder connecting melodies together and pushing the emotion towards the peak when the high tides come. EDM fans are not only fans of EDM, but also songs whose melodies provoke resonation deeply rooted within you. It might happen as a coincidence and needs the luck to discover. To put it in a nutshell, it is not what type of song we like matters, but what it is about the song we find intrigued by.
