Why edm is bad

Writer: Kit Bienias. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading Chibuku 7th March review. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. Follow Following. At least that is what studies have claimed. Dr Tim Jordan, the lead scientist in this study, said that they wanted to firstly determine if there was a genetic marker that suggested a predisposition towards EDM, and secondly, if they could find a gene responsible, to study it and try to switch it on or off.

Yes, I remember punching myself to some Guetta soundtrack because I got annoyed. In most cases, people who suffer from EDM can counteract the effects of the mutant gene simply by aurally ingesting bpm of quality house music.

Did you ever think techno can be so useful? Basically those of you who do like EDM may even have trouble reading all this. Is EDM bad? Does EDM make you happy? Why EDM is so popular? Is EDM good for the brain? Does techno music kill brain cells? What is EDM lifestyle? Who invented EDM? Who is the No 1 DJ in the world? Who is the best EDM artist? Or does it seem shoddy, a business decision, an un-thought-through land-grab?

Quite often, these distinctions are not clear-cut, and recognizing them takes a bit of experience. But once you get that skill, you can spot [the latter kind of music from] a mile away—in the sound of a drum-machine or a synth, in the design of a logo, or the title of a song.

When you do, does it make a track or an artist objectively "bad"? But I think it makes it bullshit on some level, and my world is too crowded for that. What's your take on the gateway drug theory? I think people listen to generic music to be comforted, and those people never hope to be challenged by new ideas or wander into new experiences.

If anything, my music [has been] the gateway drug to less provocative music—a yellow brick road to popular artists who use counter-culture aesthetics to sell the same tropes of popular dance and hip-hop music disguised as something more. Remember Hollerboard? Spank Rock does. Even when there is scientific proof, we still manage to make all aspects of life subjective.

The question isn't if there is good or bad music; the question is if people have interest in upholding the importance of skill, craft, influence, and innovation above the numbers that make popular music popular. As someone who's written about dance music for the entirety of my career, I've personally experienced judgments made against me based on taste.

I think the reason why I feel a little raw about it is because the euphoric rush I get from listening to dance music has always been something purely emotional and life-affirming—even when I was ten years old, listening to DJ Sammy's "Heaven" on Z late on a Saturday night.

Taste is almost always personal, and even if insults against taste leave the relative mark of a bruised apple, there's still a bruise. I'm guilty of judging, too, though, despite the creeping feeling that scrutinizing people's enjoyment of specific things—music, movies, TV shows, whatever—has something inherently classist about it.

What is classism, after all, if not criticizing others for essentially not having access—financial, experiential, or otherwise—to the hottest and most original or indigenous sounds? If a year-old out there is vibing on terrible tech-house covers of Pete Yorn's "Strange Condition" this actually exists instead of Lit City Trax or whatever, what's the damage that's actually being done?

Maybe five years from now, that same individual will be babbling in your ear about the latest post-deconstructionist techno being made by an impeccably coiffed group of Bosnian teenagers that dress like Kevin Arnold from The Wonder Years—a situation that would suggest that he or she has "progressed" in taste. To which I would ask, who cares?

How does it affect you? As with so-called "nerd culture" at large, the expression and criticism of taste in dance music is often provincial and defensive—a reiteration that this little corner of the world is yours, perhaps. The internet makes said provincialism and defensiveness all the more insufferable, because expressing yourself on the internet is inherently performative, and there's nothing more performative than expressing provincialism and defensiveness.

Perhaps the reason why the discussion of "What is good taste in dance music? I don't think it's necessarily a problem that there are participants in EDM culture—let the kids like what they like! Popular music in the '90s was very influenced by house. I mean, it was house! For a kid growing up now, maybe it's less about EDM as the gateway, and more about songs like "On The Regular" by Shamir or "Latch" by Disclosure, both of which are legitimately good crossovers from dance music into pop.

Mister Saturday Night share their favorite party closers. That's an ongoing question I have with myself. I'm sure there are people who make their way to more researched music through the gateway of commercial, easy-to-digest or not-so-easy to digest, depending on the point of view music.

For me, it was not really like that. Let's say I understood old effective Josh Wink tracks long before I started understanding the more heady Jeff Mills productions. Don't get me wrong: I don't compare Wink at all with EDM, it's just that Josh Wink was more accessible to me before I dug into more complicated "arty" music.

But in general, I think the majority of people will stay on the other side of dance music, and just move onto the next hype instead of digging deeper into quality stuff. Ben Klock cracks open the spirit of Berghain with 10 essential tracks. In my socialist, zen, everyone-is-equal way, I want to say that it's all just subjective. Still, a view of the ocean is obviously more beautiful than a trash bin or a grey concrete wall on a grey day; there are things that are just more beautiful than others.

Even in a genre you are not so familiar with, you can still hear if it's a well-made production, filled with passion and original ideas, rather than a poor copy of something everyone has already heard. I disagree with it. If you're into [EDM], you're a different cut of a person with a different philosophy on life. Back in the day, when white kids would get into house coming from grunge, that was a true cross-over; but EDM seems to keep the fans into it. If they're on the fence or still exploring, sure, it's possible.

But diehard EDM fans? If it reflects their lifestyle and they don't wanna dig deeper, then that's who they are. I came up in Detroit at a time where this music made you participate in it one way or another.

The minute you play something that's true to the roots and techno, somebody who is into EDM will run away. It's really far outside the realm of real house and techno. If I want to say EDM is crap, that's subjective. If I want to say trap music is crap which it is , that's subjective. I mean, maybe it's just that I don't think [trap and EDM] are spiritual. You don't find tones in trap that speak to you in a deeper way. Maybe people do, but I certainly wouldn't be looking there for that experience.

Trap and EDM are the worst shit ever. However you get there is great. You always end up finding the real shit once you start with the artificial, because it's human nature to want to go further. It's like starting out popping Oxycontin and ending up mainlining pure Afghan heroin: once you start, you have to get to the essence. People who really love something will always dig deeper into what they are passionate about.

There is absolutely good and bad. As time goes on, the amount you are exposed to is increased. You see that something is either just a copy of something done many times before, or entirely unique at that given time.

That's why it's great to go revisit stuff ten years later and see if it still holds up to you. I remember getting into fights in record stores with DJs who would say to me, "I really like the record you're trying to turn me onto, but I can't play it.

DJs tend to be the most close-minded people when it comes to music, because they are constantly looking at music as a tool. The average person tends to be more open and have better taste in music because they allow themselves to react to their emotions.

For me, it's not about people "learning" to like the correct music through listening to shit. More and more, I find people who like both EDM and "deeper" stuff side-by-side, and see no difference between the two. They're sponges for new stuff, because it's a new world to them.

They should be encouraged, not scared off by grumpy old dudes.