Brady Schwenter said his Hispanic heritage contributed to his interest in electronic dance music.
“(In Spain) they listen to just different kinds of music, but dance music is one of the main ones,” Schwenter, a freshman studying music production and recording industry, said.The EDM market is worth more than seven billion dollars this year — up 59 percent since the 2012-2013 report conducted by the International Music Summit.
Brandon “DJ B-Funk” Thompson, who regularly plays venues in Athens, said people who listen to EDM are “looking for something edgy” and music that differs from what their parents listen to.“People are always looking for something new or fresh,” he said.
Popular music has started to incorporate EDM styles into their songs, but Thompson said it’s hard to know if pop music started to use electronic techniques because of EDM’s popularity or if EDM used pop to become more popular.
At the heart of EDM is a longing to dance, Thompson said.
“People like to dance,” he said. “It’s supposed to evoke some emotion to make you move.”
Chris Garcia, the vice president of Electronic Music Collective, said synthesizers are another key component to EDM. Synthesizers are used to combine tones or reproduce sounds of musical instruments.
“(EDM has) gotten more complex as we’ve gotten better gear and computers that we can produce on,” Garcia, a sophomore studying music production and recording industry, said. “As new synthesizers come out, we get new ranges of sounds we can work with. As you write people will share their ideas with each other and new genres will develop out of that.”
Like all genres of music, EDM has many subgenres. Garcia said trap is a popular subgenre in the electronic music industry right now.
“Since Skrillex and The Chainsmokers have really been pushing that sort of (style),” Garcia said. “It has entered the mainstream view and it has gotten really popular as a result.”
Trap music infuses hip-hop techniques into the song and typically includes rapping, Garcia said.
“It has the hip-hop beat going, which is sort of different from all the other (subgenres) in the way that it (has) an asymmetrical beat in some places,” he said. “(With) all the other genres generally you know when you’re going to hear beat.”
Schwenter said dubstep — a form of EDM that focuses on the sub-bass levels of the song — and trap are his favorite subgenres of EDM. He has been to some shows that feature those subgenres and said he moves his whole body to the beat of the music.
“They sound great in headphones, … but what makes EDM so special is that when you hear it live, it’s like a completely different experience,” he said. “I’m surprised I don’t have spine injuries or neck injuries (from attending shows.)”
Garcia said more people can get involved with electronic music because they do not need actual instruments to produce the music, as people can make EDM with software on computers.
“It’s certainly entered the mainstream now more than ever,” he said. “I think that’s because, with technology getting a lot better, a lot more people can get into (EDM) because all you need is a computer and some software to start writing this music.”
