E.D.M. Then and Now

Just short and sweet this time...

I tried to wrack my brain a little bit to understand what has happened to the beloved genre of electronic dance music.

Traditionally, this movement out of the experimentation, disco, pop and anti-pop-counterculture of the 80s bred this strain of music that was compelling and demanded the most personal and intimate of dance.

There wasn't an emphasis on the coordination and choreography, rather it was your personal interpretation, enjoyment and exploration of yourself through the music and it's associated dance.  I believe, fundamentally, that's what rave culture was initially about.

Fundamental 90s EDM sample: of Prodigy's "Out of Space"

Well that and taking ecstasy...(The Shamen)

However, in the later years of the 90s came the reverence of the superstar DJ.  Keoki, Oakenfold, Tiesto, Benasi, Darude and the like became more and more stylized, and more and more hyped.  The music was very similar to the roots, but stylized to incorporate more overt sexuality, and electronic dance music was now oriented towards the DJ, spinning in a club.  Nightclubs, of course being places for people to check each other out.  

But not only was it the social aspect...this came with it an aire of exclusivity and fashionability.  Dress-codes enforced, and sometimes, hotness-codes too, where you have to line up on the velvet rope whether in Miami or Mayorca to experience the hottest show in lights, 4-on-the-floor and of course sexiness.

Example of the 00s club culture: Tiesto's "Elements of Life"

Maybe it's just me...but I really get annoyed by how electronic dance music pushes this.  It pushes this sexist and sexual agenda of a hyper-sexed aesthetic, of exclusives of airbrush make-up models with the greatest bodies need only apply.  Whatever happened to enjoying the music?

Which is why I suppose Basshunter went from amazing trance-based songs about nerd-life to re-hashing his shit to front about girls, sex and clubs.

Basshunter's "Now You're Gone" from 2009.

Maybe I'm just jaded and should just go back into a dark room and listen to Dub Step on headphones...as it's the perfect music to express isolation and loneliness...or at least getting snubbed.

The dub-step scene, brought to you by London's Hyperdub label, Burial's "Ghost Hardware".