Music means happiness and joyfulness and is a way to express emotion and tell stories . Music has developed different style and established new styles.music brings people together and help us when we are depressed and music heals people. There is no simple definition of music which covers all cases.The first music was probably made trying to imitate sounds and rhythms that occurred naturally. Every time I listen to music I feel like I am in the top of the world and that there is no one who is stronger than me. Music makes me euphoric, without music nobody will have known how to dance.The word music comes from the greek word (moussaka), which means “(art) of the Muses. We listen to it when waking up, while in transit, at work, and with our friends. For many, music is like a constant companion. It can bring us joy and motivate us, accompany us through difficult times, and alleviate our worries. Not only does music reach us on intellectual, social, and emotional levels, but many describe it as spiritual or mystical. In this blog I will be discovering two genres of music- Electronic Dance Music and Rap.
One of the most popular genres featured today is Electronic Dance Music, also known as EDM is a broad range of electronic, bass and drum heavy percussive musical styles created for dancing. It is made by DJs who create tracks, mixing ideas from one recording to another. EDM producers also perform their music live in a concert or festival setting in what is sometimes called a Live PA.
What is the purpose of Electronic dance Music?
Electronic Dance Music or better known as EDM, is about bringing people of all cultures, races and societal ranks onto one dance floor. There is are many dance genres associated with EDM, and here are some key ones:
- Trance. Trance music is an electronic dance music genre that came into being in the early 1990s in Germany and India.
- Glitch hop. A glitch hop is an electronic music genre that started in the late 1990s.
- Drum and Bass.
- House.
- Dubstep.
Drum and Bass is a genre of electronic music that started from jungle and rave scenes in the UK in the early 1990s.Fast breakbeats characterise its styles. Its typical beat is between one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty beats per minute with heavy sub basslines and bass. The popularity of this music at its commercial peak ran parallel to dance styles of other homegrown beats in the UK including hard house and the big beat. Its subgenre includes hardstep, breakcore techstep, Dark step, neuro funk and ragga jungle. The music has influenced other genres like techno, rock, dubstep, trip-hop, house and pop.
House music is electronic music that was created by music producers, and club DJs in 1980s in Chicago. Initially, this music was characterised by rhythms that were mainly provided by drum machines. While it displayed numerous characteristics that were the same to disco music it was more minimalistic and electronic. In 1984 this music genre became well liked in Chicago clubs. Figures like Franklin’s knuckles, Kym Mazelle and Phuture pioneered it. It quickly spread to other U.S cities like Baltimore, Detroit Newark, and New York all of which grew their local scenes. In the late 1980s, it became well liked in Europe and other major cities in Australia and South America.
Dubstep is an EDM genre that started in South London in the late 1980s.It materialized as an evolution of related styles music genres like the broken beat, techno, dub, reggae, drum, and bass. In the UK the origins of this music can be traced back to party scenes growth of Jamaican sound systems. In the early 1980s, the music featured percussion patterns, syncopated drums, sparse among others. First releases of this music date back to 1998 where the single release of B-sides of two-step garage was featured.
What technology is used to make EDM?
The DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) is used for recording, editing and producing audio files. This kind of application software supports devices that operate using the above-mentioned MIDI. The most popular DAWs for EDM music are Ableton Live, Logic Pro or FL Studio. Most EDM is produced virtually using the DAWs. This means that a lot of DJs and artists can do this in the comfort of their homes.
As anyone who follows EDM music knows, know of Skrillex, Deadmau5, and Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, and how their tracks have dominated the clubs and festivals around the world. The industrial-siren, incessantly pounding sounds of EDM have also been popularized on Top 40 radio by superstar producers like David Guetta, RedOne, Dr. Luke, and Calvin Harris, but the music’s real home, according to its youthful fanbase, is in warehouse raves, DJ sets at not-particularly-upscale clubs, and increasingly at live festivals, where both attendance and excitement has been upending the previous two decades’ conventional wisdom about the preference of American youth for rock, hip-hop, or country.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, following the emergence of radio and an upsurge of interest in EDM achieved widespread mainstream popularity in Europe. In the United States at that time, acceptance of dance culture was not universal; although both electronic dance music were influential both in Europe and the United States, mainstream media outlets and the record remained openly hostile to it. There was also a perceived association between EDM and drug , which led governments at state and city level to enact laws and policies intended to halt the spread of rave culture.
Subsequently, in the new millennium, the popularity of EDM increased globally, largely in Australia and the United States. By the early 2010s, the term “electronic dance music” and the initialism “EDM” was being reinvented in US. Despite the industry’s attempt to create a specific EDM brand, the initialism remains in use as an umbrella term for multiple genres, including bass, dance pop, hip hop which are new genres that are just introduced.
In the 1980s, electronic dance music was often played at illegal underground rave parties held in secret locations, for example, warehouses, abandoned aircraft hangars, fields and any other large, open areas. In the 1990s and 2000s, aspects of the underground rave culture of the 1980s and early 1990s began to evolve into legitimate, organized EDM concerts and festival in the countries. Major festivals often feature a large number of acts representing various EDM genres spread across multiple stages. Festivals have placed a larger emphasis on visual spectacles in the EDM as part of their overall experiences, including elaborate stage designs with underlying thematics, complex lighting systems laser shows and pyrotechnics.
How is EDM seen today?
As seen from the above research, EDM is not dead, and has simply evolved from one style to another. EDM still lives on, and is now in the top billboards. A recent line up of artists include (2019): David Guetta, Eric Prydz, Martin Garrix, Tiesto, Alison Wonderland, deadmau5, Armin van Buuren. The festivals are ripe and there are many around the world today that bring young people to the dance floor and raves.
EDM music is undeniably one of the most popular music genres to date but how well do you know the history of Rap? Join me as I take a stroll down memory lane and revisit the origins of what we know today as Hip-Hop.
RAP- What is it?
It is characterised by fast rhymes rapped over a beat, and simple instrumental loops or samples. The Hip Hop culture includes Breakdance, Rapping or (MCing) and graffiti art. It is defined by the late ’70s, early ’80s beat-box style of music where groups like Sugarhill Gang, Fab 5 Freddy, and Kurtis Blow. Some people classify Rap and Hip Hop as synonymous styles. But Hip Hop’s message tends to be more of a positive, and brighter one than Rap . Rap, on the other hand, is more concerned with what is going on in popular culture. Current rap stars like Eminem, 50 Cent, and Lil’ Wayne frequently rap about the prevalence of drug dealing where they are from and political issues.
What technology is used in Rap/Hip Hop?
Several technologies have become symbolic of producing hip hop’s famous sound and include the turntable, synthesizer, drum machine, and sampler. Rap is widely popular today, as it was in the 70s when it first emerged.
Technology and Production includes use samplers to create loops. DJs used turntables, and made scratching sounds to create unique sounds including reversing, pitch-shifting and filtering. There are also synthesizers / non-pitched sound effects used. Many tracks feature drum machines alongside loops. Originally old school hip-hop artists used two or more record decks to play instrumental grooves – often drum and bass breaks – while mixing in other patterns or short hits from other records. There was also a lot of emphasis on the bass/ sub bass frequencies and samples were lo-fi (low quality).
With its roots in New York (US) 1970s it is now a truly global phenomenon. Millions of records were sold, new fashion trends created, and fuelled social change. It all started at a party in 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, an apartment block in the Bronx, New York City, where hip-hop was born. in 1973, Kool Herc (real name Clive Campbell) span two copies of the same record on a pair of decks, removing the instrumental to zoom into the ‘break’ – the percussive section of the song, free from vocals. This was to keep people dancing for longer, but it laid the foundations for the loops and samples that would come to define the hip hop sound.
A lot of mainstream music today features EDM and Rap and this Summer in Wembley, these two genres will come together to unite youths. Prepare to hear the top artist and dance.
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