As you may or may not know, EDM (electronic dance music) has become the most popular genre of music in 2013. Actually it's been popular for quite awhile now, it just hasn't hit an all time high since now. Me being the deep thinker I am, I've decided to dissect this genre, has see how it has become so popular today. There are a variety of reasons why this genre takes up more spots on the Billboard Hot 100 than anything else, some may even surprise you. It actually took some time for the public to get used to consuming this type of music, but one song really broke the barrier and helped pave the way for other EDM artists like David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Skrillex, Icona Pop, Aviici, Nicky Romero, and DeadMau5, to become more popular than ever before.
Remember a little song called "We Found Love?". It's hard to think of it as the dawning of a new era but it was. In late 2011, when Adele and Maroon 5 were atop the charts with "Someone Like You" and "Moves Like Jagger", Rihanna was busy at work creating her sixth album "Talk That Talk". To promote it, she collaborated with then virtually unknown Calvin Harris, a British producer and songwriter. When she released the song it exploded onto the scene. You heard it at least twice everyday for six months straight, and it went on to become Rihanna's biggest hit, spending 10 weeks atop the Hot 100 and becoming the longest running number one of the 2010s so far. But why did it? Why were people so drawn to this song? There's a number of reasons for this too, but the main reason being that it introduced Calvin Harris, an EDM artist who was already busy making his debut album. His adept use of synths and other electronics gave the song a distinct sound, one that hasn't been heard in the mainstream yet...or was it? "We Found Love" is a very interesting subject not only because it was such a hit, but because of its musical structure. It combined both electronics and dance music in such a way that ushered the underground into the mainstream, yet it retained a pop-like quality, with those repetitive, sparse lyrics and skittering beats. Ultimately, it became a hit because it was released at the right time, when another group of artists were already busy trying to bring the underground club scene to the foreground. There was one artist who started to open the door for EDM back in 2008, with her signature outlandish costumes, people started to take notice of both her and her music, as it too was something that didn't resemble what was going on in pop music.
Yep, it's also hard to admit it, but Lady Gaga opened the door for dance artists. She, like Madonna had done 25 years earlier, brought the underground upwards, and she infused it into her music, giving it a more electronic feel. Like it or not, but she set the standard for dance-pop music for the next five years, because she made electronic music popular again. In bridging the gap between EDM and the mainstream, she was definitely an integral part, and as she kept churning out hit after hit, other artists started to take note, and it was easy to tell that soon every artist was trying to outdo the new face of dance-pop. The results were mixed, but it still started a new transition in the music industry all the same. Then there was Ke$ha, who followed the new wave of dance-pop and also started to crank out effortless hits like "Tik Tok" and "We R Who We R". Here music was actually more electronic than dance, but the beats were still insistent and Ke$ha still knew how to liven the place up a bit. She wasn't like Gaga, however, she wasn't so concerned about the cutting edge, as her collaborators of choice Dr. Luke and Max Martin made perfectly clear. She ended up solidifying eletronic pop music in radio, which then further created the bridge to the mainstream. But as Ke$ha died down, a new duo of club artists then were free to take the spotlight in 2011.
This duo was known as LMFAO. They had already made themselves popular in the clubs, but radios were unprepared for what would happen next. They released their sophomore album "Sorry for Party Rocking" and it was a smash, mainly because of the lead single, "Party Rock Anthem". That song was also another pivotal moment in the transition to EDM because it then made straight-up dance music popular again. Since they were already veterans in the clubs, they knew how to sneak underground trends into the minds of the consumer, and they basically took the opportunity that Gaga and Ke$ha had given them and had a monster hit because of it. But by summer 2011, LMFAO was just one club artist that had finally made their way to the surface. Now David Guetta was becoming a household name, and DeadMau5 and Skrillex were entering the mainstream as well. Although, on the note of Skrillex, his use of Dub-Step is also a notable trait of EDM, and he too gave pop artists a new way to connect with the audience. In actuality, Britney Spears brought it to worldwide prominence when her "Femme Fatale" was released in March 2011. "Hold It Against Me", "Till The World Ends", and "I Wanna Go" are all seminal examples of how much new club trends were starting to affect pop music.
Anyway, when "Party Rock Anthem" was losing steam (somewhat, it endured 68 weeks on the Hot 100), Calvin Harris and Rihanna were then able to crash through the door opened by all of the forementioned artists. The public was ready to consume a track like "We Found Love", it had an insanely catchy hook and it was also pretty sonically pleasing. The success of the song lasted well into 2012, but by then, everyone was turning to dance for a major crossover hit. David Guetta and Calvin Harris started to appear all over the place, most notably in songs like "Titanium" and "Feel So Close". But they were just one part of the mainstream now; dance and eletro-fied hits started to spring out of the ground at an alarming rate. That's why songs like "Wild Ones" and "Glad You Came" became hits, they followed the dance-pop formula while also incorporating new electronics into the mix. Lady Gaga and Ke$ha were largely absent this year, so other artist were free to take the reigns and kick them off the top of the charts for awhile. There was no escaping the massive surge of dance. In fact, "Somebody That I Used to Know" (the number one song of 2012) had to be re-recorded to infuse dance-beats in order for mass consumption. The One Direction-frontiered simple pop was also making headway, but not enough to eclipse the new EDM movement. Basically, if you released a song with electronics or dance-beats, you were almost guaranteed a top ten hit. This explains why singles like "Lights" became massively successful, and in fact, EDM could also explain why "Gangnam Style" and "Harlem Shake" became world-wide phenomena.
Think about it, would they have become so incredibly popular if they had been released in, say, 2003? Maybe they would have been popular to a certain degree, but not nearly as popular as they are now. It's all about timing, and people wouldn't have been so drawn to the dances of those songs if they didn't have accompanying music. The music of those songs was generic dance, to be sure, but it ultimately doesn't matter in the public eye, there was music to the dance, so that's all that they needed to become blown-out hits. It was also smart of Psy and Baauer to release those dance-hits in the 2010s, when EDM was running rampant. "The Macarena" became super-popular in the 90s because artists like Selena and Gloria Estefan made everything Latin-oriented a hit, so it's no surprise Los Del Rio were able to gain worldwide success with that song. Psy and Baauer were also underground artists that may have never seen the light of day if it wasn't for electronic dance music. But with every new movement, also comes a back-lash, an anti-movement, if you will.
EDM has steered the music industry in a new direction, but it has also brought its fair share of problems. It's the most popular genre of music right now, but it might just be too popular. It's becoming a particular problem because it's not just limited to dance artists anymore, everyone is starting to go electronic. Also, there has been such a drastic arrival of new club artists like Krewella and Icona Pop. Hearing Krewella's "Alive" for the first time made me realize that all of the ground that dance music covers has already been done, done again, and overdone. Icona Pop's "I Love It" is also another song that's not particularly bad, it's just not groundbreaking or original, either. Then there's Swedish House Mafia's "Dont' You Worry Child", with good lyrics and a fine message, but the music under it seems a bit too placid, even for a dance song. Basically, we've heard it all before, and no new ground is being forged by any of those artists, or the artists that pioneered this genre, for that matter. So, with the rise of EDM and machinery, the Indie-Hipster crowd decided enough was enough, and true to form, started to rebel against this new wave of electronica. This is why Mumford and Sons has seen a massive surgence in popularity, and also Phillip Phillips and even artists like Train have maintained their cross-cultural appeal, they simply don't sound like the rest of the music scene, and lovers of acoustic, soft-rock were very happy that they could at least indulge in these artists. But the artist who has made the most out of the anti-EDM movement is fun. Their straigtforward indie-rock resonated with a massive audience because they didn't just jump right to a crossover dance hit, they stayed true to themselves and continued to satisfy the slowly increasing Indie-Hipster crowd.
But out of the rock and indie genres, other pop artists have also started to take note and are trying to bring music back to the 20th century. The main culprits are Bruno Mars and Justin Timberlake: Mars tried to revive 80s funk with "Locked Out of Heaven" (it didn't work), 70s disco with "Treasure" (that was more successful) and Timberlake sought to update the Swing and Soul grooves of the 40s-60s, with varying levels of success. Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez were able to come into their own because "The Way" is a JoJo-esque song that recalls 2000s R&B, and "Come and Get It" is an Indian-fused dance groove that also brings originality to dance-pop. And then there's Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. In the midst of the tug of war between EDM/Simple Pop and Indie-Rock/Disco-Swing revival, rap music was sort of being pushed underground. Rappers still make lots of money and appear regularly on the charts, but their appearances are mostly of EDM and Simple Pop tracks, not straight-up rap songs. This is why Macklemore and Ryan Lewis saw an explosion of popularity, other than the fact that Macklemore is absolutely hilarious, they make rap music, not pop, dance, or rock, it's rap music that was tailored to appeal to a wide audience. And once again, it sounds not at all like other rap music, or other pop music for that matter.
This brings me to my final point: the re-surgence of Daft Punk. They've been known as dance and house artists for a long time, so when "Random Access Memories" hit stores this year, it would at first seem like an attempt to regain popularity by riding the latest modern trends, but it thankfully is not. It's nowhere close to 2010s EDM, instead, it does what Bruno and Justin couldn't: it revives 20th century music successfully and it's also pretty humane and entertaining as well. As I've already reported, yeah Daft Punk still sounds like machines striving to be human, but that's the point: human. It's almost impossible to deny that pop music has become so contrived and calculated, beyond the auto-tune, electronics, and drum machines, there's not much else that can recall humanity. Pop music has always had a tendency to sound too similar, but it's becoming a problem now because never before has a sub-genre of pop become so widely used. Thank the Lord for Daft Punk, they've made a groundbreaking artistic move by releasing "Random Access Memories" because it begs the music industry to be human again, and not to rely on steel and cold calculations. That's why Daft Punk has become more popular than ever before: after scoring their first top ten hit and a number one album is soon to come (says Billboard), it appears that the masses might be starting to catch on to their way of thinking. It sure would be nice to put some tangible life back into music.
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