Why is humanity drawn to dance music?
Is it because we have a primal instinct to move our bodies in time with the music? Is it because we have a primal instinct to move our bodies in time with each other? Is it because we have a primal instinct to feel like we belong, and dancing together with others allows us to temporarily experience this feeling of belonging?
Or maybe it’s because dance music is just awesome.
In his essay “How Electronic Dance Music Can Change Your Life, In 20 Lines or Less,” Ben Ratliff delves into the world of EDM (electronic dance music) and attempts to explain why he feels that it is “the defining music of the current moment” — not only for teens and twenty-somethings who live for the weekend, but for any human being who enjoys the sensation of moving their body in a rhythmic fashion.
Ratliff describes how people who aren’t particularly interested in EDM can still enjoy it if they allow themselves to be immersed in its energy: “The best of electronic dance music can make you feel like you’re part of a mass process rather than a consumer of something made by other people.” He encourages readers who are intimidated by the genre’s complexity to listen beyond their
There are a few ways in which EDM can change your life.
Firstly, it will improve your energy and endurance.
Secondly, you will make better decisions.
Finally, it will help with your weight loss efforts.
The first way in which EDM can change your life is that it will improve your energy and endurance.
When you listen to electronic dance music, it affects the part of the brain that controls motivation and reward. There are many studies that have looked at this phenomenon. One study showed that listening to rap music had a positive effect on the brain. Another study showed that listening to classical music had a negative effect on the brain activity associated with sadness and depression.
In addition to increasing the amount of dopamine in your brain, EDM also increases endorphin levels which are chemicals in the body that make us feel good.
This leads us to our second point about how EDM can change your life: You will make better decisions.
Studies have shown that when people listen to EDM they are more likely to take risks and make decisions based on feelings rather than thinking things through logically or rationally. This is because dopamine increases both risk-taking behavior and emotions such as excitement or pleasure while decreasing fear or anxiety
I’m not a fan of electronic dance music, but I’m a fan of the labels that release it. I see EDM as an extension of the dance music I grew up with in Detroit and Chicago. The sound has changed, but the spirit is the same: deep bass, pumping beats and melodies and hooks you can sing along to.
I know some people find EDM annoying. It’s not for everyone. But for those who like it, there are many great labels out there — Fool’s Gold, Mad Decent, OWSLA and others. They’re doing innovative things online, with merchandise and in their approach to touring. In particular, they’re making technology work for them rather than against them — something that many artists are still struggling with.
If you want to learn more about electronic dance music, I recommend a new documentary called “Under the Electric Sky.” It follows several fans at this year’s Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. It opens across North America on June 27th.
There’s a billion-dollar industry behind this music, and there are plenty of DJs who have added to its success. But the music is also deeply personal, and the best DJs are those who recognize that every single person in the club is there for one reason: To escape from reality.
Sure, they’re looking to get high and get laid and get crazy. But they’re also looking to forget their problems. So your job as a DJ is to give them a moment where they can do just that.
I’ve had people come up to me after my sets and tell me how much I changed their lives with my music. It’s not because I did something particularly amazing or played some secret track that no one has ever heard before. It’s because I was able to create a moment where they were able to let go of all their worries, if only for a few hours. And once you experience that feeling of release, you realize that life isn’t so bad after all; in fact, it can be pretty great.
It’s a lesson that I wish everyone could learn.
Most of the best artists in any medium come from a scene where they can learn from other artists. In the late 80s and early 90s, a new kind of electronic music was created. It was originally called “house” music, but as it evolved and grew, it came to be known as “electronic dance music.”
In order to understand why electronic dance music is important, you have to understand that most popular music today is made with computer software:
Most rock stars today use Apple’s Logic Pro. Lady Gaga and her producers use Ableton Live. Taylor Swift uses Logic Pro too.
At its peak Logic sold about five million copies per year. But that was fifteen years ago; it has probably declined since then. And this is just one program among many: there are dozens of similar programs for people who want to make electronic music — FL Studio, Reason, Cubase, Bitwig Studio, Audacity, and so on.
Electronic dance music (EDM) is created by combining all these different tools together in ways that no one has ever used before. It’s a genre of music that combines elements of house, techno, trance, hip-hop and other genres into something new and unique. The result is something like a cross between
If you want to start a new life, move to Detroit. Entire neighborhoods in this city of 714,000 have been razed to the ground and left to rot. Once-bustling shopping districts are now wastelands; huge expanses of empty land sit where schools and residential streets once stood. Most people here haven’t had work in years, and with each passing month the city sinks further into debt.
But at night, if you know where to go, you can see one thing that still thrives: electronic music. Even here, where the unemployment rate is officially 28% but unofficially considered much higher, DJs and producers are crafting some of the most exciting dance music on the planet.
You can hear their tracks in clubs from Berlin to Belgrade, but many locals remain unaware of this success because few people outside Detroit know about it either. For decades the world’s most popular music has come from one place: New York City or Los Angeles or London or Nashville or Kingston or wherever else ambitious people congregate and seize opportunities.
Detroit is that kind of place — it was for a long time — but for many years now it’s been better known as “America’s first third-world city.” It’s not clear that will