EDM 101: History and evolution | Dave Suarez DJ

I’ve always thought that loving the subject you study is an effective way of learning: no matter if you’re a bookish kind of person or you never paid too much attention to lectures in classes, when it’s something you like, you get it. For that reason, what I hope to accomplish here is to reach a community who’s joined by the interest in EDM and who’s willing to navigate through its various -nearly infinite- facets, so learning the history of EDM is an interesting way of nourishing this love we ravers proclaim, isn’t it? Buckle up ’cause you’re about to enjoy your class with experienced professor Dave Suarez in EDM 101: History and evolution.

EDM, a wide-ranging hell of a concept  

As you may know, EDM is anything but one-dimensional. Short for electronic dance music, EDM is a collection of different electronic subgenres such as House, Techno, Trance, Dubstep, Drum n Bass, Hardstyle, Trap, and more.  It’s then a spectrum of digitally-oriented music genres that turn out to be the party soundtrack of choice due to their euphoric magnetic beats and the adrenaline diving and physical release commonly experienced among their sounds. All of this relates EDM music to other madly energized scenarios we certainly know well like clubs, raves, and large festivals.

Having this in mind, it’s not hard to imagine the big influence that EDM has had over the music and show industry. Gaining a lot of presence in mainstream media during recent years, EDM has proved to be a keeper to the hearts of club-goers and certain melomaniacs like myself, but, the big question is: how did it all start? 

EDM’s birth 

While most people will tell you that EDM was born sometime in the early 80s, I stand strong to correct this. EDM indeed took the world by storm during those years, but the reality is that a few decades before that happened, people were already experimenting with synthetic sounds for music purposes, bringing EDM to life. One of them was Delia Derbyshire, arguably the first electronic music producer and synthesist to ever exist. Hats off to this true pioneer. 

During the 60s Derbyshire’s revolutionary Doctor Who theme came to light as the soundtrack for this series. Its blustery magnetic sounds were an appealing novelty that came to have a big impact on the growing development of electronic music. Sadly, the story goes she didn’t get proper credit for her work, though, due to BBC copyright.  Here we’re thankful for what you did, Delia and this is a tribute to your memory. 

The late 1960s

Within this period, renowned musicians saw the potential in electronic music and started some experiments, merging it with other musical genres like pop and rock and originating new subgenres. Some of these musicians were The Beatles, Led Zepellin, and Pink Floyd who incorporated some elements like looping, synthesizer sounds, and vocal echoes to come out with psychedelic rhythms. This surely put EDM in the spotlight.

The rise of disco 

The 70s brought the disco era, a trending energy-charged time where nightclub life began to take shape.  While EDM was still not fully recognized on its own, it kept influencing some other genres like the glitzy Disco. In fact, it was during this time that the first DJs made an appearance at clubs.  Later on, during the late 1980s, a new wave originated. Known as Eurodance, it was first recognized as a mix of different genres like Funk, Hip Hop, Soul, and House Music while adding rhythm using computer technology and synthesizers. Germany was the home country for this genre that spread quickly through other Western European countries – hence the name. It didn’t take long for its melody-driven electronic sound to arrive in the US to hit the dance floors at nightclubs in New York City, LA, Chicago, and Miami.

Giorgio Moroder is a powerful exponent of this revolution and a big influence on current electronic music as he’s known to be responsible for incorporating the percussive beats and repetitive rhythms we hear today. He was also the producer of Donna Summer, another important name on this list of influential artists. Summer released the immortal classic ‘I feel love’, a significant piece in the creation of the hi-NRG genre and credited to be one of the most influential records ever made. Its harmonized and mechanical sounds laid the foundation for EDM and were an inspiration to artists like David Bowie, The Human League, and Blondie.

The 1990’s: A path of no return

You probably know what I mean by that title. Along with the 90s came the rave’s ascendance and contemporary electronic dance music began to fully form the sounds we recognize today. The firsts of these sounds that took on the realm were techno music, House, Industrial, and Trance.  That was it; EDM was already a thing.

As the scene started to gain a name, Acid House appeared and was trendy in the UK and Germany, where warehouses and underground parties were the perfect venues for continuing the soiree after clubs would close around 2 a.m., and people craved an all-night bash. And that’s how a massive crowd (hundreds and then thousands of people) would attend these underground parties that soon began to be commercialized and labeled as Raves. The most renowned artists at the time were The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, and Fatboy Slim.

Come the late 90’s and the ‘rave’ scene commenced to gain big exposure in America. EDM would no longer be associated only with European culture as electronica (the umbrella term people in the 90s gave to electronic genres) appeared on American artists’ radar. Electronica became popular for artists who reached mainstream success, like Madonna, whose album Ray of Light, heavily influenced by electronic tendencies, caught the attention of wider audiences.

The icing on the cake for this period was the release of Daft Punk’s ‘Around the World’ in 1997, a track that settled EDM on top of the global music charts, reaching number 1 in different countries. 

An ever-evolving genre

The new millennium came with a new way of consuming music. Digital platforms like YouTube gave people the independence to listen to music at their command and explore their tastes through similar artists. Not only the internet democratized the act of listening to music, but it also fostered the growth of highly committed communities of followers that, by the early 2000s, were already a lot of people, countless around the globe, ready to hit massive stadiums and go mad to EDM sounds.Moreover, producers like Tiësto, David Guetta, and Deadmau5 gained international popularity by this time. They were the prominent faces of electronica which, by the year 2010, passed the torch to a more full-grown term, EDM, as a way of rebranding the movement in the US and the rest of the world. Annual large-scale live festivals became a trademark for EDM too and spread through various countries.

This same year, DJ/producer Skrillex met international acclaim whilst popularizing the sounds of dubstep, later classified as brostep for his sound’s resemblance to heavy metals.As for today, in addition to those 5 relevant names, the EDM world is ruled by artists like Swedish House Mafia, The Chainsmokers, Steve Aoki,Afrojack, Diplo, Martin Garrix, and Kygo, headliners of the biggest EDM festivals like Tomorrowland (Belgium), the Ultra Music Festival (Florida), Electric Daisy Carnival (Las Vegas), the Exodus Festival (Las Vegas), the Weekend Festival (Estonia) and Mysteryland (Netherlands).

What I can tell you, after all this nerdy history lesson, is that EDM is a fluctuating phenomenon that will most likely continue branching out as we musicians keep the spirits up for exploring sense stirring sounds and people pass the vibe check and relate to them :).

If you’re interested in learning more about EDM, be sure to subscribe to this blog and get the latest deets on this flaming topic with your server, Dave Suarez. Catch you on the flip side!