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What is EDM?

23:28 |

If you were to ask someone 10 years ago what "EDM" is, more often than not they wouldn't know. Ask someone that same question today, you will find many people somewhat know what you are talking about.

EDM, or Electronic Dance Music is the music that has been on the rise for the past decade and recently has risen to the biggest it's ever been. Some of you may be asking, what exactly is Electronic Dance Music, and it's exactly what it sounds like it is. EDM is music produced on a DAW or Digital Audio Workspace that is produced using digital instruments. When people realize what EDM actually is many of them are very skeptical as to whether or not they appreciate it. When the term "Electronic Music" comes up the thing that pops into most peoples heads is the "Techno" or "House." This is true, these are two genres of music which are considered EDM, but this is where the misinterpretation comes in.

Many people have told me they don't like electronic music because "it is annoying" or "it is just weird sounds." Which is quite funny because last time I checked that is what music is, sounds. But at the same time, I can see where these people are coming from, they haven't seen the beauty behind electronic music. Many people often think electronic music is that generic 4x4 fist pumping music played in clubs. which for the past ten years you could argue that is true, but with the rise to what electronic music is today, it is more than just club music. Many artists have switched mindsets, instead of having the ability to make all these the weird sounds they could never make with instruments like a guitar, artists have started to see their ability to use every instrument and create music as a single purson. Famous EDM artists such as Zedd, and Porter Robinson took advantage of this fast.

Zedd produced the song "Clarity" originally as an electronic song. But with his musical knowledge and piano abilities he is able to preform acoustic versions live and even on David Letterman. As well, famous producer, Porter Robinson who coined his own genre called "Complextro" created the song "Language" which is even played in our very own Vancouver Canucks opening. You can also hear french Electronic music producer Madeon's song "Finale" being played after.

It's always interesting to see people's reactions after I show them one of these two songs. Most people are completely caught off guard, people who don't actually know what EDM is don't realize that this is actually what it is. Their opinion on the music after I show them "Clarity" or "Language" is generally positive.

With the huge rise in popularity of EDM music, as well as people finally seeing past the misinterpretations of the genre, we are merely in the beginning of this craze, it is just beginning to emerge as a mainstream genre and has started to be heard on the radio, festivals devoted to this genre are starting to sell out months in advance. According to the Spin Magazine, we are in the midst of a "new rave generation" and the new revolution of music has just begun.

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Misconceptions of Rap

21:43 |

What thoughts come to mind when you think of rap? Good, wholesome, family friendly songs? I don't think so, at least I definitely don't. When I think about rap, my mind immediately zooms to clubbing scenes, sex and drugs. I think about how senseless rap is and how it's possible for a genre of music to be so pointless.

Where in the world did I get such a bad opinion of rap? Obviously, I have a very narrow vision of rap and this comes from what little I see and hear of it because that little sample that I get isn't a good sample. If we step back from the popular rap songs, we would be able to notice how different artists have used rap as a more meaningful medium than others.

The meaning of rap by definition is

but through what we might see of it through media, the meaning has been twisted into "a type of rhythmic talking about sex, drugs, and violence, often with accompanying rhythm instruments"

Above is the music video for one of T Pain's songs "Buy U A Drank" and aside from the spelling choice (grammar is important to me), the song is entirely about how he wants to pick you up in a club and "buy u a drank", hence the song title. Another example of a song that's helped me develop my definition of rap is "Hot In Here" by Nelly.

In this music video, the club scene is depicted as a sort of dance floor where everyone is getting so hot, they start talking all their clothes off at the prompt of Nelly. As we watch the video, we notice how it's mainly girls who are undressing themselves. I think that might have something to do with the reputation that rap has.

If you think about it, this is kind of unfair towards the more meaningful side of rap. The name of rap has been tarnished by the grittier songs and leaves less room for people to consider other sides of rap.

Above is a music video for Common's song called Testify which is about an alleged killer and his wife and how his wife deals with this problem.

This is a song called "Mockingbird" by Eminem and it in, he seems to be talking to his daughter about their experiences together.

These are two songs that do not have much similarities of meanings as the first two but the thing is, they are both tossed into the same categories because of society's misinterpretation of popular rap. The popular version of something does not necessarily define it as a whole and because of this miscommunication, many people miss out on the opportunity to observe a really great way of expressing music.

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Music Can Be A Disastrous Medium Too

16:55 |

Have you ever heard of Slipknot, HIM, Evanescence, Metallica? That's right. They are all gothic metal bands. Gothic metal is a genre of heavy metal music. It is a combination of the dark atmosphere in gothic rock with the aggression of heavy metal music. Gothic metal originated from Europe in the early 1990s, where it was seen as the outgrowth of death and doom. (Wikipedia)

The lyrics of this genre of music are extremely melodramatic and dark, as most inspirations are from gothic fiction and personal experiences.

Music is a type of open circuit communication, therefore it creates many opportunities for misinterpretation. This is why song lyrics must be carefully written. People who tend to be sensitive will pay very close attention to the words. Some may even take them literally. And by literal, I mean literal.

April 23, 2006: Jeremy Steinke (23) and Jasmine Richardson (12), slaughters girl's family, stabbing her mother, her father and eight-year-old brother to death.

Steinke and Richardson met at a punk concert early 2006. Since then, they started to go out and Richardson looked up to her boyfriend. Being ignorant and malleable, she eventually enamored with the gothic style.

Steinke's relationship with girlfriend, Richardson, was strongly opposed by her family. I mean, who would really want their premature daughter to be dating someone 11 years older than her, and has a not-so-friendly outer appearance? According to the investigations made, Richardson was already grounded for a month from seeing Steinke when she decided it was time to gut the whole family like fish.

Steinke often referred himself as a "300-year-old werewolf" who believes in "blood, destruction, guts, gore and greed". Hence I think it is safe to assume that he got most of his 'inspirations' from the lyrics of gothic metal band music.

Has anyone ever heard of Cradle of Filth? They are yet another gothic metal band.

Click on the YouTube video above. Can you hear what they are singing? No? Well, that's because they're not singing- they're just screaming and slamming on their bass guitars. This 'song' is different from the others. It's mostly instruments and screaming. These are the only lyrics for the song:

Thrill, kill the black

Walk among the weak by night Affliction...Deep as any burial

Take their worthless lives...

My, oh my, is that suggestive. This could be the reason why this band was brought up multiple times in court and in the press. Both Steinke and Richardson were obsessed with this band. I wouldn't be surprised if the lyrics by this band made an influence on the couple and resulted in the massive slaughtering of Richardson's family.

However, Cradle of Filth is not the only gothic metal band that sings violent and aggressive lyrics.

Avenge Sevenfold is another well-known heavy metal band. Some of their songs can even be found in the Nintendo Wii and Xbox game, Rockband.

Must have stabbed her fifty fucking times,
I can't believe it,
Ripped her heart out right before her eyes,
Eyes over easy, eat it, eat it, eat it

See what I mean?

If you went on Google now and typed in "list of gothic metal bands", you will notice that most of the band names make you feel very hopeless and dark because they give off a very eerie feeling:

Cryptal Darkness

Deathstars

For My Pain...

My Dying Bride

Rotting Christ

Theatre of Tragedy

The lyrics of these gothic mental band music seem to have the same effect as methamphetamine, marijuana, heroin or cocaine. Listening to them allows a temporary release of emotions and feeling. However, sometimes they do not choose a very pleasant way of relieving themselves.

Heavy metal artists such as Ozzy Ozbourne and Judas Priest "were made to hold their lyrics responsible for suicide attempts by their fans" (McCoy, 2009). There was also a shooting in 1999 at Colorado's Columbine High school that involved the lyrics by Marilyn Manson greatly influencing teenagers to be killers (McCoy, 2009)

Teenagers, in particular, are youngsters who are ignorant and vulnerable. They lack relevant world knowledge while they are at a concrete stage of cognitive development. Therefore if they are mislead at this crucial turning point of their lives, they may "[soak] up violent pop culture like a sponge", and cases like Steinke will unfortunately recur in our society (McCoy, 2009).

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Open Condom Style!

23:51 |

Internet sensation, best song of 2012, 1.2 billions views on Youtube, and Korea’s real break into the American music industry is PSY’s “Gangnam Style.” Since the release of this song, billions of people have watched and danced along to his famous horse dance. Everybody, from 2 year olds all the way up to seniors in their 70s and 80s have danced along to his catchy “oppan gangnam style.” Being Korea myself, it brings me a real sense of national pride and patriotism. PSY, very patriotic, has chanted “long live Korea,” on worldly known tv programs and news stations.

At first, Americans found the song amusing because they thought the lyrics were “open condom style” and the music video itself was very comedic. In fact, PSY, before he was world famous, was an old singer in Korea, who, to keep his fame alive, appeared in many comedy programs to keep his name on the boards, going so far as to reveal his pit stains for the sake of comedy. PSY is actually a comedic singer which can be proven by the comedic music video. In his video he even featured top Korean comedians, Yoo Jae Suk, and No Hong Chul, also known as the yellow guy with the red Mercedes, and the elevator guy respectively.

Being Korean and all, I am proud of PSY and I broke out tears of joy when I saw the live performance of PSY at the new York times square countdown on December 31, 2012. However, I do not feel this song shouldn’t have been the one to break through. Out of all the songs PSY has released, this is quite sexist and in a way perverted. When little non-korean kids sing and dance along to this song, I feel terrible for them. If one is to actually translate the lyrics of this song, it is very sexist.

Gangnam is a district in Korea of higher class residents and is comparable to downtown Vancouver or West Vancouver. To highlight the lyrics, it talks about women in Gangnam as seen in the first line of the song; In the daytime these girls are sophisticated and innocent, they are able to relax at a cup of coffee, but when night time comes they get all loose. Also in the song, before the famous “oppan gangnam style” line, PSY says, let’s go as far as we can go. This line can be misinterpreted by many people because of culture differences.

In Korea, the drinking habits are beyond what you believe is possible. They go to work for 12 hours days, then afterwards the office goes out to a restaurant to have food and drinks, but it doesn’t stop there. In Korea when they drink, they have stages. These stages represent which restaurant or bar they have been to. For example, if they are on their fourth stage, it means they have drank at four places. In the song, Let’s go, by Calvin Harris, the “let’s go” line is interpreted as, let’s go reach our goals, let’s go have fun, let’s go have a good time. When PSY says, let’s go as far as we can go, it relates to these “stages.” So basically what he is saying is, let’s drink as much as we can until we are done. And one must understand, in Korea when you are done, you are done as in, sleeping on the street at 9 am done. You must also understand, in Korea it is not uncommon to drink till 8 am, I even remember drinking till 6 pm the next day when I went there. In the video below, PSY even drank onstage a full bottle of soju (a Korean liquor that is equivalent to a watered vodka, 21% alcohol).

Maybe when the American’s first misread the lyrics as “open condom style,” they had it right the first time. I sometimes hear little kids, and even in the earlier video of the new years eve show, the tv announcer, cannot pronounce oppan gangnam style and mispronounce it, oppan gangan style, which directly translated means, I’m rape style. Why am I writing such a negative blog about my own countries first ever world famous song? Don’t get me wrong, I love PSY and I am proud to hear Korean lyrics blasting from the radio, but seeing the young kids sing along to this song is just morally wrong. It’s the same thing as if your kid was singing along to Lady Gaga.