By Caradoc Gayer
I want to ask you what you think of, when you hear of Electronic Music.
Someone who keeps up with the constantly fluctuating trends in modern music today, might well feel a sense of exasperation. For after all, these days Electronic Music is everywhere.
[caption id=“attachment_26005” align=“alignright” width=“300”]
Martin Garrix at the Sziget festival.[/caption]
I’m not exaggerating. Around forty years ago, the music scene was dominated by leaping guitarists and sweaty drummers. A DJ was just a guy on the radio, who talked for a bit, and put a record. But after the creativity and sheer innovation of technicians, musicians, and DJs of the 1970s and the 1980s DJs are now seen as big stars, headlining major festivals and mixing pumping tracks in front of a huge crowd. Take Avicii, Martin Garrix, Deadmau5, Zedd, all these guys have so much popularity it’s almost overwhelming.
Excluding DJs, the number of Electronic orientated bands is dramatically on the increase.
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One of Coldplays most interesting performances of their electronic song, Midnight.[/caption]
Electronic groups are popping up all over the place, some of my personal favourite bands right now include Disclosure, Purity Ring, CHVRCHES, Bastille, Radiohead, even Coldplay, and a new group I discovered recently called Flor. All these groups shamelessly throw themselves into the electronic genre, which is why I love listening to them.
Yet despite the popularity of electronic music, there is always a certain prejudice, and sometimes contempt surrounding it.
Traditionalists of popular music often perceive it as not ‘real’ enough
[caption id=“attachment_26026” align=“alignright” width=“300”]
Chvrches live at NPR radio.[/caption]
. When I hear, somebody say this, I imagine they are thinking of the “talentless showmen”. People who stand in front of some decks, a midi controller, or a laptop, hit play, and then wave their arms about extravagantly, whilst pretending to be manipulating the music in some way.
As someone who has been interested in producing and performing electronic music for years now, I can say with confidence that it is ‘real music’.
I won’t deny that there are people who only fake their talent and pre-record everything they play. But there are also so many extremely talented electronic musicians out there who use their diverse musical ability to make extremely well done music.
There are also lots of forgettable, processed pieces of rave music out there. But these are dwarfed by the amount of artful, tracks that make you feel emotions such as euphoria, anticipation, confusion, and elation.
To make a track that belongs to the latter group, you’ll need knowledge of music theory, music tech, and an ability to manipulate sound in programs such as Logic and Ableton, using varieties of equipment such as analogue synthesizers, guitars, keyboards, the list goes on. And this, believe it or not, requires a hell of a lot of talent.
There’s always something unique about Electronic Music, which is what has always fascinated me. It represents forces and ideas beyond human understanding and makes you feel like you have been transported somewhere else entirely.
Now and again, I feel as if the world is crying out for a change from the endless guitar driven songs, and lyrics about unrequited love. Electronic Music is my answer to that, and I feel that it should be other people’s answer as well.
Below is one of my favourite performances from two unbelievably talented musicians: Guy and Howard Lawrence, AKA Disclosure.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E0bgxgncrE[/embed]
