Show me some melody in modern electronic music.

[A.M. Gold]

Ok, first, I'll do a quick explanation/disclaimer (mods please read this part):

1) I am NOT trying to start any arguments here. I'm just clueless about electronic music of all kinds (other than my own) and I want to know more about the melody aspects of it (and only within a relatively current time frame of about the past ten years).

2) I want to know what YOU consider to be melody in modern electronic music (I'm mostly EDM oriented, but other genres are of interest too). I will NOT sit here and post critiques, judgments, or yea/nay comebacks to any suggestions people have.

3) If you are of the opinion that, from your personal perspective, there isn't much melody in modern electronic music, or that the melodic content is largely unimpressive to you, I am also interested to hear those opinions expressed, but PLEASE keep it cordial.

This is real and serious research to me, not flame baiting, because I've reached a point where I need to know more about what is possible in current electronic music, but I don't intend on going on a long escapade, wading through tons of electronic music from the past decade (since most of it doesn't interest me much, and lord knows there is a ton of it).

I need to know for my own career purposes how much of a stretch it might be to market my own form of melodic EDM, so I want a frame of reference for that.

As examples, I'll post something I subjectively find melodic sounding, followed by something I don't find melodic (and, yes, it may well be the case that these represent different genres where those qualities are appropriate in each case).

Don't worry about it if you don't agree with these, I'm definitely interested in other subjective perspectives on this question, not about arguing mine over anyone else's.

TIA,
Dave

Very melodic IMO (first half or so):



Not particularly melodic IMO:

[Gamma-UT]

It depends on what you mean by 'dance'. If it's EDM actually meant for the dancefloor rather than anything with a strong beat, melody is pretty much a distraction and often just sounds a bit cheesy. Right now, there is also the issue that melody in pop is going through a "keep it simple" phase that will probably pass. And some of it is just plain gimmicky (such as Nero's cover of Stuck On You - when I heard it first time on the radio I thought it was satire.) But there is plenty of melodic electronic music on the borderlines.

Melodic? Electronic? Dance? You decide.

[A.M. Gold]

Ok, I'm back. After having thought about this for the past twenty minutes or so, I realized I may already know the answer to my own question.

I've had this realization several times before but I always seem to forget it and have to be reminded again.

I think that the way I write instrumental EDM only works in an actual song/vocal context. My music doesn't have vocals at this point, but it will probably have to be adapted from straight instrumental into full song format before it will have any realistic market open to it.

I think the reason is that I write something closer to traditional dance/pop music, not instrumental EDM (or house, trance, etc.), I just haven't been working with vocalists or fleshing out full songs up to this point.

However, if I'm wrong about that I'd like to know, so the offer still stands for anyone to post examples of what they consider to be strongly melodic instrumental electronic music.

Here's another example of modern dance music I really like (Love to Infinity remix of Simply Red's Sunrise, which they completely transformed from the original song):

[A.M. Gold]

It depends on what you mean by 'dance'. If it's EDM actually meant for the dancefloor rather than anything with a strong beat, melody is pretty much a distraction and often just sounds a bit cheesy. Right now, there is also the issue that melody in pop is going through a "keep it simple" phase that will probably pass. And some of it is just plain gimmicky (such as Nero's cover of Stuck On You - when I heard it first time on the radio I thought it was satire.) But there is plenty of melodic electronic music on the borderlines.

Melodic? Electronic? Dance? You decide.

Cool, thanks for the input, I'll check these. I think the way you described the current dance culture is pretty spot on, but, if you look at my second post, you'll see that it occurred to me that I think there is a real division between dance SONGS (i.e. with vocal lead) and instrumental EDM.

Here is another well known melodic (IMO) dance song:

[kbaccki]

Here is another well known melodic (IMO) dance song:

That to me is a 3 chord pop song...

[GeckoYamori]

I think there's a severe lack of melodic substance in modern electronic dance music. And when looking at forum discussions, tutorials, production videos etc it seems to me the average dance musician of today has a very different bar set for what classifies as a melody compared to my own standards. 3-5 notes spread over 1 bar and repeated throughout the song doesn't really cut it for me.

The most melodic dance music I listen to today is probably the whole 80's revival movement. Not so surprising seeing as 80's electronic music seemed a lot more melodic in general.

[ZenPunkHippy]

I agree that some of the chart stuff I've heard (which I typically avoid like the plague) is severely lacking in any musical content, but part of the point with dance music is that it's all about the rhythm.

At it's most basic level you are shaking your ass to rhythmic tonal variations. Whether that includes "music" or "noise" is not really the point, as long as it keeps the party moving forward i.e. it's fun, or fits with the current mood of the dance floor, and there is whatever the current trend is, as Gamma-UT pointed out.

Trends kinda bubble their way up from the "underground" party scene. The mainstream always takes a while to catch on to this because it's always looking to the underground for the next money spinner, rather than calling the shots.

Peace,
Andy.

[mellotronaut]

... part of the point with dance music is that it's all about the rhythm. ...

imo, the sound is quite important too, the use of gimmical sound effects, textures and progressions instead of verse, chorus, brigde schemes. melodies seem to be important just as basic repetitive, effect like snippets. and there are lots of exceptions, of course.

[kbaccki]

3-5 notes spread over 1 bar and repeated throughout the song doesn't really cut it for me

Cuz 3-5 repeated notes is traditionally called a "hook", "riff", etc. Melody is something entirely different, though may be related in terms of theme or harmony or whatever (think RS "Satisfaction"). I think some music is just not meant to have a definable, traditional melody... just hooks and riffs and textures is enough to pain the picture... the "purist" pop/rock/etc. side of me says that's not my thing... then again the purist pop/rock/etc. side of me doesn't quite get the purist jazz side of me either...

[A.M. Gold]

I agree that some of the chart stuff I've heard (which I typically avoid like the plague) is severely lacking in any musical content, but part of the point with dance music is that it's all about the rhythm.

At it's most basic level you are shaking your ass to rhythmic tonal variations. Whether that includes "music" or "noise" is not really the point, as long as it keeps the party moving forward i.e. it's fun, or fits with the current mood of the dance floor, and there is whatever the current trend is, as Gamma-UT pointed out.

I hear this argument (first paragraph) a lot and I'm not really sure I buy it. Dance music used to be done by big bands like Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey and there was no shortage of melody there.

People used to dance to the Bee Gees, and they were very melodic. Michael Jackson had a lot of melodic stuff, as did Madonna, etc. etc.

I think what really happened is that DJ's got a hold of the dance music scene and proved they were really not up to the task of elaborate composition (even in the pop music sense). What they could do, though, was lay down four on the floor heavy kick beats and do a lot of layered synth textures, filter manipulation, etc.

And the rest is dance music history of the past 15 years at least.

[Tricky-Loops]

I think what really happened is that DJ's got a hold of the dance music scene and proved they were really not up to the task of elaborate composition (even in the pop music sense). What they could do, though, was lay down four on the floor heavy kick beats and do a lot of layered synth textures, filter manipulation, etc.

+ 1.000.000.000

I'm gradually getting the assumption that the (GREAT!!) songwriters of dance songs in the 80ies (or partly in the 90ies) were trained instrumental musicians with years of experience, while now every DJ takes some loops, creates a 4/4 beat and makes a repetitive EDM song without much melodic content.

But there are still some musicians with melodic training like Martin Solveig...

I'm about to change it (in my own repetitive songs), but give me some years to complete this task...

[Bronto Scorpio]

People used to dance to the Bee Gees, and they were very melodic. Michael Jackson had a lot of melodic stuff, as did Madonna, etc. etc.

They didn't have more "melody" than an avarage trance track though.

I skipped through my music library and tried to find something melodic. I found a lot of stuff that sounds very melodic to me but probably isn't melodic by your definition.

I also don't know many 4 on the floor tracks and I guess that's what you are looking for.

Here is a nice track that I'd call "melodic": (it isn't a 4 on the floor track though):

These aren't highly complex harmonic structures, but you could say the same thing about Madonna etc.

Edit:
Question: Is this melodic?

One of my favorite tracks ever. It's older than 10 years and probably not exactly EDM. I'm just trying to say that "melodies" can be very different things for different people.

Cheers
Dennis

[ZenPunkHippy]

What they could do, though, was lay down four on the floor heavy kick beats and do a lot of layered synth textures, filter manipulation, etc.

Out of the dance producers who are "layering a lot of synths and manipulating filters", you'l find it's often the ones who have been playing guitar since they were 10 or went through years of musical training that are writing the best music or become the most successful, and stand the test of time.

I'm not going to argue that lowest-common-denominator commercial bass music is brilliantly written - much of it is created for one purpose only: to appeal to a wide audience and make money.

OTOH there is some very cleverly constructed, modern dance music that is also melodic but going back to what Gamma-UT said: it's not always what you want on the dance floor. There is only so much time one can listen to beautiful melodies before we start craving something else. A good party is really all about contrast: from dark to light and various shades in between. Coming out of the darkness and in to the melodic light may be a bit of a cliche, but it works really well (particularly if the melodic part of the journey is timed to coincide with sunrise!).

People who don't get dance music kinda forget that parties can go for 8 - 10 hours, or sometimes days - the last festival I attended had various types of dance music playing non-stop from Friday lunchtime to late Monday evening. Some of it was melodic, some of it was super cheesy, some of it was hard techno, deep house, some acid, progressive house and of course psy and goa trance (mostly). Basically, just about every style you can imagine. All of these styles were played at just the right time to keep the party going, which is the art of putting on a good event.

Now I realise the psy / goa trance scene is not very indicative of dance music in general because it never really went full mainstream, but it's been around almost 20 years now. In that time, it's the Israeli producers who tended to dominate. That's not an accident: it's because they have a very strong musical heriatage.

Hypnocoustics from the UK are very popular at the moment. Read an interview here to get an idea of their background. Ignoring the 4 to the floor beat and the filter sweeps, there is plenty of melody in this track ...



Peace,
Andy.

[ZenPunkHippy]

For something more chilled, try Entheogenic ... listen in hi-definition. This is beautiful music!

[A.M. Gold]

(Edit, I remembered you posted some tracks with this post so I'll go back and listen to those)

People used to dance to the Bee Gees, and they were very melodic. Michael Jackson had a lot of melodic stuff, as did Madonna, etc. etc.

They didn't have more "melody" than an avarage trance track though.

Melodically, this doesn't sound anything like any kind of trance I've ever heard, but maybe someone can show me some contrary examples (this was one of his biggest hits and it is uptempo which means people were definitely dancing to it):