KVR Audio

KBSoundSmith · Post by **KBSoundSmith** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 6:31 pm

Well, that really depends. What kind of electronic music are you referring to?

I personally would at least place a marker where electronic music became style/genre agnostic. Electronics are now used ubiquitously. In the early years of electronic music, "electronic music" was confined to classical/laboratory musicians making abstract pieces. Today, literally anyone with a computer and a mouse can make "electronic music" of any kind they want -- whether they want to imitate an orchestra for a classical sounding piece without using synthesizers, to make EDM, or just abstract electronic sounds with no melody or standard musical form.

At this point, electronics are more or less just another option for a musician, much like a string or woodwind section. That's actually how I personally view electronics these days -- a new member/section of the orchestral family, that like any other instrument, can be just part of or the whole act.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 6:37 pm

KBSoundSmith wrote:Well, that really depends. What kind of electronic music are you referring to?

Rewind to this post

Numanoid wrote:Rephrasing, when do you reckon the true electronic music era ended?

True, as in true metal
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... ue%20Metal

Analogically EDM fans would be the mallcore posers

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 7:42 pm

Define EDM and classic metal, what do you even consider with that?

Is classic metal heavy metal?

Is EDM what wikipedia says it is or you have your own twist to it?

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 7:47 pm

Zexila wrote:Is classic metal heavy metal?

How about traditional ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_heavy_metal

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 7:50 pm

Zexila wrote:Is EDM what wikipedia says it is or you have your own twist to it?

Wikipedia warning about EDM: "The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject"

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 8:01 pm

Numanoid wrote:
Zexila wrote:Is classic metal heavy metal?
How about traditional ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_heavy_metal

So it's heavy.

Numanoid wrote:
Zexila wrote:Is EDM what wikipedia says it is or you have your own twist to it?
Wikipedia warning about EDM: "The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject"

But what do you mean by EDM than, there's opinion it's this festival beatport music too, not just electronic dance one.

Never mind, think 90s were transition time.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 8:26 pm

History will tell.... In their first years The Beatles' genre was described as "skiffle". Early seventies you could dance "The Boogie", nowadays you can't tell Boogie from Disco. On the other hand, who came up with putting both Dixieland and HardBop into the too generic "Jazz" pigeon hole?
And that's also true for Electro / EDM. It's a catch-all term for anything produced in the last couple of decades. That's not a genre, so it says nothing. An empty term, only stupid people that can't communicate would use it.

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Mon Jul 18, 2016 10:28 am

In 2026 people will be complaining that the great era of classic EDM is sadly gone and will try hard to recreate these Sylenth supersaws and Massive wobbles with whatever tools available then.

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Mon Jul 18, 2016 1:44 pm

Well, to go back to earlier history: Clara Rockmore was a serious instrumentalist, much more concerned with performance than with experimentation. Luigi Russolo I think had more influence, associating electronic instruments with futurism and going outside the mainstream, and they stayed there for quite a while (aside from tonewheel organs).

The 50s saw Forbidden Planet, and the early 60s the BBC Radiophonic Workshop -- music meant to be unearthly and unsettling.

Starting from the late 60s through the 80s or so there was Carlos, Tomita, Jarre, Fast, etc. I would argue this was the renaissance of electronic music. Before samplers, but when people were composing specifically for 100% electronic instruments, in music meant for the masses to listen to as music, not as soundtracks or academic experiments.

The 70s saw the use of electronic instruments alongside acoustic/electric ones in disco, and the first hints of industrial music as well. In the 80s there was "Planet Rock" and the rise of hip-hop as well as the evolution of disco into techno/house/trance/2-step/dubstep/every other effing thing we have now. And also "New Age", which ambient survived with a whole lot less crystal chakra snorting or whatever. And then glitch in the 90s, chiptunes in the 00s, and seapunk/vaporwave/chillwave/synthwave as sort of an extension of chiptunes' nostalgia but a totally different style.

[EDIT: I also missed mentioning New Wave and post-punk and the like in the 80s; synths and drum machines were vital to the sound, but it wasn't "electronic music" in the sense that the phrase usually means.]

Does anyone else remember the obnoxious mid-90s radio commercials for The Prodigy, about how they were the cutting edge of rock and were taking the world by storm and soon people would think of them the way they thought of the Beatles?

EDM is pretty much the successor to that, I think.

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Mon Jul 18, 2016 1:58 pm

foosnark wrote: Does anyone else remember the obnoxious mid-90s radio commercials for The Prodigy, about how they were the cutting edge of rock and were taking the world by storm and soon people would think of them the way they thought of the Beatles?

Mind you, I never understood what is so special about the Beatles. To me they are nothing but boring, conformist, middle of the road music. Compared to them, the Prodigy were much more interesting and forward-thinking act. I was in my early teens when I heard The Music for Jilted Generation and I was literally stunned by it, ofc it is just an appropriate music for this age but some of their early tracks are still giving me goosebumps.

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Mon Jul 18, 2016 4:05 pm

I was never that impressed by The Prodigy. I dug a couple of their tracks, but I'd already been listening to Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, FSOL, NIN and other stuff when they came along.

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Mon Jul 18, 2016 4:29 pm

I also liked this kind of music - FLA, Wumpscut, Haujobb, some Laibach (though I learned about it later) but now they do nothing for me, but I still listen to Prodigy at times (mostly older tracks)

EDM is to Electronic music as Nu metal is to Classic metal