EDM: A Discourse Community

During our intriguing discussion of discourse communities in our class on Wednesday I recognized several more specific communities to which I currently belong. One of the most interesting and important discourse communities to me at this point in my life is the community of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) fans which involves a very particular lexis, tone, and set of experiences which define the culture. In this post, I would like to discuss the intricacies of this genre of music and the discourse community which follows it.

                EDM is a broad term which encompasses the many different genres of electronic music including Techno, House, Electronic, Big Room, Trance, Dub Step and many other sub genres and combinations of these styles. While those who are not familiar with this type of music often attribute all of these words to the same sound or concept, to those within the discourse community, they all describe very different sounds which can be identified between different songs or even within the same song. For example, Trance music generally refers to faster paced (higher bpm) music with strong, driving baselines, and a build-up/break-down song form which involves intricately weaving melodic and atmospheric tunes up to a crescendo followed by a “drop” and break down of a new melody which wraps up all the previous tunes into beautiful, intricate harmony. House music can be recognized by its Four to the Floor (4/4) beats and fewer drops or drastic changes in the overarching melody. Techno features progressive beats that build over the course of the song and Dub Step uses an offbeat rhythm, frequent base and melody drops, and its signature wobble base (“wub-wub”). Terms such as drop, bpm, synth, wubby, mash-up, progressive and uses of genres as adjectives to describe their sound (“House-y”, “Techno-y” etc) are important parts of the EDM lexis. These terms allow fans of these genres to describe and converse about songs and artists. As these genres have grown more and more intertwined, it is especially useful to have this lexis so that fans can describe the different elements of songs and express their opinions on them, thereby allowing better dissemination of music between fans. Radio shows are essential parts of this community as they provide opportunities for communication about new events in the world of EDM and allow new music to be introduced the rest of the community. Live concerts are also a huge component of the culture of the community and provide opportunities for the diverse members of this discourse community from around the world to come together to accomplish their goal of enjoying beautiful dance music mixed in new and innovative ways.

                While I am relatively new to this genre of music and the culture that accompanies it, I find the novelty of the music style refreshing and the discourse intriguing. While I don’t think it’s for everyone, EDM artists make very high quality, intricate, and enjoyable music and I believe that it is worth making a sincere effort to try listening to it.