A handful of years ago, EDM started to work its way into the US mainstream, largely because of the quick rise in popularity of Skrillex and his (now-called) “brostep” sound. Characterized by rumbling and screeching synths, with an emphasis on the jarring qualities in the sounds that make the songs up, this heavy and aggressive style has permeated mainstream Dubstep and Electro for years. Recently, however, there has been a noticeable backlash against it. More and more often, fans are calling for smoother, more minimalistic productions with a larger emphasis on their melodies and less on “the drop.”
During this quick rise of EDM into the mainstream, more “traditional” forms of House were often overlooked, with commercial Progressive and Electro being almost the only types that these new electronic music fans appreciated. While this backlash against the “brostep” sound has been taking place and growing for almost two years now, the styles that have replaced it have generally been rich and full-sounding, with lots of layered synths and melodies.
Sound Can Be Simple
In tandem with this rejection of the brostep sound, there’s been a running debate in the EDM community known as “The Loudness War.” In this “war,” the two sides have been arguing about production methods/styles. The main question in this battle has been whether highly-compressed songs with little dynamics that often are at peak volume throughout much of their duration are as legitimate as songs that do have noticeable dynamic ranges and aren’t just loud “bangers.” It’s almost like a quality vs quantity argument. Deadmau5 in particular has been one of the largest advocates of staying away from this over-produced, over-compressed style that has become so popular in the last several years.
While Dubstep and Electro are normally pegged as the genres in which artists are taking advantage of this production style to make their songs louder, even commercial house has seen its fair share of this technique. While artists like Avicii, Alesso, Nicky Romero, SHM, and others produce excellent tracks, many of their songs use up much of the frequency spectrum throughout (very full and rich sounding productions).
Even though the melodies and beats within these songs are great, falling back onto a very loud and full sound helps create the impression in listeners that these songs are so great… “there are so many layers at once!” Personally, I think a lot of commercial house is bullshit.
While layering many sounds on top of each other can be a great production technique, often times these songs rely on the constant onslaught of sounds to distract audiences and convince them that it must be good, because it sounds so rich. However, listening to a well-made Tech House or Disco House track will often prove to be more interesting, and when songs in genres like these have less “clutter” within them, it becomes easier to identify and appreciate the small details they possess.
Artists Transitioning in 2013
Over the past year or so, as this backlash against overly-aggressive styles of music has grown, I have noticed an increase in the popularity of House among the average, “mainstream” EDM fans. Not only have fans been appreciating its various forms more, but some producers have even publicly made points about switching from their typical genres to House.
Example: DJ Carnage, who rose to popularity through co-authoring the book on trap’s uprising, made a statement that he would be transitioning to House and has stayed true to this since.
Recently, in an exclusive WRR interview, Wolfgang Gartner laid out his thoughts on the current state of the EDM scene by saying this:
I feel like the “big” sound in dance music right now is just this mashup of every single subgenre possible, to try and appeal to the most people possible, with these cheesy played-out trance pads and vocal hooks, it all sounds exactly the same and it’s really bad for the most part, and the scariest thing is that people are reacting to this stuff, crowds at festivals and clubs are wanting more of it.
While Gartner is focused more on the methods of production and less on the House VS Breakbeat Genres argument, he makes a great point here. Even much of the House that has been popular as of late tends to incorporate as many elements as possible in an attempt to “wow” the audience, or keep them guessing as to what’s next. While the “surprise” factor that’s present in a lot of these songs has merit unto its own, there is a lot to be said for extremely well-produced songs that seek to keep an audience within a certain groove/rhythm as opposed to shocking them. Variety just for variety’s sake betrays a lack of genuineness in production – it comes across as a cheap ploy to gain attention from fans of differing genres.
If there’s one source in particular you could point to for the recent increase in the popularity and demand for genres like Deep/Minimal/Disco/Tech House & Garage, it’d have to be Boiler Room. With spots in London Berlin, LA, & NYC, Boiler Room locations are small, underground-feeling clubs with an intimate setting and the DJ booths set up in the middle of the floor. Their motto? “The world’s leading underground music show.” They broadcast their performances online for free, and over the winter these sets have spread like wildfire (They now have over 50x the audience they did in 2011).
By bringing in big-name DJs to perform sets of non-mainstream types of genres, Boiler Room has managed to be both consistent and surprising at the same time. For instance; names like Frankie Knuckles & DJ Sneak fit in perfectly here, but people were shocked and pleased when Skream played a B2B set of Disco House with Disclosure.
Also see: 14 Best Boiler Room Sets
While Brostep & Complextro did the job of catching the attention of a huge international audience, fans were exposed to more types of EDM and have been straying away from these two to some extent. Lots of these new fans were large Rock and Hip Hop fans before becoming infatuated with electronic music, so the hard-hitting and rich qualities of these more mainstream genres are some of the strongest reasons they turned to electronic music. However, once these fans give the underground genres a chance, they often begin to appreciate a more minimalistic style of production.
House Is Sounding Less Commercial
Since so many people began to fall for EDM around the same time, we’ve started to see a collective shift in the types of music audiences enjoy and seek out as their tastes “mature” together. One sound in particular that has taken the world by storm is Big-Room style House beats with trancy, progressive builds and a pounding, minimal drop. Crookers & RVBRA’s bootleg of “Pop That” was wildly popular in the fall, and songs like GTA’s “Hit It” and Knife Party’s “LRAD” shot to the top of the charts immediately. Interestingly, in both “Hit It” and “LRAD,” GTA & Knife Party reached outside of their comfort zone to make the tracks. Nevertheless, these songs are on point and have given audiences exactly what they needed.
Personally, I think that this will become the next “played out” sound. “LRAD” (and it’s many variations) has already been the most popular song in festival sets since its release, and as the summer unfolds, more artists will be releasing tracks like this. While these songs are great, they are often somewhat similar and I don’t see audiences buying into it for too long. By the end of festival season, this particular sound will start to die out, but the demand for less intense types of House will remain.
If, for some reason, you are not convinced about that Big Room sound after reading this, simply check out Alex Young’s new track, “Mastermind,” that he put out for free via his new website last week. At only 16 years old, this kid has had his thumb directly on the pulse of EDM and in the past 6 months or so has quickly become an internationally-known name because he’s stayed ahead of the curve in the Trap scene. This House release has a gentle, trancy build and a Big Room style beat. He even pokes a little tongue-in-cheek fun at GTA by including a female vocal sample that says “One, Two, Three, Fuck It!” just before the drop.
If you want a taste of Tech/Disco/Funk House, look no further than this recent mix by one of the very top producers in the world (who is still widely unknown/unrecognized by the mainstream audience), Alex Kenji:
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As for me, I just wanna dance.
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