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Emotion in Modern EDM
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| PETRAN |
TA's Emo thread! Now, seriously, what do you thing about the affective value of modern electronic dance music? Do you thing that any of today's EDM (and i'm talking about all genres)is capable of eliciting any strong emotional reactions to the individual, or is it all made for the purpose of shaking your ass without much feeling occuring on the inside? Is there any genre that it is more emotional in comparison to others? WAS there any genre that was more "emotional" in comparison to others in the first place?
Now ofcourse, ALL music is capable of eliciting a kind of basic emotional response (even the most basic one) and thats the reason that people dance in the first place.
But, in vast similarity to almost everything, there are magnitudes of emotional experience with all kinds of feelings. You can feel "high" and dance to a funky, upbeat track, but you can also have crackpot thoughts of being one with the universe, having tears of laughter roll down to your cheeks whilst a melody is unleashed through a club's massive soundsystem (or through your headphones). So , i'm talking about really "strong emotional experience" which is of high magnitude.
There were letters of clubbers in '99 describing how they danced and cried at the same time, raising their hands into the air when tracks such as "Synaesthesia" or "Saltwater" were played. I guess that "Trance" was always the most emotional of the lot, right from the start, but i remember myself feeling ecstatic (in trance!) whilst dancing to Daft Punk and other funky house stuff in an ordinary club. I guess it had to do with the repeatetive and filtered joyful melodies of their tracks.
So, modern electronic dance music and emotion. Whats the deal? |
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| Gauss |
| Back when I was listening to trance, I remember hearing emotional tracks more often than now when I'm listening to mostly drum'n'bass, breaks and techno. Carte Blanche and Fiji sound emotional to me, for example. Now I just don't hear emotional tracks that often anymore, although exceptions do exist. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
Kicking things off, I'll repost something posted in the production forum...
| quote: | Originally posted by cryophonik
Man, I'm starting to sound like a broken record (no pun intended) on these forums, but I'll answer this question again. The "main thing about producing" is simple: think about what you're producing. Are you producing a sidechained pad? Are you producing an original synth sound? Are you producing a FLS project file. NO!!!! YOU'RE PRODUCING MUSIC!!!! The sooner you start to comprehend that the primary focus has to be on improving your music composition skills, the sooner you'll start to produce better music.
Unfortunately, that concept is lost on most "producers". But, think about it - nobdody is going to buy your records or dance to your songs because they like the threshold settings you used on your compressor, or the fact that you chose a square wave bass sound over a sawtooth. But looking at this and other EDM production forums, those types of topics dominate the boards. Take a look at this forum's topics for yourself and see how many composition-related threads there are - not many. Is it because we're all such great songwriters that we don't need to discuss it? :rolleyes:
The next time you're at the club and the crowd is going wild for some song, stop and ask the hot chick dancing next to you what she likes about the song - I guarantee you that the answer won't be "it's produced in Logic!" or "the pulse width modulation on that lead synth is totally dope!" She's probably going to say "get away from me, creep" and then tazer your ass, unless she's really drunk, in which case she'd simply say that she likes the melody, she can sing along with it, it's got a good beat and I can dance to it, etc.
It's a total cliche, but it can't be stated enough - you can't polish a turd (well, OK, you can try but it's still going to stink). It doesn't matter what synth(s) or DAW you use, how perfectly you can imitate that JP8000 supersaw with your Virus, how you EQ'ed your mid-bass, or which multiband compressor you use to master your tracks - if your melody sucks and your song is 7 minutes of Amin and Fmaj, your song is going to suck and all you'll have is another polished turd that nobody is going to buy or dance to. Yes, your song needs to be technically sound, but more importantly, it needs to have a solid musical foundation (e.g., good melody or hook, dynamics, arrangement, etc.). That's what separates the successful producer from the masses.
OK, enough preaching. I've got music to make. :D |
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| david.michael |
There is rock music that is emotional and moving, and there is rock music that is driving/dancey/"fun".
There is hip-hop that is emotional and moving, and there is hip-hop that is crazy/get drunk/"party" music.
No musical genre inherently relates to a particular emotion... each leaves open room for interpretation and expression. |
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| PETRAN |
| quote: | Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
Kicking things off, I'll repost something posted in the production forum... |
Thats a great post from the music production forum, nice. So, would you thing that the majority of modern EDM is only concerned with how to make people to dance in clubs, focusing in this way on production tricks and stuff? (and hence not caring about emotional expression?) Because this is the way i feel for the majority of it. |
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| PETRAN |
| quote: | Originally posted by david.michael
There is rock music that is emotional and moving, and there is rock music that is driving/dancey/"fun".
There is hip-hop that is emotional and moving, and there is hip-hop that is crazy/get drunk/"party" music.
No musical genre inherently relates to a particular emotion... each leaves open room for interpretation and expression. |
So what is the modern EDM that is "emotional and moving" and not just "driving/dancey/"fun"? Because, honestly, its getting very difficult to find it. |
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| david.michael |
| quote: | Originally posted by PETRAN
So what is the modern EDM that is "emotional and moving" and not just "driving/dancey/"fun"? Because, honestly, its getting very difficult to find it. |
That's going to be pretty difficult to answer, honestly, since it's all relative to the listener. |
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| nefardec |
it is very very difficult to find
I mean take work from the 90s like
FUSE - Dimension Intrusion (whole album)
Jam & Spoon - Stella
Aztec Mystic - Knights of the Jaguar
Ricardo Villalobos - 808 The Bassqueen
to name a very limited and random few
When I get home I'll post a more complete list of contemporary emotional dance music (FOR ME)
i find emotion mostly in dub techno, detroit techno and deep house.
Sunshine Jones - We Are Free (Sunshine's Soul Mix) [King Street]
Quantec - Hidden Persuasion [Statik Entertainment]
Redshape - Pain (Original Mix) [Styrax Leaves]
Urban Force - Untitled 2 (Mike Huckaby Remix)
Substance & Vainqueur - Resonance [Scion Versions]
Substance & Vainqueur - Libration [Scion Versions]
Maurizio - M Series [Maurizio]
Mari Boine - Vuoi Vuoi Me (Henrik Schwarz Remix) [Universal Jazz]
Sui Generis - Remarkable (Original Mix) [Rush Hour]
Nick Hoppner - Violet (Original Mix) [Ostgut Ton]
Prosumer & Murat Tepeli - Devotion (Original Mix) [Ostgut Ton]
Move D - Silk Dub (Original Mix) [Compost]
Felix Laband - Whistling In Tongues (Todd Terje Remix) [Compost]
Studio - Indo (Original Mix) [Information]
Swell Session - All Of Me (Charles Webster Remix) [Freerange]
Swell Session - The Girl [Freerange]
Force Of Nature - Supernova (Original Mix) [Mule Musiq]
Kuniyuki - Earth Beats (Original Mix) [Mule Musiq]
Vince Watson - Long Way From Home (Original Mix) [Delsin]
Vince Watson - Fragment 7 (Original Mix) [Delsin]
Vince Watson - Solitude (Original Mix) [Delsin]
Quince - Vitjazzdepth (Original Mix) [Delsin]
Quince - Sub-01 (Original Mix) [Delsin]
Quince - For My Mr (Original Mix) [Delsin]
to name a few
When I make music, my point of departure is always the core emotional or philosophical content. I can't and don't expect that it will be legible in the final product, because I'm not nearly good enough at expressing myself this way (getting better I think), but I think any time you really put a piece of your soul in it, people can tell. I usually make simple loops based on an static emotion as a kind of meditation/groove, then elaborate that and establish a direction for it that will suggest a composition.
Technical craft for me comes with experience. I learn more and more how to make higher quality and more interesting sounds and mixes, but it always is corollary to the basic concept of the track. |
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| paulandrews |
| I blame digital. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| quote: | Originally posted by paulandrews
I blame digital. |
For reals? |
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| paulandrews |
| quote: | Originally posted by PETRAN
...but i remember myself feeling ecstatic (in trance!) whilst dancing to Daft Punk and other funky house stuff in an ordinary club. I guess it had to do with the repeatetive and filtered joyful melodies of their tracks.
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Yeah, I saw Deadbeat few weeks ago, and I've never danced like that to music like I did to his dub/dubby techno. He almost put me into a hypnotic state; something trance has never managed. |
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