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EDM According to me.
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| djnaeblis |
Huzza!!!
In short, I wrote this paper for my General ED. English Class, and so if things seem a little obvious, that is why just explaining some terminology... and whatnot. The reason I wrote it, is because, I most of the people in my english class think that if you listen to (in my case) Trance, that I drop, and that pissed me off :whip: so I wrote a paper about it :crazy:
WARNING: Loooonnnnnnnng Read.
Lustral Legato
Each beat of the song pulsates all throughout my body. I can smell, taste, and feel each vibe prickle every part of my body. The euphoric cords cascade my senses, overwhelming me with pure happiness and elation. I began to stomp craters into the dance floor, moving my feet and hands perfectly to the beat of song. The bright colored lights sway back and forth changing hues, while the lasers feather their fan of beams into the dancing crowd, with everyone jumping to touch them. “Here it comes,” I think to myself. The breakdown slams through the crowd with a sensational wave of bass; everyone is screaming and cheering. It is music, it is bliss.
"We've been closing these little buckets of blood for about three years and paralyzing them." – Deputy Mayor of New York, Rudy Washington
Contrary to the popular belief that the Electronic Dance Music has created a uniformly detrimental culture driven by drugs, EDM in fact is a booming musical industry which supplies hundreds of thousands of DJ’s, fans, and freaks, with an overpoweringly uplifting, almost spiritual, sanguine musical experience. This paper will discuss the origins, genres (and subgenres) of Electronic Dance Music, the business aspects of EDM, the truth about its’ connection to MDMA (Ecstasy), how this connection has been warped (mainly in the US), laws against it, and finally my closing thoughts.
- O r i g i n s o f E l e c t r o n i c D a n c e M u s i c
Although there are many different ideas of where electronic dance music first originated, the most commonly agreed on genesis in Detroit in the early 1980’s. There were several pioneers of Techno in Germany, those being; Ralf Hütter and Florian Esleben, where they established their ‘Kling Klang’ studio. This studio is where the two began to produce their revolutionizing synthesizer based tracks. However, despite the earlier efforts of the German duo, Detroit is still considered by most to be where Techno first truly established itself. Interestingly the crowd that Techno most appealed to was a straight African American scene. The duly named Belleville Three (Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunders) were the main ‘soul to the goal’ Techno Pioneers. They produced and promoted many Techno tracks, and respectively started their own record labels. "The 'soul' of the machines has always been a part of our music. Trance always belongs to repetition, and everybody is looking for trance in life... in sex, in the emotional, in pleasure, in anything... so, the machines produce an absolutely perfect trance." --Ralf Hütter, 1991, quoted in Kraftwerk: Man Machine and Music, Pascal Bussy. This music was believed to be heavily influenced by the Auto Industry which heavily affected the young African American generation growing up in the Detroit area. To try and describe Techno in words is something that is not easily achieved. However, it is based strongly on repetition of bass and programmed beats, full of pops, clanks, and other synth-bites that give the tracks a hard, raw, icy feel to them.
At the end of the “disco sucks” era (1986-1987), House music surfaced among the Homosexual and African American communities in the Chicago and surrounding area. Chicago was the place where Disco never died; instead it was resurrected by House music. House tracks are very similar to those of disco (4//4 beat), in the sense that it has the traditional synthetic beats, strings and horns, along with the short repetitive cliché vocals. In the beginning, DJ’s had no real product to use in the creation of house tracks, due to the death of disco. Consequently, they developed techniques that would allow them to overlay bumpin’ bass beats, and other sound bites onto ‘discoesque’ tracks. Frankie Knuckles (a DJ born and raised in New York) forged many of the DJ techniques that would allow DJ’s to create house music from recycled Disco tracks. He then brought these techniques to the gay and Black clubs of Chicago where it seemed to catch on quickly in the early 80’s. Many people thought that House music was just a faddish novelty, like Techno, but they were very wrong. Although House did not grow much outside of the Chicago, and New York, it popularity escalated enormously in the United Kingdom in later years.
Advances in the technological realm of digital music brought about new and different genres of music. With the introduction of the Roland 303 Bassline, DJ’s and producers alike found that they could spirally warp the basic beats into ‘trippy acidized bass riffs’. This led to the creation of Acid House, which is a subgenre of House music. Unfortunately, in 1988 House music seemed to take a turn for the worst as police cracked down on the late night clubs which frequently spun House music. There was not much anyone could do about it due the rather concentrated scene, however, in the United Kingdom House music was in search of sunrise.
While Electronic Dance Music seemed to delve back into the underground scene in the US, Britain was having a massive success. Its progenies were huge concerts, where DJ’s around the globe would come to spin for the music crazed Brits. In the late 80’s DJ’s from New York would visit the UK, and would attempt to mimic the all night concert/parties (dubbed “Raves”) which manifested themselves so prevalently throughout the UK. EDM would later spread all over Europe, and would diversify into vast numbers of genres, and subgenres. As for the scene in the United States, things seemed to die down for a while. The other major genres, besides Techno and House, are Trance and Drum n’ Bass (a.k.a. Jungle). These four genres compromise most of Electronic Dance Music, but keep in mind there are dozens of subgenres within the major four. To list a few; Acid House, Deep House, Progressive House, Tribal House, Ambient/Chillout, Breakbreak, Eurodance, Gabba/Hardcore, Progressive Trance, Uplifting Trance, ect…
- B o o m i n g B u s i n e s s
With the implementation of the MP3 format, music has lately been easily pirated free of charge causing a downward trend in the music business. The entirety of the EDM business revolves around the circulation of the 12" vinyl. The majority of the vinyl production takes place in Europe, due to the escalated popularity there. It is pressed, cut, and then distributed to customers (DJs) all over the globe. This in turn makes it much more difficult for the general public to pirate the songs, due to the different media format. Not everyone has a turntable, but most people have computers with CD burners.
As reported by IFPI, this last year the global music industry has experienced a 5.0% drop of annual income. This profit decrease is blamed on the illegal pirating and distribution of CD’s. However the EDM music industry in Europe has bucked this business dip. Instead the Techno, Trance, House, and Jungle record sales are up 5%. Electronic Dance Music boasts a 6 billion dollar industry, which makes up a large part of Europe’s overall music sales. (www.ifpi.com) It supports over 600,000 jobs for people who are in some way or directly involved in the music business. This includes people who produce the music, DJ’s, as well as the people who sell it. The sales of Electronic Dance music are tremendously important, and they compromise a key part in Europe’s music economy.
- M D M A C o n n e c t i o n s
The definition of Ecstasy according to the DEA is, “Ecstasy is a ‘Schedule I’ (meaning “extremely dangerous” according to the DEA) synthetic psychoactive drug possessing both stimulant and hallucinogenic properties.” The truth about Ecstasy is that its usage has indeed skyrocketed, but from what? People need to realize that Ecstasy usage was scarce up until the 1980’s. MDMA was a substance that originated in Germany in 1913 as a diet pill, but was canceled for marketing and that was the end of that. Later ecstasy resurfaced as psychological treatment aid in the United States. Ecstasy was a legal drug up until 1985 when the DEA labeled it a ‘Schedule I’ contraband stubstance. This is when ecstasy gained media attention, although the properties and effects of Ecstasy were still quite vague. Ecstasy rapidly gained popularity of participants in the EDM scene due to the fact that it increases the synaesthasial effects of the lights, lasers, and music combined. It also allows the user to dance for extended periods of time without getting cramped up, and tired. However, all of these ‘magical experiences’ can be achieved without substance abuse (that I know for fact).
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, cases which required emergency medical aid involving Ecstasy (nationwide) was 2,850, while there were over 338,000 reported emergency cases involving Marijuana, and other gateway drugs. Also the Bureau of Justice has reported that 73.3% of all high school students have experimented with some form of illegal narcotic, Ecstasy is 5.5% of that total. (Emergency Department Trends, 2001) A survey done by MixMAG, a popular magazine entailing the music and culture of EDM, reported that a survey out of 1151 party-goers, only ninety-six were participating in the usage of Ecstasy. Parents have every right to be concerned for their children. It is understandable that people are worried because the usage of Ecstasy has escalated so much.
- T h e W a r p: W h e r e S o c i e t y G o e s W r o n g
Where society goes wrong is assuming that everyone in the culture revolving around EDM, are automatically Ecstasy users. U.S. Media dramatically warps the image of the EDM subculture. I am reminded of a 20/20 Special with Barbara Walters, where she “unveils the truth” about “raves”. Basically it was a movie with Techno being spun in the background, and videos of the typical rainbow-beaded, barely dressed, teenage girl overdosing on various drugs, and being taken away in ambulances. They had no particular statistics of drug usage, nor much useful information on the actual problem of drug-overdosing. An article published in Time Magazine had many of the same flaws, where it published many so called scientific facts about Ecstasy, in accordance to EDM. As a result parents shun their children from going to concerts, festivals, parties, raves, whatever you want to call them, based on the music that is being played.
Look back to the 1960’s where Acid Rock movement, was associated with LSD. Look back to the 1980’s where Rap/Hip-Hop was always associated with violence. Obviously all people who enjoyed Rap music where not violent, all people who enjoyed Acid Rock were not on LSD, and the same is with EDM and Ecstasy. People have made a failing connection between Ecstasy and Trance, Techno, House, basically anything that is created electronically. The facts are that it is true Ecstasy is most commonly used at clubs and parties, but the usage is smaller than the media wants you to think. I am not trying to condone the usage of Ecstasy, nor any other drug. Although Ecstasy usage is most prevalent in clubs and “raves”, who is to say that the vast majority of the people present that are listening to the music are candy-flippin’ e-tards?
- L a w, P o l i c y, M u s i c
Going back to the quote by the Deputy Mayor of New York City, he was referring to the closure of several of New York’s largest nightclubs. On May 6th 2001, Twilo was finally shut down after a three year long battle with the city of New York. The club was shutdown by police on the claims of “several of the clubs building permits were missing or invalid.” Officials were quoted saying “the six-year-old club, known for its electronic music and dancing that lasts until well after dawn, would not be allowed to reopen until the violations were resolved.” Giuliani had been trying to shut the club down since 1998, on claims that the club and its music were a haven for drug users. Mr. Sullivan said the city's efforts were misguided. "It is very sad that the city continues to hide the absence of a policy concerning drug abuse by the dancing public by demonizing Twilo," he said.
The city claims that the club was a nuisance to the public. (New York Times) It is understandable that the city is worried about the drug usage problem. Investigators found that the private security would drag the overdosed users that passed out off of the dance floor into a room where they could cool off. A former security guard said that in the three years he worked for Twilo, he saw “over 100 patrons” pass out, and he would remove them from the dance floor. Compared to the tens of thousands maybe even hundreds, that would have passed through Twilo in 3 years, this number is no more significant than the deaths at other clubs where different music is being played. The city claims that the management knows about the seriousness of the drug abuse problem, because they hire private ambulances that are waiting to take overdosed drug users to the nearest hospital for medical attention. The city’s claims concerning the ambulances, is totally off base. Almost all large concerts regardless, of place, time, or music being played all hire private ambulances to ensure the safety of the patrons. It is called responsibility, which the club owners have tried to exercise contrary to the Giuliani’s claims. Interestingly enough, the night after the club closed a crowd of ‘Twiloites’ covered the club doors in candles, roses, and going-away signs. Even a couple people shed tears of goodbye to the club where so many memories had transpired. It looked as if someone had died and, in a way somebody did…
After the ignominious death of Twilo, similar charges were pressed on other clubs and dance events. Limelight, a club near Twilo, was closed due to increasing pressure from the D.C. Government, the United States Military and the United States Federal Government. “Buzz” an event in Washington D.C. every Friday night, was renowned for hosting some of the best music gatherings sporting world famous DJ’s from around the globe. It suffered a similar death in which bogus, and illegitimate claims were made. A fox news reporter snuck a camera into the event, and the green and white gulf-war-ish footage apparently showed kids taking drugs. Parents of the children who attended this venue demanded action, thus the event was canceled soon thereafter. (www.emdef.org)
September, 9th 2002 Senator Joseph Biden and Senator Charles Grassley presented “The Rave Act – S.2633”. For brevity I will try to quickly summarize the statements. According to these two senators, they attended a meeting at which videos of these “Rave” parties were shown, and they saw the need to enact a law to “reduce American’s vulnerability to Ecstasy”. I totally understand where these people are coming from, and it is honorable that they are trying to protect America from a potentially dangerous drug. However the problem lies in the execution of this. Unfortunately, I feel that they are going about this the wrong way. Instead of targeting the drug users themselves, instead they target the music, parties, and promoters. “[They, the government are] punishing innocent businessmen and women for the crimes of their customers is unprecedented in U.S. history. The federal government can't even keep drugs out of prisons, yet they seek to incarcerate business owners for failing to keep people from sneaking drugs onto their premises.” (www.emdef.org) The law directly correlates Ecstasy and “techno music”, using cliché terms. In short, this law is a direct assault on the EDM scene, and subculture. This will allow law enforcement to close parties, clubs, or “raves” where any form of electronic dance music is being played under the suspicion Ecstasy is on the premises. Not only would the parties be closed, but the promoters that sponsored it would be fined up to $250,000 dollars and possibly serve jail time. Who wants to throw a party and end up in jail? Nobody.
A similar bill was recently rejected (thank-goodness) in California. Officials desired that “rave” promoters require a license permit to actually throw the party. This bill required all promoters that if they host an event of 500 people or more, that they must be sufficiently knowledgeable of all illegal drugs on their premises, before a permit would be issued. After I continued to investigate I found that it was later amended to include all “electronic dance music” events. While this law may seem harmless in words, it could devastate the EDM community. People are there to enjoy the music, its really quite simple. I feel that the general public has such a inequitable bias towards the EDM culture, stereotyping them as Candy Children sucking on pacifiers all night long while they roll, and dance to obnoxious drum beats.
"Rave parties are not going to be part of our community and are not going to be tolerated." (Lt. Robert Purdy, Racine Police). Nov. 5th 2002, police raided a downtown concert in Wisconsin, and gave all 441 participants of the “techno room” a $968.00 ticket for being “patrons of a disorderly house”. Out of all the 441 “ravers” only three were found to have illegal substances. Outraged I sit here typing this out, it is ludicrous, it is tyranny, and it is repression of a culture. Many other cases that are similar to this exist, and it is unfortunate that the even the law cannot differentiate between drugs and music. Blinded by the stereotypes, and “what you see on T.V. must be true” attitude, EDM will continue to be suppressed, and will dive back into the underground where it originated from. You can see that this is not the case. Three people had illegal narcotics (out of 441 people!), which is hardly a majority.
Other senate bills are being passed to use the Federal "anti-crackhouse" laws that already ban the “opening or maintaining of property for the purpose of selling or distributing drugs”. A proposal to further this law would allow prosecutors to charge property owners who even suspect that drug activity could go on at a rave but don’t necessarily have a connection to illegal drug activity. Raves, EDM events, parties, whatever you may call them ARE NOT SOLEY FOR DRUGS. The people who are serious about the music, go for the music, they are not there for the single purpose of “X”ing out.
The government uses tactics like “cut off the head and the body will fall”. This will never work with EDM, or the culture that orbits it. EDM was the child born from the underground, and it will be ever-present whether liked or not. Laws that are trying to be implemented take out the big dogs that promote the music, rather than the drug users which destroy its’ image. Everyone in the United States has been fooled into equating Trance, Techno, and House into a mysterious, drug abusing, wild, culture. I hope I have proved otherwise. EDM is no different than any other genre of music (We are different, yet the same).
- C l o s i n g A d i e u s
I hope that you can see how catastrophically devastating these laws could be to the subsisting EDM culture and the music which sustains it. Ecstasy usage is grossly blown out of proportion to the point where anyone involved in the scene is presumably an Ecstasy user. Statistics show that ecstasy is being used at an increasing rate, but drug usage in general is growing exponentially.
EDM participants are tired of being the victims of lame stereotypes, for increased T.V. ratings, for parents failing to educate, for those e-tards cappin’ one too many and passing out on the floor into cuddle puddles. We go for the music; the music is the most powerful drug of all. It has an amazing power to instill a sense of euphoria; calming, it allows people to gather and dance to the beautifully crafted tracks. It is an incredible experience to unite with thousands of people to a common beat. “Trance is a state of mind, not a fad.” - DJ Tiesto
Well..... I hope you enjoyed. I really put a lot of work into this, so comments or suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Greets! |
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| Dmatrox |
| wow thats really long, how did you do on the essay? Looks interesting, but i dont really wanna read all of that |
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| Fir3start3r |
Great article.
I did read it all and you had some great facts and arguements that I totally agree with.
I've never been a drug user, yet I continue to go to events for the love of the music; it's always been about the music for me.
It does anger me as well that I should be coralled as a stereotypical neomort based on the music I choose to listen to.
It's akin to saying that if a convenience store gets robbed a few times, rather than set up a camera or change store policies/setup to help in case of such an event, lets close down the store because appearantly it attacts robbers.
Sounds ludicrous right? But that's exactly what's happening.
The U.S. is famous for fearmongering parents about drugs.
Just read up about how hemp and pot are the same because of the efforts of "Reefer Madness". (Or even how pot kill! :rolleyes: )
Yet hemp was used widely as rope, sails, clothes, paper (the U.S. constitution is written on Hemp paper), and thousands of other uses before the scaremongering of the pulp and paper industry.
It's an interesting cyclic drug fiasco that government just can't seem to get their head out of the sand for...
Their descision to remain naive shrouds us all under a blanket of mistrust and a sideways glare when all I want to do is dance...:( |
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| djnaeblis |
| Ya... I dunno what I got on my essay, but I just really wanted to take my teachers opinions and shove em up her butt.... Hopefully I will get a good grade though :) |
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