One thing we all recognize but rarely talk about (at least me personally) is where our taste in edm came from. I’m sure it had to start somewhere right?
For me it came and went. While I’m not old enough to remember the real underground days of the 80’s and early 90’s, I do remember when it wasn’t really called edm but rather techno or house. There weren’t sub genres for the most part. I listened to Eiffel 65, Tiësto, and Daft Punk. Boy did I think that was the coolest music to ever grace the planet! Then I got a little older (middle school) and my tastes changed, dance music didn’t really seem relevant to me anymore and I liked music that my friends listened to. About 4 years ago my brother started playing dance music at home and in the car. I wasn’t a fan at first, he played a lot of Deadmau5, not that I hated it, but it sounded very repetitive to me and I could only handle a song or two. I actually don’t really remember who else we listened to… maybe Skrillex. It was the same deal, only a few songs at a time. From there it went downhill, I’d ask him about songs and he’d tell me to just look them up, I started putting music on my iTunes and making playlists. Slowly but surely my phone became inundated with dance music. I didn’t mind in the slightest. I remember in 2011 my brother asked me if I wanted to go see Deadmau5, Excision, Tommy Lee and Dj Aero at Red Rocks. I told him I wish but I didn’t want to miss my physics class that night (Tuesday) even though it was early in the semester. I ended up picking him and his friend up form Red Rocks and wishing the whole drive there and back that I had gone. Never would I make that bad decision again.
5 months later I went to my first edm show. Excision, Dirtyloud, Lucky Date and Liquid Stranger. 100,000 Watts of bass in a tiny venue in Denver. I didn’t hear correctly for 3 days; I also never wanted to be able to hear properly thanks to music again. I had fallen in love with dance music all over again.
A little over 2 years later and I listen to dance music almost exclusively. I occasionally listen to some alternative or classic rock and I will always have my favorites outside of edm but there is nothing like dance music and the way it sounds to me. I’ve come from knowing only a few names in dance music to knowing dozens and I am always looking for new music that gets me moving. There is something universal about dance music that speaks to all of us as individuals and as one giant family. There really is nothing like going to a huge concert and knowing that every single person in the crowd is feeling the same excitement, the same euphoria over the bass and the melody and the incredible vocals. We may have our differences in genre tastes within dance music, but one thing we can all agree on is that there is nothing else like it.
I know I will be a fan until I go deaf (hopefully later rather than sooner) and I certainly cannot wait to see where this love of music takes me. Our culture is so inclusive and generates such a positive atmosphere, its hard to imagine not liking this music.
So please, tell me how you got started. Whether you went to illegal underground raves or if you will be going to your first show this summer, I want to hear about it. Despite our differences in how we started loving this music, we all carry the knowledge that each one of us started somewhere and ended up with a passion for electronic dance music.
~Nick