This is something I have been thinking about a lot.
Let me just quickly preface this with the fact that I am not a scientist, and I have not researched this in any way. There is no proof that any of this is true, this is my personal theory. Also if you like big room this might not be for you.
What is this?
My Theory is that there are 3 ways to enjoy electronic music. I may overlook something but overall this is what I have found so far. Feel free to add more in the comments.
Type Number 1: Melodic
Melodic enjoyment is what you get from a good melodic dubstep track. It is also the way you would enjoy classical music or pop music.
It is the type of music that makes you move your head from left to right and back with the melody.
Type Number 2: Impact
I know most about this one. Impactful enjoyment is what you get from a good Dubstep drop, a Hardcore Banger or anything similar. It makes you headbang up and down with the beat.
Type Number 3: Chill
Chilled enjoyment is what makes you relax your muscles and just sit back. Hip Hop, Lo-Fi or not, does this pretty well.
A track or genre fails if it can't caiter to one of these.
My example for this is big room. (I warned you, big room fans. You can still leave.)
Alright let's go through martin garrix, animals to see what I mean. Here is the link if you don't know the song already.
It starts out with some simple chords.
Next we have a beat. Then the iconic melody begins with the clock.
This is a pretty nice melody. You could get melodic enjoyment from this. Then comes the claps.
Next we have the buildup, wich just ditches the melody altogether. Melodic fans won't like this (I speak from experience.)
Then we get the buildup wich is pretty hard.
An Impact fan would like this. Then we get the drop wich isn't hard enough for an impact fan and features a bad melody. So the track has failed impact and melodic fans. Also it just isn't a chill track.
This is why I consider Big room to be a failed genre. Let me know what you think about this and if it helps you while producing.
I look forward to discussing this with you.
Comments (13)
Nah theres more to it than that.
this is what what I figured out how I enjoy music. I would like to hear what else you have to say on that
There's genres that don't fit any of these. My music alone doesn't really fit most of the time. Although I do have "drops" in my tracks, and although they do convey a certain feeling they for the most part are neither hardcore nor chill and usually aren't melodic per se. I see this more as a radar graph than just putting something into three categories. With that you could see where an artist falls into certain aspects than others.
So if I had to guess about my self, I would be more about percussion and sound design than emotion or atmosphere. And Zerod would be more sound design and emotion than percussion etc. So I think it's more about how much a person invest into certain aspects of production than genre or categories because the latter will always be convoluted. It's the same reason why music award shows don't work.
So what i'm saying is (TL:DR) putting music into a few categories only takes you so far. A graph that focuses more on the elements of individual songs or artists would probably work better.
I have to agree, although I am a fan of dissecting and categorising things, (especially music)... I feel like these categories are more of limitations than that. However, I would suggest that instead of looking at music as a whole, you can base this off of what the majority of listeners gravitate to, what's popular, if that makes any sense. Music theory already strives to do this by asking what "sounds good" and why does it?. I feel like what you're asking is moreso what makes popular (electronic) music sound good? Because there's also music out there that mightn't sound good to many people, but vibes well with a few. Only because music is an art it's somewhat wrong, in a sense, to limit it.
(Great topic btw, I'd love to see what others think on the subject ^-^)
there's way more to it. these enjoyments can be combined and plus there are more enjoyment types.
Yes, reply functions on the boards are finally here. I ask for that 2 months ago :) Is there a delete function yet ?
I agree. Music is a mood ting too, the multi genre makers know what I mean. A life being tied to just one genre is no life at all
The reason big room sounds bad to you is because you've never heard it in an actual big room setting its supposed to be enjoyed for. It's club music, not music to listen to on headphones. I don't care how good quality your phones are, most, if not all of this music sounds extremely majestic on speakers.
Or maybe you have heard big room in a club or rave, etc, I'm just being an *** assuming you haven't heard so yet.
big rooms are good
bigroom always existed. In the nineties it was called hard trance and was the same pain in the ass Disney Land bull shit :)
Perfection is an important reason of enjoyment in electronic music for me
Agree