Whether you enjoy the soulful sounds of deep house or the aggressive drops of dubstep, there's an EDM song for everyone. The genre is so wide that it has created its own culture, with an emphasis on free love and positivity.
EDM has even infiltrated pop culture. Check out the horn-heavy chorus of Mark Ronson's Uptown Funk to see what we mean.
Origins
The edm genre is primarily electronic music produced for dance clubs. It is usually played on a turntable by a disc jockey (DJ) and is listened to in groups by clubbers. This type of dance music is very popular among young people and is widely listened to on the radio.
The origins of edm date back to the 1990s, when rave culture began spreading throughout Europe and then worldwide, including the US. Gen Xers embraced this new wave of dancing music, and artists like Daft Punk and Tiesto drew attention to the genre with their catchy dance pop. Meanwhile, Detroit techno and Chicago house music remained popular in the scene, forming a foundation for the subgenres that would later develop, such as drum and bass and trance.
Despite the fact that many different musical styles have been influenced by edm, the genre still retains its identity as electronic dance music, thanks to the underlying technological element. This is also why it is often referred to as synthpop, electropop or dance-pop. Regardless of the influences, the main characteristic that edm shares with other musical genres is its beat, which is a combination of melodic and rhythmical elements. Its tempo ranges from slow and soothing to up-tempo, such as in trance and drum and bass. Other genres, such as electro swing and future bass, combine these beats with more traditional instruments, such as piano and trumpets.
Types
The term EDM encompasses a wide range of music genres that are created for dancing in nightclubs and festivals. Generally, these tracks feature a rhythmic pulse with a beat or bassline, and they are accompanied by synthesizers and processed samples. The music is usually played by a DJ, who creates a seamless selection of songs that transition from one to the next. DJs can also perform their own live sets in nightclubs and festivals.
Several types of edm are used in the manufacturing industry, including wire-cut, hole-drilling, and ram EDM. The first of these, wire-cut EDM, uses a wire electrode to cut through a vertical or angled slot in a workpiece. The resulting grooves are smaller than the width of the electrode, and the gap between the grooves is filled with a non-conductive material to avoid short circuits in the workpiece.
Another type of EDM is ram EDM, which is also called sinker discharge machining. This process is used to make complex cavities and fine-detailed surfaces in injection molding and die casting tooling. It allows for the creation of features that would be impractical to machine or create with conventional methods. Ram EDM is also used to remove sheared-off bolts and taps from high-value aluminum castings. In addition to reducing the cost of production, ram EDM can also help reduce the number of post-processing steps needed for surface quality improvements or hardening.