The Evolution of EDM From Disco to Dubstep

Last week at the Juno Awards Banx & Ranx, an electronic music production duo from Montreal, won the award for Breakthrough Group of the Year. Electronic dance music is more popular than ever. In some countries like the U.K., it’s the most popular form of music based on record sales. It’s hard to imagine what a modern nightclub would be like without the pulsing rhythms and pounding synthetic bass. Some of the genre’s pioneers, like DJ Frankie Knuckles, and Daft Punk still play to sold out crowds around the world. So how did this form of music come to be and what made it so popular? To fully answer the first question, we need to go back to the 1970’s.

In the ‘70’s disco music was massively popular and disco artists were changing how songs were being written by experimenting with drum machines and electronic instruments to create synthetic rhythms. In 1977 Donna Summer released her disco hit, I Feel Love a heavily synthesized song written by Pete Bellotte and Giorgio Moroder. Pete and Giorgio would later collaborate with house music superstars Daft Punk.

In the 1980’s synthpop, house music and electro all began to be produced. As the technological advancements of the 80’s took off so did the complexity of electronic dance music. Then with innovation of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), which paired electronic music with computers, producing this style of music became accessible to anyone with musical experience and a computer. House music started to become popular in Chicago at this time even getting its name “house music” based on it being music produced in your house rather than a studio. This era created hits like AH-HA’s Take on Me, and what is considered by some to be the first ever house music track, On and On by Jesse Saunders.

With the 1990’s came the first types of EDM that modern electronic music fans would recognize. Genres like Techno, House, Electro, Dub, Trance, and Hardcore Rave music helped to propel EDM into mainstream music especially in Europe.  It was during this period that raving began to develop into what it is today with nightclubs playing popular and sometimes even underground EDM records. In 1993 in France, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, and Thomas Bangalter formed the house music duo Daft Punk. In 1997 they released their debut album which had the hit track Around the World on it. Daft Punk was one of the first electronic music production groups to have mainstream success.

In 1998 Madonna released her techno-pop album “Ray of Light” which helped to further solidify electronic music in North America. In the early 2000’s artists like Daft Punk, David Guetta,  Tiesto, and Skrillex firmly rooted EDM into the North American Music industry. Modern EDM usually consists of original mixes and remixes by world renowned DJs like The Chainsmokers, Steve Aoki, and Martin Garrix with the genres pioneers still remaining relevant in the industry today.

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