Tension is linked with the withholding of the beat and specifically the kick drum. For example, Mark Butler states that EDM listeners correlate tension and energy levels with texture changes ( 2006, 221). Some aspects of tension and release in EDM are caused by what I call discrete processes. Reproduction of Figure 26.4 from Snoman (2019, 333), showing a snare roll in a MIDI editor (2) How do dancers know when the waves are coming, and how to “ride” them? What musical components participate in these narratives to create varying degrees of energy and tension in EDM?Įxample 1. These “emotional waves” of tension and release occur in virtually all forms of music, but they are manifested in specific ways in contemporary EDM and EDM-influenced pop songs. You’re a surfer.” (1) Similarly, producer Rick Snoman, author of the influential Dance Music Manual, says that all dance music “deals mostly in emotional waves, consisting of building and dropping the arrangement to generate an emotional state in the audience” ( Snoman 2009, 269). The superstar producer Armin van Buuren, who works in the EDM genre of trance, says that “Trance music is all about release. Producers and fans of electronic dance music (EDM) describe the experience of listening to this repertoire as like riding emotional waves.
This article adds to existing analytical scholarship by drawing attention to the many roles of continuous processes in EDM, and showing how they contribute to the emotional waves experienced when listening to this music.Ĭopyright © 2021 Society for Music Theory They can be used by creators at strategic times to provide ornamentation, orientation (often accompanied by intensification or de-intensification), or disorientation (usually in breakdown sections). Examples include pitch slides (glissandos), crescendos, fade ins, accelerandos, and filter sweeps.Ĭontinuous processes in this repertoire are created with “continuous controllers” such as sliders and knobs, or are programmed into tracks with “automation curves.” Functionally, continuous processes often provide sonic instructions for dancers. Continuous processes are musical gestures with continuous changes to musical parameters, rather than discrete, “step-by-step” ones. KEYWORDS: EDM, dance music, popular music, deadmau5, form, climax, narrative, functionĪBSTRACT: This article discusses the functions of continuous processes in contemporary electronic dance music (EDM), providing an analytical framework for discussing their structural and aesthetic roles in this repertoire.
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