Beats on Airwaves: Radio, Electronic Dance Music Selection and Meanings

My Ph.D. thesis consists of three research papers focused on actors’ identity as social outcome, its intrinsic multidimensionality raised by multiple identity-shaping sources, and the relationship between identity dimensions and market performance. The first paper offers an overview of the literature on identity, social identity, and two identity-determining tools – social categories and network relations. It discusses how identity emerges from multiple identifying social forces that determines its multidimensionality. The second paper qualitatively explores the idea of multidimensionality in Electronic Dance Music (EDM). Through interviews with New York-based artists and producers, and secondary data analysis, EDM is unveiled as a field in which complex interrelations and exchanges occur among its actors. This complexity is then transferred to identity, and the word Sound emerges as vernacular term to refer to that multi-sided element that allows mutual recognition and collaboration – EDM actors’ socially constructed, multidimensional identity. Finally, the third paper tests four hypotheses relating EDM releases’ performance to external categorization, alliance portfolio, and their interaction. Regression models test: 1) the relationship between EDM releases’ Grade of Generalism (the weighted number of spanned styles) and commercial performance, 2) the relationship between releasing artists’ Relational Pluralism (the number of commercial partners) and releases’ performance, and 3) the combined effect of Generalism and Pluralism on releases’ performance. Results show a curvilinear relationship between both Generalism and Relational Pluralism and releases’ performance, and statistically confirm the existence and relevance of identity multidimensionality, especially from an inter-temporal perspective. Overall, my Ph.D. dissertation introduces the idea of multidimensional identity, and explores it in qualitative and quantitative terms. Moreover, the dissertation presents and unveils Electronic Dance Music as novel and relevant context for organization research.

This essay examines “Cantopop electronic dance music,” a term that collectively designates the several sub-genres of electronic dance music which originated in Hong Kong. This electronic dance music emerged in 1998 and became the dominating club music in Greater China in the early 2000s. While scholars have positively appraised numerous aspects and subgenres of Cantopop they have never paid attention to local genres of electronic dance music. Popular music critics and professional musicians in Greater China also dismiss Cantopop electronic dance music as insincere or incompetent imitations of global (i.e., European and American) electronic dance music. In this essay I show that Cantopop electronic dance music has valuable sociocultural characteristics and I elaborate on what they are. Although this dance music has not inherited the many desirable sociocultural properties of Western electronic dance music, it has gained new ones through processes of cultural hybridization. I will illustrate, through analyzing a range of clubbing practices that hybridize singing with dancing, how Cantopop electronic dance music empowers local audiences by giving them a central role in music reproduction. Through examining the remixing of electronic dance tracks by local DJs and the rewriting of lyrics of dance tracks by local clubbers, I will explicate how local actors ingeniously hybridize, appropriate and re-articulate local and global musical materials.

Music teachers, who are working to develop students’ musicianship skills, often focus on exposing students to new styles and genres of music. These initiatives encourage students to analyze, develop opinions, create, and perform music they may not normally hear. The purpose of this article is to introduce music educators to Electronic Dance Music (EDM) as a viable option for inclusion in the music education classroom. This article explores the following questions: What is EDM? and What can you teach with EDM? An EDM track list is also included, containing musical and contextual highlights, as well as suggestions for creating, performing, responding, and connecting with EDM. The suggestions are applicable to a variety of classroom environments as well as both progressive and traditional teaching philosophies.

Electronic Dance Music or what is often heard as EDM, is dance music produced by an EDM producer using digital sounds via a computer. With the EDM phenomenon, the profession as an EDM producer among young Indonesians is getting more and more interested. The purpose of this study was to identify and understand the creative communication process of electronic dance music producers in music production. The research method used is descriptive research method with a qualitative approach. Data collection through semi-structured interviews and documentation. This research was conducted on 5 EDM producers with certain qualifications spread across Jakarta, Malang, and Yogyakarta. The result of this research is the finding of creative communication processes that occur in EDM producers in the production process of a song can not be separated from the references and intuition of an EDM producer himself. There needs to be references and intuition as a basis or tool in the production process through the creative communication process. In this study, references and intuition are managed using intrapersonal communication, creative communication, and innovation communication in order to achieve the goals of an EDM producer in the music production process.
 Electronic Dance Music atau yang kerap kali didengar dengan sebutan EDM, adalah alunan musik dansa yang diproduksi oleh seorang produser EDM menggunakan suara-suara digital melalui komputer. Profesi sebagai produser EDM dikalangan anak muda Indonesia semakin banyak peminatnya. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui dan memahami proses komunikasi kreatif produser electronic dance music dalam produksi lagu. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode penelitian deskriptif dengan pendekatan kualitatif. Pengumpulan data melalui wawancara semiterstruktur dan dokumentasi. Penelitian ini dilakukan kepada 5 produser EDM dengan kualifikasi tertentu yang tersebar di Jakarta, Malang, dan Yogyakarta. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah ditemukannya proses komunikasi kreatif yang terjadi pada produser EDM dalam proses produksi sebuah lagu tidak terlepas dari adanya referensi dan intuisi dari seorang produser EDM itu sendiri. Perlu adanya referensi dan intuisi sebagai landasan atau alat bantu dalam proses produksi melalui proses komunikasi kreatif. Dalam penelitian ini, referensi dan intuisi dikelola menggunakan komunikasi intrapersonal, komunikasi kreatif, dan komunikasi inovasi agar tercapainya tujuan dari seorang produser EDM dalam proses produksi lagu.

From massive raves sprouting around the London orbital at the turn of the 1990s to events operated under the control of corporate empires, EDM (Electronic Dance Music) festivals have developed into cross-genre, multi-city, transnational mega-events. From free party teknivals proliferating across Europe since the mid-1990s to colossal corporate attractions like Tomorrowland Electric Daisy Carnival and Stereosonic, and from transformational and participatory events like Burning Man and events in the UK outdoor psytrance circuit, to such digital arts and new media showcases as Barcelona’s Sónar Festival and Montreal’s MUTEK, dance festivals are platforms for a variety of arts, lifestyles, industries and policies. Growing ubiquitous in contemporary social life, and providing participants with independent sources of belonging, these festivals and their event-cultures are diverse in organization, intent and outcome. From ethically-charged and “boutique” events with commitments to local regions to subsidiaries of entertainment conglomerates touring multiple nations, EDM festivals are expressions of “freedoms” revolutionary and recreational. Centres of “EDM pop”, critical vectors in tourism industries, fields of racial distinction, or experiments in harm reduction, gifting culture, and co-created art, as this volume demonstrates, diversity is evident across management styles, performance legacies and modes of participation. Weekend Societies is a timely interdisciplinary volume from the emergent field of EDM festival and event-culture studies. Echoing an industry trend in world dance music culture from raves and clubs towards festivals, Weekend Societies features contributions from scholars of EDM festivals showcasing a diversity of methodological approaches, theoretical perspectives and representational styles. Organised in four sections: Dance Empires; Underground Networks; Urban Experiments; Global Flows, Weekend Societies illustrates how a complex array of regional, economic, social, cultural and political factors combine to determine the fate of EDM festivals that transpire at the intersections of the local and global.

DJ Culture in the Mix is the first academic collection devoted to the DJ in electronic dance music (EDM). Its appearance is timely since the sounds and structures of EDM increasingly permeate all p...

Chapter 8 discusses the orientation of Central European musicians to aesthetics, production technologies, and distribution networks of the turn of the millennium that are collectively termed world music 2.0, arguing that study of local information flow enriches the overall notion of world music 2.0. The chapter reviews how electronic dance music (EDM) became a key component of the millennial sound world and of world music 2.0 in Central Europe. The chapter then describes musicians who continue to think locally as they merge sensibilities: the Slovak duo Longital developed a futurist aesthetic; the Austrian composer and musician Christof Dienz blended alpine ideas, avant-garde art music, and EDM; and Hungarian composer-producer Károly Cserepes infused musical dreamscapes with local sounds. The chapter concludes that the Central European musicians occupy a liminal space between analog world music 1.0 and networked world music 2.0.

"Special Issue of Popular Music and Society: Race and Electronic Dance Music." Rock Music Studies, 4(1), pp. 84–85

Music similarity is a multidimensional concept to which so-called “sub-similarities”, such as timbre and rhythm similarity, contribute. In this study, two models are presented: one for timbre similarity, and one for rhythm similarity. The musical domain for which the models were established is Electronic Dance Music (EDM). The models extract feature values from segments of audio and calculate a distance between two segments based on their feature vectors. The models are evaluated on perceptual data using linear regression. The accuracy of the rhythm similarity model reaches an empirically established upper bound to model performance. The accuracy of the timbre model is moderate, possibly due to insufficient data. From the selection of features and their weights resulting from the regression analysis, periodicity of rhythmic elements turned out to be the most important feature group for rhythm similarity in EDM.

Repetitive signals of sustained amplitude are observed both in music and seismology; in music this is often described as the rhythm, whereas in seismology such signals are often labeled as tremor ( e.g. , Chouet 1996). Tremor is generated by a variety of sources including volcanoes, glaciers, and hydroelectric plants (for examples, see Ferrick et al. 1982) and is often characterized by narrowband spectral features that maintain their amplitude, sometimes for periods of hours or days (so-called harmonic tremor). In this paper we present observations from an unusual anthropogenic source of seismic tremor, generated at an interface between music and seismology: an electronic dance music festival. Music festivals, popular in the summer months across the United Kingdom, provide a meeting point for thousands of enthusiasts to listen to live music. Many of these festivals concentrate on a particular genre of music; e.g. , dance, folk, rock, or world. Previously observed vibrations from rock music festivals have been attributed to large crowds in confined spaces jumping up and down in time to the music, although seismograms were not recorded (Erlingsson and Bodare 1996; Browitt and Walker 1993). Electronic dance music, characterized by strong repetitive rhythms, is the focus for the Glade electronic dance music festival that has been held in the Berkshire countryside for one weekend a year from 2004 to 2007 (see figure 1). The festival consists of a number of music stages and tents, each of which specializes in particular subgenres of electronic dance music. In 2007, approximately 8,500 people enjoyed the festival over the weekend of 20–22 July. To amplify the music to a level suitable for an outdoor concert, the power output of the public address (PA) systems ranged from 2 to 26 kW; the loudspeakers are powerful acoustic sources that are coupled into the ground …

Introduction 1. The Historical Development of the Use of Popular Music in Christian Contexts 2. The Historical Background and Development of Alternative Worship 3. NGM in Bristol, England -- Popular Music, 'Church Planting' 4. 24-7 Mission on Ibiza, Spain -- Electronic Dance Music, Spirituality and Community 5. Artisan and Tribe in New York -- Network Sociality, Ambient Electronic Dance Music and Urban Contexts 6. Theorizing Religion and Popular Music Notes Bibliography Index

Statistical data on the medical problems encountered during two editions of an indoor electronic dance event with around 30,000 attendants were retrieved from the Belgian Red Cross (Mechelen, Belgium) database. Data on drug use were prospectively collected from the patient (or a bystander), the clinical presentation, and/or toxicological screening. In the on-site medical station, 487 patients were treated (265 in 2013 and 222 in 2014). The most frequent reasons were trauma (n=171), headache (n=36), gastro-intestinal problems (n=44), and intoxication (n=160). Sixty-nine patients were transferred to a hospital, including 53 with severe drug-related symptoms. Analysis of blood samples from 106 intoxicated patients detected ethanol in 91.5%, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in 34.0%, cannabis in 30.2%, cocaine in 7.5%, amphetamine in 2.8%, and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in 0.9% of patients (alone or in combination). In only six of the MDMA-positive cases, MDMA was the sole substance found. In 2014, the neuroleptic drug clozapine was found in three cases and ketamine in one. Additional analyses for NPS were performed in 20 cases. Only in one agitated patient, the psychedelic phenethylamines 25B-NBOMe and 25C-NBOMe were found. At this particular event, recreational drug abuse necessitated on-site medical treatment in one out of 350 attendants and a hospital transfer in one out of 1,000. Ethanol remains the most frequently abused (legal) drug, yet classical illicit recreational drugs are also frequently (co-) ingested. The most worrying observation was high-risk poly-drug use, especially among MDMA users. Regarding NPS, the number of cases was low and the clinical presentations were rather mild. It should be stressed that these observations only apply to this particular event and cannot be generalized to other EDM events. Calle P , Sundahl N , Maudens K , Wille SMR , Van Sassenbroeck D , De Graeve K , Gogaert S , De Paepe P , Devriese D , Arno G , Blanckaert P . Medical emergencies related to ethanol and illicit drugs at an annual, nocturnal, indoor, electronic dance music event. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;33(1):71-76.

Electronic dance music (EDM) party attendees who use ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine [MDMA], Molly) are at high risk for ingesting adulterant drugs, but little is known regarding trends in exposure. We sought to determine whether adulteration has shifted in recent years. Adults entering EDM events at nightclubs and dance festivals in NYC were surveyed in 2016 and 2019. We tested hair samples from a subsample of those reporting past-year ecstasy use using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Differences in unreported drug exposure and suspected adulteration were compared between 2016 (n = 90) and 2019 (n = 72). MDMA detection was stable at 72-74%. We detected decreases in unreported use of methamphetamine (from 22.2% to 5.6% [P = .003], an 74.8% decrease), new psychoactive substances (from 31.1% to 2.8% [P < .001], a 91.0% decrease), and synthetic cathinones in particular (from 27.8% to 2.8% (P < .001, an 89.9% decrease). Unreported ketamine exposure increased from 18.9% to 34.7% (P = .022, an 83.6% increase). We also detected decreases in participants' suspicion of their ecstasy being adulterated with methamphetamine (from 20.0% to 5.6% [P = .010], an 72.0% decrease) and "bath salts" (synthetic cathinones, from 8.9% to 1.4% [P = .044], an 84.3% decrease). Unknown exposure to adulterants among people who use ecstasy in the EDM scene is shifting. Monitoring of exposure to adulterants is needed to inform harm reduction. This was among the first studies to examine unintentional exposure to drugs over time in this population and unintentional exposure to synthetic cathinones in particular appears to be declining. (Am J Addict 2021;30:49-54).

Lessons to be learned from toxicological analyses in intoxicated patients and seized materials at an electronic music dance festival

The latest iterations of West African electronic dance music, such as Afrobeats, azonto, and akayida, have been gaining ground in Accra and around the world since the 2010s. Sound is part of the societal fabric of Accra; there are noise control and building regulations in Ghana, but they are outdated and easily ignored. This research reveals that nightclubs, bars, and restaurants with dance music are an elongated historic phenomenon due to the fact that the intermingling of dance and music—described here as “embodied listening”—morphed organically from traditional and popular Ghanaian dance/music genres into electronic versions. Afrocentric indigenous auto-ethnography and informal interviews with music communities, as well as local news articles and public policies, foreground an afrocentric discussion of the electronic music scene and community networks. Government interventions such as arts policies, building codes, and sound control policies that are relevant in the Global North are found to be potentially harmful in Ghana, as well as other similar communities in the Global South.