By the students, for the students of Central Washington University

The Observer

By the students, for the students of Central Washington University

The Observer

By the students, for the students of Central Washington University

The Observer

Scene: Knowing the subgenres

BY SPENCER BAKERStaff Reporter

Many people do not know the difference between all of the sub-genres of EDM. There is House, Dubstep, Trap, Drum&Bass and many more genres that all compile to make EDM.

House music is probably the most popular sub-genera right now. What gives house its specific sound is the steady bass that hits every 128 beats per minute (BPM). House makes you want to jump up and down waving your arms in the air.

Most of the “pop” music that is coming out today is very similar to house music, for example the song “Wake Me Up” by Avicii, or anything on the radio by David Guetta. For other great house producers, check out Tiesto, Benny Benassi or Zedd.

The next most popular genre is Dubstep, known for its dirty synths at 70 BPM.

It makes you want to bang your head and rock to the slower, more drawn out synths compared to house. Skrillex is the producer that brought Dubstep to the general public with his massive hit, “Scary Monsters” and “Nice Sprites.”

Other Dubstep producers to listen to are Dr. P, Datsik and Zeds Dead.

The most recent explosion of a genre in the EDM scene has been Trap. Trap was brought into the general public by the song “Harlem Shake” by Baauer. With the 30 million “Harlem Shake” videos posted to YouTube every day, it is almost impossible to not hear that song.

Trap sounds like a hip-hop beat without the rapper. There are no real set BPM with trap, but the dead give away that it is a trap song is the quick, very tight rolls of snare drums and high hats. Many of the producers will sample hip-hop songs in their trap songs.

Other trap producers are, Flosstradamus, Brillz and Jakayl.

The final sub genera of EDM is drum ‘n’ bass. Also known as D’n’B, it sounds like very fast Dubstep.

The genre is characterized by very fast break beats. The BPM stays between 160 and 180 and has a very heavy bass and sub-bass lines.

Drum ‘n’ Bass has not had a huge breakout into the general public but artists to listen to are Noisia, Run DMT and Pendulum.

EDM is very popular right now and people need to know just exactly what EDM consists of. It is not a straight forward genre and has many influences on all kinds of music.

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