With its steady growth, the music industry is anticipating a huge expansion in the future of EDM, but what direction is it drifting in?
At the start of 2020 Electronic Dance Music was more popular than it has ever been, but then the pandemic hit the world resulting in lock downs and cancelations of DJ performances and festivals, making EDM one of the biggest genres to take an economical hit in the music scene. With no performances or clubs (which is the heartbeat and foundation of Dance Music) there has been an enormous influx in the creation of non-club driven music from EDM producers resulting in a lot of Dance-Pop flooding the internet. Dance Radio leaders like Sirius XM’s BPM are now noticeably playing some slower and lower bpm tracks that are catching on like wild fire. Spotify has also recently created a “Dance Pop Hits” playlist for the recharged genre, along with the other streaming platforms following along.
Although the genre of Dance-Pop is a controversial subject to some Dance Music fans, it has been around for decades. According to Wikipedia, Dance-Pop originated in the 1980s. “It is generally up-tempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio”. Many of the biggest Pop musicians throughout the decades have brought EDM elements to their unforgettable mainstream hits. Some examples are: Cher, Madonna, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, The Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, Michael Jackson, NSYNC, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Rihanna, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande. For the top Pop Artists in the world, it’s an easy shift, however there has been very few artists to cross over successfully from Dance to Pop. When a Dance artist actually crosses over, they seem to automatically become mega stars!
In 2007 David Guetta released “Love is Gone” instantly making him a house hold name to the Pop world and is defined as one of the key architects of both modern EDM and the EDM-Pop crossover. Another example is Lady Gaga who was debuted the following year, first on Dance Radio and then quickly crossing over to Pop. In the Mid 2010s it happened again with the Chainsmokers and Marshmallow who are now considered to be some of the top Pop artists in the world.
It is now 2021 and with Dance-Pop on the rise again, the world can already see some contenders in the cross over lane like LODATO of Spinnin Records who seemed to capitalize on his 2020 year in isolation with multiple Dance Radio and Billboard #1 Hits. LODATO’s releases are getting massive radio play on both, the leading Dance Stations and iHeart Top 40 stations across America.
In the end, what we can expect from the future of EDM is for the industry to continue expanding and diversifying. In addition, new innovations will come into play and new genres will emerge. We can also expect that the market will eventually adapt to these new trends and will give rise to new artists who will take over the genre.
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