Blog 1

Supppppp, and welcome to my blog. This is the first of several blogs, and I guess I will start by simply discussing some of the new ideas and opinions I have concerning electronic music.

Electronic music is something that I have come to appreciate over the last several months. As a devout metalhead, I always felt it natural for me to dismiss any form of synthetic music. For me, music was heavily performance-based and needed to dissipate massive amounts of energy and aggression. Other types of music were too weak and boring for me. Over time, I found myself starting to enjoy and appreciate certain softer styles of music. This new fascination certainly confused me; I would be listening to Suicide Silence and then suddenly feel the need to listen to something like Sarah Brightman. Anyhow, I realized that it was the atmosphere that caught me. The harmonies and the mellow use of melody really caught my emotion in a trance. I thus came to label my tastes in music as the extremes of a musical sprectrum: the music had to either be really "pretty" or really "brutal."

Some samples of my tastes thus far:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJGBIFIYRzo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p62rfWxs6a8

Now, I shift attention to the development of my appreciation for electronic music. The development seems to be pretty specific for people my age, but I guess it happens. Over the summer, the "new thing to do" was to go to high end dance clubs. Throughout the week, my friends from home and I would go to a variety of these clubs around Socal, especially in Hollywood and about the Inland Empire. Dancing, however, had never really been my thing, especially since here at school all dancing, at least with the people I hang around, seems to be oriented towards more "physical" forms of interaction. Again, as a metalhead, dancing served no purpose to me. The only dancing I knew was hardcore dancing, otherwise known as "moshing," at shows I'd go to as a teenager. Anyhow, these clubs showed me that dancing, among other things, was now for the sake of just dancing. I then realized that "just dancing" required a certain type of music, and this music was electronic music. I began enjoying the dance and the music so much to the point that I had to start making it myself. The music, in the hands of the almighty DJ, governed the bodies of the people dancing to it, and that power of the beat is what captivated me. A simple beat with electronic themes and improvisations could go a long way. I started to (read: attempted to) write my own music and beats using FL Studio, and I began explore the world of performance DJs: a way to combine precomposed pieces with live performance! Anyhow, long story short, I now have a new love for electro, electrohouse, and nudisco, and I have a new dream of becoming a DJ. My current favorite would have to be the French duo Justice, for their applications of classical musical knowledge to dance music. I am aware that Justice is really popular right now, so I am trying to go beyond them by researching other electro groups. I'll end with a Justice video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSrg3qGXcQg

Thanks,
Alex