Over the course of the last 2 weeks I have been collecting various pieces of research which I hope will aid in the creation of this EP.

I decided that researching Electronic Dance Music was a good way to start, as it would allow me to understand the kinds of songs that I intend to design. As it turns out, EDM is only considered an umbrella term for the huge variety of musical styles that emerged. The genres all include several features which link them all together: they feature inorganic sounds and synthesizers, with some inclusion of vocals and instrumentation as an extra addition to the songs. The most important thing to note is that the genres are all designed with strong rhythms with one goal in mind for the listener: to make them want to dance to the songs. Each genre has a different audience and different production techniques, so, for my project, I needed to narrow down my research into which genres I wanted to choose for the project… and there were many of them to choose from.

Some of these options included House, Techno, Drum and Bass, and Trance, although there were many more in addition to these. However, the ones mentioned above were the ones I had chosen initially to briefly analyze and talk about their features, because these were the ones I had either listened to or at least heard of prior to this project. The plan was that when the analysis of each of these genres was done, I would then be able to understand more about each of the genres and choose what to create based on the knowledge I gained.

We start with the House genre. Originating from Chicago in the early 80’s, it is characterized by its use of repetitive rhythm patterns (the ‘4 on the floor’ kick drum rhythm specifically, where the drum hits on every beat) and electronic drum machines, with one or two build-ups and drops around the verses and choruses. House is considered one of the more popular forms of EDM, used by many notable artists such as Deadmau5, Avicii, David Guetta and Daft Punk.

Techno began life in Detroit in the mid 1980’s, with influences from House, Synthpop, and Electro music. Compared to House music, Techno is usually faster paced, with most songs between 130-150 beats per minute while House songs vary between 118-135 beats per minute, and while both genres feature repetitive beats in a 4/4 pattern (4 beats per bar) and similar uses of hi-hats and snares, they both portray completely different feelings to one another. Techno has been historically more serious and dark, while House is more positive and upbeat in comparison. Some popular techno artists include Blake Baxter, Ken Ishii, LFO and Adam X.

Drum and Bass is a faster genre of music, with songs that usually remain between 160-180 bpm and is centered around the use of drums and a bass synthesizer. Usually the drum kit has a pattern that sounds like this (the original sample was known as The Amen Break from the 1969 song “Amen Brother” by the Winstons), and usually features one or two main sections following build-ups/breaks. Some well known drum and bass artists are Pendulum, High Contrast, Goldie and DJ Hype.

Lastly we have Trance, which is a melodic, freeform genre that originated in Germany in the early 90’s, and is considered a very simple and repetitive genre of EDM. The main features of this genre which give this impression are the tempo (around 140 bpm), the drums (due to the basic 4/4 pattern they have), the riffs (synth riffs in Trance are incredibly common) and the female vocals, if any vocals are included at all, which are “floating above the synths” to offset the robotic nature of the synths. Notable Trance artists include Paul Van Dyk, Armin Van Buuren, and DJ Tiesto.

With these genres listed above and some of their main features detailed, I can make my decision about what genres I wish to use for my EP. After much thought, and looking over the genres several more times, I have decided that I want to create Trance and Techno songs in this EP.