Since I was in the 5th grade, I had always loved rap music.  Being able to yell the lyrics to one of your favorite songs can be the best feeling ever.  I stuck with this genre for many years, until I discovered my newfound love for EDM music last year.  Rap/hip hop may not be for everyone, but one of the biggest reasons I have become infatuated with electronic dance music is the fact that there is a style for everyone.  You can’t put a name on any singular sound, and the number of sounds you can produce with a soundboard is infinite.

Everyone has heard an EDM song before, whether you know it or not.  The genre is so wide you might even hear a song on a basic radio station like B96.  This was probably the main reason it took me so long to discover a sound that I liked.  I was never really a big fan of any of the generic songs I heard.  It wasn’t until I started digging that I found a lot of sounds that I liked.  Some of my favorite artists/DJs are Peekaboo, ATLiens, G-Rex, and TYNAN.  These artists use many similar sounds and frequencies that appeal to my ears so much I could listen for hours on end.

Although I am obsessed with EDM music, I haven’t lost my love for rap music either.  The reason I have started to shy away from it though is the fact that everyone in rap is competing with each other.  Whether it be on social media, trying to create this badass image, or dissing other people in their own songs for attention, it has all begun to seem childish to me.  The rap artists of today appeal to a crowd around the ages of 15-16 because their online stunts and bickering back and forth shows their fans the confidence they have, and gives social media something to always be talking about, which helps grow their name rapidly. EDM is the complete opposite.  A rapper’s main goal is to create an image that people will follow, whereas most EDM artists try to hide their image completely.  Many DJs are known to wear a mask of some sort, hiding their true identity from fame and attention.  This is because they want their fan base to be able to connect with each other simply for the love of their music.  Every artist is willing to work with each other and combine their sounds to make great music, no matter how popular each artist is.  You could have somebody who only gets 20,000 streams a month make a mindblowing song with somebody that gets millions; this is simply something that would never happen in the rap scene.

I truly believe that my love for this type of music has come with age because I never would’ve never seen myself loving something so far out of the usual like EDM until I understood the messages but also life lessons that come with it.