Electronic Dance Music. For most of you, the last time you heard someone mention EDM, it was followed by “sucks.” I’m here to say that EDM is making a comeback and I am so here for it. EDM is a high-energy music genre most commonly played at raves and festivals and is accompanied by smoke and lasers. With the rising popularity of grunge, indie and pop, EDM may have fallen into the shadows, but I’m here to tell you it’s been getting some much-deserved recognition recently. It’s not a stretch when I say that as the alternative scene grows, so does EDM, but most of the EDM enthusiasm I’ve seen recently comes from gym-goers.
There is a high chance that your local scene kid and gym bro both have S3RL blasting in their headphones. Strength training has taken over the internet, and those that are involved are hooked (safe to say I find myself in the same boat). After consistently lifting for a year, I began consuming large amounts of gym-related media, whether it’s creators showing their pre-workout meals, favorite outfits, or even edits of bodybuilders. What is hard not to recognize is the consistent theme of high-energy music in the background of most of the videos. Yes, there is a large amount of metal and grunge music being played, but an overwhelming amount of the music people listen to in the gym in order to motivate them to hit heavy sets is actually EDM.
Alongside the increased presence of EDM has come its divergence into hardstyle. Hardstyle is a subgenre of EDM that involves heavier bass/ kicks and is normally more rhythmically repetitive. There has been a boom of new hardstyle songs, and I am once again a part of the large demographic eating it up. Whenever you need to get out of your head and enter a rhythm at the gym, or need to concentrate while doing schoolwork, there is nothing like strong percussion and reverb to get you in the right headspace.
EDM and hardstyle may be a tough pill to swallow for some listeners, but there is a rapidly growing base of unyielding fans of it.
Personal Favorites
Here are some of my personal favorite EDM and hardstyle songs that I always have playing in my headphones at the gym.
“DJ W—re” – S3RL, Tamika
“Bass S–t – Original Mix” – S3RL
“Kutmuziek” – Joost
“TELEGRAM” – MUDA!
“Work (Gabber Kick Edit)” – Lil Texas
“SMD – Lil Texas Remix” – RomancePlanet, Lil Texas
Next time you find yourself needing to lock in, give EDM a try.
– loguess