Digging back to the initial memories of hearing “EDM” it was in the back seat of my friend’s Shelby GT500. Fast car, awesome sound system, lots of fun. Anyhow; I always got back seat because I was weak and inferior amongst my friends. A bittersweet silver lining was that the back seat would pound with bass. It was a lot of fun riding around with my friends listening to all of their music. I was into classic rock and your typical Green Day mixed in with a few heavy metal bands like Bring Me Horizon and Hollywood Undead (whatever they are, still awesome). You know, early high school music. My friend generally played good bassy rap music which I always liked because I never went out of my way to seek good rap music other than Daddy Yankee, Paul Wall, and… yikes, I guess none of my music taste was “good”. Then one day he played “Bangarang” by Skrillex. This set it off. I loved the build up to an awesome drop that had my friends and I bouncing all over the place. This is where I was first pleasantly surprised by EDM. I had never really heard any of it before. Yes, I know “YOU’RE SO MAINSTREAM!” I didn’t really continue to pay much more attention to it until 2013.

In the spring of 2013, I purchased by very first EDM concert ticket: Skrillex Mothership tour. Man, was that awesome. First and foremost, we saw Milo and Otis open (side note: I sort of upset I haven’t seen them in the spotlight for some time. I hope to see them rise up again). Second, we had the Snapchat wiz kid himself before anyone knew of him, Dillon Francis went on right before Skrillex. Not that his set was super memorable in particular, but it is cool to look back and say “wow, I saw him before he was cool” (shout out to the hipsters). Then there was what could have only been 30 minutes of eagerly waiting in anticipation for Skrillex. Boom, his intro comes on and about a minute later the curtain drops and revealed what was his mega set death star of bass destruction. The feeling I could only relate to a young boy opening his girlfriend’s blouse for the first time. Magical. For an hour and a half, we see crazy graphics strewn up behind Skrillex while he’s headbanging as he DJ’s letting his hair fly. This memory was so deeply set in my brain that nothing could ever replace it. Only the additions of me falling in love with EDM concerts. The euphoric joy, seeing so many happy people, only seeing one fight. The fight was actually interesting because it happened about three rows in front of me. *Skirt* Skrillex stops the record and says “Hey I see a fight breaking out right down there, cut that out and let’s love each other” and then proceeds to continue throwing down. Man, it was love at first sight, hear, taste, smell, and feel for sure. From then I knew I had been missing out.

“I must become involved, ” I tell myself. I started going to as many shows as possible during my term in Fayetteville, Ar. I’ll touch more on this place in the future, but as the scene has grown so have the masses of people, the DJ set designed to get bigger fancier and more lit (pun intended). All in all, it wasn’t just Skrillex that got me into EDM. It was the production as a whole. The crowds of marvelous people that I have met, satisfied customers who are willing to drop hundreds on festival tickets and concerts over the course of time. The people really make the scene come alive. I love the DJ’s so shout out to all of you who are grinding away making great music, the graphic designers who put up beautiful art displays behind the producers, concert management who keeps everything on track, the lighting directors that handle laser shows and lighting, and YOU, the people who continue to get involved, be happy, and continue to love the EDM scene. You go, you. I know not everyone is interested in me personally and my taste, but my goal here is to spread the positivity that EDM has impacted on my life, and I hope that it has a grand effect on your life too.

11/8/16