Electronic dance music (EDM), considered the new rock & roll, is a genre that dominates youth culture and mixes dance-ability with innovation, catchy songwriting, and sometimes, youthful aggression. Here are four essential albums:
The Prodigy, ‘Music for the Jilted Generation’ (1994)
Few albums have so perfectly captured a spirit of youthful angst and rebellion as the boldly titled Music for the Jilted Generation .
With this record, Prodigy delivered proof that electronic dance music could be more than something to dance to.
In the early 90s, raves weren’t merely something fun to do on the weekend, they were politically charged by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 , which criminalized raves and certain aspects of rave culture.
Prodigy’s very existence as a musical act had been effectively outlawed with the criminalization of the rave scene.
Many artists and their fans play at rebellion, but when you consider the cultural context of Music for the Jilted Generation , these are comical .
It’s hard to take seriously a group that considers itself politically radical when you remember that Prodigy couldn’t put on a concert in the mid-90s without risking jail time.
The anger and frustration comes through in the music, with songs like “ Full Throttle” meeting the government’s oppression with aggression.
The album is among the most influential in EDM, and certainly had an impact on the composers of today’s movie and video game scores, as well.
Daft Punk, ‘Alive 2007′ (2007)
There won’t be very many more live albums like Alive 2007, where you can hear tens of thousands of fans who memorized every lyric.
The internet has turned every musician into a star and perhaps preventing the rise of another superstar.
There aren’t going to be many more artists who inspire entire generations at a time like Daft Punk did.
Musicians often grow to hate their hits, or at least, they grow to hate playing them over and over again at every live show.
On Alive 2007 Daft Punk developed a solution that satisfies both artist and listener.
By playing semi-improvised mashups of their most popular tracks, the artist and audience alike get to appreciate songs like “Around the World” in a whole new light.
There is no Alive 2007 DVD, but the videos of the event on YouTube are impressive.
Justice, ‘† ( Cross )’ (2007)
It’s hard to find another track in EDM as happy and danceable as Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” from their ‘†’ album .
The disco-inspired hit drew immediate comparisons to Daft Punk’s “Discovery,” but outside the bouncy enthusiasm and an imaginative use of heavily layered synths and samples, † doesn’t sound much like a Daft Punk album.
There are some aggressive tracks on the album, like the monster-movie inspired “Genesis,” but overall, † is an album dominated by optimistic sounds and pure groove, miles removed from the raw anger of a group like Prodigy, and an example of what EDM’s pure sonic sensuality.
The Chemical Brothers, ‘Dig Your Own Hole’ (1997)
Play a handful of classic EDM tracks for a person who’s not into the genre and “Block Rockin’ Beats” off of Dig Your Own Hold might be the one they recognize.
The Chemical Brothers brought EDM to the mainstream thanks in no small part to the fact that you couldn’t escape “Block Rockin’ Beats” in the UK or the US in 1997, when it became “That one song” being used in TV commercials and movie trailers and action films.
The album itself stands strong beyond its powerful opening track, with some solid dance tracks and powerful hooks.
