EDM mania in West Michigan: The local story behind the music craze sweeping the nation

Once the bane of musicians, DJs/house music producers have dubstepped, trance’d and techno’d their way into the limelight, selling out shows coast to coast and regularly lighting up venues in Grand Rapids. What’s the deal?

 

Look no further than last weekend’s Halloween on Ionia street party in Grand Rapids for a dynamic example of the burgeoning electronic dance music scene.

Despite temperatures in the 40s, about 4,500 20-somethings jammed the downtown street for pounding, bass-heavy sets concocted by national and regional DJs who regaled the exuberant, gyrating and fist-pumping crowd with clever song mixes and a vibrant light show.

That followed near-capacity throngs who bounced and waved glow sticks for recent West Michigan tour stops by the likes of rising EDM heroes Bassnectar and Steve Aoki.

Some of that same enthusiasm can be seen for weekly electronic music nights at area nightclubs, with popular Grand Rapids DJs making the rounds at Monte’s Lounge, Tavern on the Square, Billy’s Lounge, Grand Woods Lounge and elsewhere.

And on Friday, at Holland’s Park Theatre, Innovative Productions – a lakeshore-based DJ and entertainment firm – will attempt to replicate festival-style energy with the debut of Electrik Masquerade, a costume ball featuring top-notch DJs such as SuperDre, The Drill Team, Van Hekken, Curt V, Rodney Essenburg and Kevin Lawrence.

AN EXPLOSION IN POPULARITY, MAINSTREAM ACCEPTANCE

As a regular attendee at Electric Forest and other electronic music spectacles, I’ve watched with some amazement as this fast-growing EDM craze has swept the nation, with the music appealing particularly to younger, 20-something audiences who sell out venues featuring touring artists pumping out dubstep, trance, techno, house and other strangely labeled varieties of electronic music from coast to coast.

It’s gotten so popular, I even saw two different Halloween partyers dressed up last weekend as Deadmau5, one of the world’s most recognizable house music producers/DJs (which means I saw twice as many Deadmau5es as Lady Gagas, Willie Nelsons or Johnny Depps.)

“It’s building up and getting bigger and bigger.” concedes DJ Slim Tim, aka Tim Boelman, who played Halloween on Ionia and hosts regular electronic music nights at Tavern on the Square and Monte’s Lounge in Grand Rapids.

EDM’s burgeoning popularity also can be attributed to the growing “festival scene and the fact that mainstream music started to embrace it a lot more,” says fast-rising Grand Rapids DJ SupeDre, aka Andrea Wallace. “Festivals have pushed many different types of music in the indie scene to a different level. It offers a lot of exposure at once.”

That includes events such as Grand Rapids’ City Lights Music Festival, taking place every July in downtown Grand Rapids.

SuperDre, who will be featured at Friday night’s Park Theatre show, has hosted “BassBin” electronic music nights at Grand Rapids’ Billy’s Lounge for more than three years. And she’s convinced there’s now “a lot more awareness” of the EDM scene in West Michigan.

REGULAR EDM NIGHTS AT LOCAL CLUBS AND A PROXIMITY TO MOTOWN

“If anyone had suggested to me five or six years ago that such a night would be successful in Grand Rapids, I probably would have laughed. However, it’s been an extremely successful night and I’ve had the good fortune of having my friends from all over the world play for it,” she says.

“Between that and some of the other local events and the festivals, I think Grand Rapids is set up pretty well for some great things in the future,” she adds, noting the city’s proximity to the world-renowned EDM scene in Detroit. “It definitely helps that we’re as close to Detroit as we are.”

Grand Rapids’ DJ Jason Veeder, who also takes up residency at Monte’s Lounge and Tavern On The Square, along with DJing at Grand Woods Lounge and playing occasional gigs at The Intersection, agrees that an EDM presence in mainstream Top 40 music has propelled the genre to the next level.

“Now you’re seeing more and more artists like Ne-Yo, Will.I.Am, Rihanna, Usher, Flo Rida and so many more teaming up with DJs/producers like David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Avicii and, of course, Daft Punk,” says Veeder, who played Halloween at The B.O.B. on Saturday.

And there are literally dozens of mind-boggling subgenres – and sub-subgenres – of EDM music to attract crowds: from acid techno to deep house to dubtronica to psychedelic trance, with some DJs emphasizing thunderous sub-bass frequencies amid syncopated percussion patterns and others incorporating female lead vocals and repetitive melodic phrases within synthesizer-driven dance strains, all within continuous sets that blend one record into the next in synchronized fashion.

DUBSTEP, TRANCE, DEEP HOUSE: WHAT IN HECK ARE THESE FOLKS ACTUALLY DOING?

“With so many varieties and subgenres of electronic music, it’s easy for people to find something they like or relate to,” suggests Greg Rios of Innovative Productions, which also hosts a monthly house music residency at City Sen Lounge in Holland. “The younger audiences enjoy the energy that comes from EDM music. … EDM shows are known for their high energy, thumping bass, laser lights, smoke machines, glow sticks and non-stop dancing. It’s a chance to ‘let it go.’ ”

But what exactly are these DJs and producers doing? Should it be considered “live music” or just creative re-hashing of beats and songs?

For many musicians, critics and other skeptics who view this as nothing more than “a button-pushing experience” with DJs spinning records on a turntable, Boelman insists it’s an art form that creates a “seamless transition” between songs.

“What you’re doing is taking a few different songs and blending them together, sometimes all at the same time, messing with the speed, pitch and timing of the song,” says Boelman, a British native who moved to Grand Rapids 13 years ago. “There’s a whole art to it in making sure that when you’re pressing ‘play,’ you’re playing it on the right downbeat.”

Veeder says it’s often about taking familiar songs – even classic oldies by the likes of Michael Jackson or The Beastie Boys – and “finding a way to still make them sound new and unique” to “fit your own personal style as a DJ. Finding great and different remixes, mash-ups to mix these songs into my set is really important.”

‘A WHOLE DIFFERENT CULTURAL THING’

Indeed, at Saturday’s Halloween on Ionia, I even heard traces of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” melded into a stew of heavy dance beats. (Check out the variety in audio files of mixes by SuperDre, Jason Veeder, Slim Tim and Greg Rios below.)

It’s a stage show, too. “It’s not just pushing buttons and playing songs, it’s a full performance just like seeing any other artist perform,” Veeder insists. “My mannerisms and energy, the way I interact with the crowd, plus the songs that I play: Those are all part of creating that atmosphere and experience for the people that are there.”

Of course, the more elaborate stage shows also employ creative lighting, lasers and stage fog, further enhancing the experience for listeners and dancers. Sadly, of course, some attendees also enhance that experience with the help of ecstasy and other drugs, a problem that’s earned EDM music a fair amount of criticism and scrutiny across the globe, and deservedly so.

And Veeder, founder of the Jawbreaker Music Group, cautions that while EDM acceptance “has grown exponentially” in West Michigan with increased radio airplay and festivals such as City Lights and Electric Forest, he contends the number of Grand Rapids venues actually offering opportunities for performances “has gone way, way down” in recent years. “No matter how much we embrace EDM music, it’s going to be halted if there’s nowhere to play it.”

Still, there’s no denying the infectious nature of the music itself and the fraternity of wildly garbed devotees it cultivates, demonstrated by the ultra-enthusiastic fans who continue to flock to festivals and nightclubs for EDM shows.

High school and college students are “more into EDM because a lot of artists are making faster-paced music, faster-paced, dance-style stuff,” adds Boelman. “More and more kids are getting into it. The fashion side of it is driving some of it. They’re wearing neon outfits and furry boots. It’s a whole different cultural thing.”

                          EDM REVELRY: THE LOCAL SPINS PHOTO GALLERY BY ANTHONY NORKUS

Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
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