Written By: Jake Stevenson
The electronic music community is more tight knit than other genres of music. It seems like every week people are arguing about which rapper is better or X female artist sings better than Y. In electronic music, there is nothing but love and support, and that extends to the artists. Excision does so much for up and coming bass music artists, like with Lost Lands and his artist spotlights, and it’s never out of place for Sullivan King’s Twitter posts to be given a joke or love courtesy of Subtronics. From the highs, like vocalists and producers alike rallying around Anna Yvette going independent and her Hidden Sounds project, to the lows, like the outpour of support when Getter canceled his Visceral tour, the artists of electronic music always seem to love one another and have each other’s backs.
Perhaps this is no more evident in electronic music than the collaboration. Sure, they aren’t exclusive to electronic music, but what makes collabs special in electronic music is the blending of different artists’ different sounds. Sometimes they try something unexpected, like dubstep duos Pegboard Nerds and Knife Party going at it on “Harpoon.” Sometimes their sounds both add and multiply on each other, creating something that could only come from their combined creativity, like Excision and Sullivan King’s “Wake Up.” Sometimes it shakes up the scene, like the mega-collab “Shake the Ground” from Kill the Noise, Snails, Sullivan King, and Jonah Kay. Sometimes it just destroys the scene in unified shock and awe, like GRiZ and Subtronics’ eponymous “Griztronics.” And sometimes, from the connectivity of creativity comes an iconic masterpiece that stands the test of time, like Porter Robinson and Madeon’s “Shelter.”
Collabs are interesting in electronic music because when you’re a fan and you get more versed in the respective artists, not only can you appreciate them more, but also you can pick out and identify which sounds are from which artist. Take “Don’t Give Up On Me” by Kill the Noise, Illenium, and Mako. If you like KTN or Illenium it might be pretty easy to pick up which parts are theirs, yet it stays away from being cookie-cutter. For example, KTN’s no-drum bass riff at the beginning of the third drop, a nice inclusion from other songs of his like his and Virtual Riot’s “Without a Trace” remix.
Where else in music could any of this all come from?
Nowhere, because friendship and love remain constant in electronic music. Pop and rap music compete with each other, but electronic music grows with each other. That environment creates and sustains an energy of happiness and drive that remains unique and unmatched.
A friend of mine maybe said it best: “So it sounds like electronic music is just a bunch of friends, making music, collaborating and covering and remixing, and just having a good time, spreading positivity with everyone, and feeling like a giant family.”
And electronic music is a family where I know I won’t get left behind…or forgotten.
