EDM is an acronym that stands for Electronic Dance Music - music characterized by use of heavier, danceable percussion and the use of electronic synthesizer elements. Genres such as Trap, Dubstep, House, and Trance all fall in this subgenre. It's a genre relatively unexplored by any high-profile Christian Musicians until the past couple of years.

In many ways, EDM has really only come into the fore in the past decade, and electronic influences in Pop music have been peaking since 2010, when house Giants David Guetta, Afrojack, and Zedd became increasingly involved in the production of Pop tracks by other artists such as Rihanna, Jason Derulo, and Justin Bieber.

Now, wholely electronic acts like Chromeo, Avicii, Deadmau5, Skrillex, and Calvin Harris are hold their own positions entirely in Pop charts. Along with the Folk and Indie sound of acoustic acts, Electronic Dance Music and its subgenres share wholly dominate the 2010s era. If you or your kids listen to Pop music to any level, you're hearing EDM on a regular basis.

I make electronic music as a hobby, under the handle of Karl Vandenberg (My two middle names), but haven't worked on many tracks recently. If you had asked me if there were many Christian Electronic Music Producers, I would tell you there were few and they weren't well known. Hoever, hearing about Hillson Young and Free and their distinctly EDM sound, I did a little more investigation and found things have changed in the past two years - a LOT.

For starters, here is Hillsong Young and Free with "Alive." It's a Jesus-infused EDM with clear influences from established EDM artists Zedd, CHVRHCES, and Deadmau5. They are coming to Winnipeg on February the 24th to Calvary Temple. You can find concert info here.

Here is another fellow Reyer D, a Dutch guy who performs and produces Electronic Dance Music in the Netherlands. It's in Dutch, but I think you'll find to your surprise that you can make it out what he's saying.

 

Here is his remix of Chris Tomlin & Chris Martin's "God Great Dancefloor" is a world-class top-notch bigroom remix production.

On the rougher edges of the Electronic Subgenre we have Andy Hunter, a remixer and original producer who you could call the Bono of Electronic music – his faith is a subtly present but truly authentic part of his music. He is VERY well known for his music's appearance in well known films like the Matrix – You might recognize a release of his from a little over a decade ago, “Come On,” from the Matrix:Reloaded.

His most recent album Glow is based entirely off of Isaiah 58. Here is the title track:

And you have certainly heard of Owl Cities. As you may know, he is quite successful in the world of pop. What you might not realize is that he himself is a Christian - we played his track “Dreams and Disasters” dreams and disasters on the air today. He got his big break back in 2008/2009 with a release you may well remember - “Fireflies” - after years of making music in his basement, catapulting into a career that has seen rocket to mainstream recognition despite a continuing committment to positivity in his music.

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Hopefully for you this has begun the process of becoming aquainted with Christian Electronic Dance Music and you'll be on your way to getting more of it in your life!!!

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