THE RISE IN AT HOME EDM PRODUCTION: POST-PANDEMIC RAVER RESURGENCE
It has long been said that life imitates art, but in these recent months, the art coming from the confines of people’s homes has been imitating their realities. With the rise of “bedroom production” made easier with the help of computer-based music software programs, pocket-sized MIDI controllers, and USB microphones, electronic music production has never been easier to make at home.
Technology has evolved and shifted with the times to move electronic artists past the need for analog studio mixing techniques, and with the invention of the DAW-Digital Audio Workstation-it means that artists and producers no longer have to sacrifice time and money to record their track in a studio.
Even with the investment in the software and instrumentation, recording a full-length electronic album costs only a fraction of the cost of studio fees, averaging at about one percent of what a studio charges. The affordability, ease, and well, being stuck at home have created a resurgence in at-home EDM production with artists finding newfound creative inspiration from the circumstances of the pandemic.
Rather than letting it put a damper on their musical flow, artists like Alesso have used social media to their advantage to share music software tutorials amongst his followers to show his fans how to produce their big room tracks. In a video posted to both Twitter and Instagram, Alessio shows the process of making standard big room, assuring that with the help of “a few chords, a nasty bassline, before playing "a melody with a lot of delays", adding "too many layers of the same melody" and so on,” his fans can also become electronic music producers themselves (Alesso: Instagram Live).
As well as nightly live-stream mixes from Diplo and VR (virtual reality) set from Alison Wonderland, electronic creation has peaked at an all-time high throughout quarantine and has drawn in new listeners and fans of electronic music with it being increasingly accessible through social media.
Scientists, researchers, and epidemiologists alike have predicted a new-age “Roaring 20’s” post-pandemic similar to that of the 1920s after the detrimental effects of WWI and Spanish flu tore through Europe when the world experienced a resurgence of parties, concerts, and nightlife. It is predicted that once the COVID-19 pandemic has run its course and the world starts to acclimate itself to whatever normalcy returns, raves and electronic music festivals will bounce back better and more popular than ever before, possibly creating a post-pandemic baby boom of ravers, new and old.
Electronic promoters are predicted to bring back popular music festivals like EDC and Tomorrowland, with higher turnouts than before the pandemic because once the pandemic comes to an end, the world will want to party like no tomorrow.