A recent conversation with an old friend - someone who is deeply embedded in the electronic music scene - got me thinking about our (read: everyone's) tastes in music, and how they evolve as time goes by.
He mentioned that he had recently been into a specific genre of EDM, but his tastes were pulling him away from it; he just couldn't get into it so much now as he did in past months/years. This was definitely not a foreign concept to me, as I’ve gone through plenty of these phases before. Hell, there have been times that music in general has just been something I couldn’t find the right “groove” in anymore… granted, it never takes me long to get right back in, but its happened.
The strange thing (as far as I was concerned) was that the music he was no longer “feeling” was a genre of EDM that I feel is as healthy as its been in years: enormous diversity, new upcoming producers willing to try something new, and a shift in where the more “mainstream” output of the genre is headed.
He said he felt it was a tempo thing… which made me question if it might simply be overload. I mean, this is a guy who works with producers and DJs day in and day out, and I’m just thinking it’s the static BPM that he’s listening to that might be the culprit.
I wonder sometimes if we overload our ears with one specific genre of music, and that’s where these ‘genre funks’ come from. As I’ve said plenty of times before, I’m a total drum & bass fanatic. There’s something about that 170-180 bpm tempo that just speaks to me… but in the same breath, I listen to absolutely anything and everything, and try to make it a point to not over-do it with the dnb, making sure I have a varied diet of music in my day-to-day.
I’m interested because I definitely don’t want to see him walk away from what he does, but I also want him to see how healthy this form of music is, and how its evolution is opening doors to new fans and new directions for the music. I also understand the need to branch out and see (hear) what else is out there – especially with EDM in general being in such a great place right now, both musically and culturally.
Is this something that happens to you as well? Do you get genre overload? Is there a way you’ve found to snap yourself out of it, or is it just a matter of going through these phases to eventually come back to a genre that might have been “on the outs” for you?
Hit me up on Twitter or comment here with your thoughts. I’m very interested to know what others think about this “phenomenon,” and how they’ve overcome the same challenges when it comes to our musical tastes.
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