My Favourite Music Genre – Electronic Dance Music (EDM)

Electronic Dance Music (EDM), also known as dance music, club music, or simply dance, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres made largely for nightclubs, raves and festivals. It is generally produced for playback by disc jockeys who create seamless selections of tracks, called a mix, by segueing from one recording to another. EDM producers also perform their music live in a concert or festival setting in what is sometimes called a live PA.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, following the emergence of raving, pirate radios and an upsurge of interest in club culture, EDM achieved widespread mainstream popularity in Europe. In the United States at that time, acceptance of dance culture was not universal; although both electro and Chicago house music were influential both in Europe and the United States, mainstream media outlets and the record industry remained openly hostile to it. There was also a perceived association between EDM and drug culture, which led governments at state and city level to enact laws and policies intended to halt the spread of rave culture.

Subsequently, in the new millennium, the popularity of EDM increased globally, largely in Australia and the United States. By the early 2010s, the term "electronic dance music" and the initialism "EDM" was being pushed by the American music industry and music press in an effort to rebrand American rave culture. Despite the industry's attempt to create a specific EDM brand, the initialism remains in use as an umbrella term for multiple genres, including dance-pop, house, techno, trance, drum and bass, dubstep, trap and footwork as well as their respective subgenres.

One of the well-known EDM song that introduces a lot of people to this genre is “Faded” which is produced by Alan Walker. These are some of the background of this popular song. "Faded" is a hit song by Norwegian record producer and DJ Alan Walker. Incorporating vocals provided by Norwegian singer Iselin Solheim, the single was originally set to be released on 25 November 2015 but was delayed to 3 December 2015. The song was highly successful, peaking in the top 10 in most of the countries it charted in, and reached the top spot in more than 10 countries. It is currently the 18th most viewed video on YouTube, with over 2.6 billion views, 18 million likes and 400 thousand dislikes as of January 30, 2020 as well as being the 27th most streamed song on Spotify, with over 2 billion streams as of December 2019. Walker debuted a live performance of "Faded" with Solheim and string support on 27 February 2016 at X Games Oslo 2016. The performance was aired live on Norwegian television.

The song "Faded" is a revamped version of Walker's past compositions "Fade", which was released via the record label NoCopyrightSounds in 2014.

In the creation of "Faded", Walker was inspired by the music producer Ahrix's sound on his track "Nova" from 2013. In an interview he stated: "The melodies and the way the track progresses are what’s so unique and it’s what inspired me to create 'Fade' which later on became 'Faded'. The style is inspired by the Norwegian producer K-391. The melody, I don’t know where it came from, but I try to let my emotions and feelings have a big influence on the melodies I produce."

While the structure and melody are almost identical to "Fade", "Faded" is noticeably different for its piano intro and outro; with uncredited vocals by Iselin Solheim and mainstream production.

On 11 February 2016, Alan Walker published an acoustic version of the song called "Faded (Restrung)". The song is performed with a piano and strings, with all the EDM elements taken out. Walker wrote in a note to The FADER, that he had decided on an alternative version of "Faded", so as "to highlight other aspects of the song; to present it to another audience who may like Iselin [Solheim]'s voice and the melodies, but can't stand the electronic parts of it".

The music video to "Restrung" features Walker, Iselin Solheim and an 11-person string ensemble performing in the reactor hall of the dismantled R1, Sweden's first nuclear reactor. The cast were wearing the trademark hoodies that sport Alan Walker's artist logo composed of his stylized initials. The R1 reactor hall is located underground at Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm.[citation needed]

The same team who created the video for "Faded", also made the music video for "Restrung" — Bror Bror was the producer, Rikkard and Tobias Häggbom directed, and Shahab Salehi was credited as an assistant. The filming atmosphere closely resembles that of "Faded"; according to Alan Walker's behind the scenes video, the "Restrung" video was filmed as a continuation of sorts to the original "Faded" video.

Apart from this song, there is another is also well-known by a lot of fan of this producer as well as attracting a lot of newcomer to this genre which is "Sing Me to Sleep".

Incorporating uncredited vocals provided by Norwegian singer Iselin Solheim, it was released commercially for digital consumption on 3 June 2016. Upon release, the recording was generally acclaimed by music critics, with several noticing similarities to the style of its predecessor, "Faded". An accompanying music video for the single was shot in Hong Kong. The video shows the young man from the music video of "Faded", as well as another man and a woman, walking and running in the city of Hong Kong. Throughout the video, the camera filter transitions from normal to thermal sensor, with some buildings and pedestrians occasionally glitching as though from the viewer's point of view. At the end, the three characters meet up inside a warehouse in an industrial building, where they assemble some sort of machine together, which projects glowing blue lines throughout the city of Hong Kong, as the video glitches and ends.