Electronic Music – My Electro Voyage
We all have that one point in our lives where something amazing happens – this moment was when I first heard Electronic Music.
I wish I could remember the first song I heard but one that I remember clearly was The Prodigy – Breathe. I think I remember this one so well because the first time I saw it come on MTV my grandma yelled at me for listening to that “devil music”.
After that moment, I was hooked.
For the new year or so I was only able to catch bits of Electronic Music from passing cars, commercials and movies. I couldn’t find this music that I wanted to hear so bad, everyone around me was so consumed with rock and hip hop.
Fast forward to around the time that one of my most favorite movies came out: Hackers. I don’t know why I love this movie so much, I think it just reminds me of days where I didn’t really have a care in the world.
The same year I saw hackers I received my first computer for Christmas, it was this dinky monochrome computer that ran DOS. I didn’t care. I sat for hours in front of my computer fiddling with it, trying to run programs I had on floppy but only got so far with it.
After complaining about how bad the computer was, I finally got a brand new Gateway for my birthday not much longer after wards. I have very font memories of booting up Command and Conquer, calling my friend to sync our watches and connect through TCP/IP.
The internet was beginning to boom in the 90’s and along with it, my fascination with Electronic Music. I used to visit forums where people would talk about Electronic Music gear, DJ sets and the parties they were going to. It was such a tease for a kid that just entered middle school.
The pivotal moment with coming to love Electronic Music was when my friend Alex gave me a DJ set: “In Trance We Trust 3″ by Lars Holte. I still have this CD.
The music absolutely blew me away. I heard singles but never a full DJ set, I had no idea that people were playing these long periods of music and blending them to sound like one long song. I was hooked.
Of course with the Internet came P2P which opened all kinds of doors in finding music. Admit it, you went crazy for Napster as well. Finally, I had a way to find mixes and listen to Electronic Music.
Over the next few years my love for Electronic Music grew but I was still predominantly listening to Trance, which was starting to get old.
I began seeking new genres of music: House, Techno, Psytrance, Minimal, Hardstyle, Ambient and so many others. Before long I completely gave up listening to rock and hip hop to dedicate my time with Electronic Music.
High school hit and it felt kind of odd riding to school with electronic playing. I always got these really weird stares because everyone was caught up with everything on the radio.
My musical tastes grew throughout high school and, of course, I played a ton of online games which allowed me to talk to people from all over. What did we talk about mostly? Yup, Electronic Music.
Around this same time I had this really weird teacher, Mr. Cortez. One day I name dropped one of my favorite DJs. As I was walking out he called me over and we started to talk about Electronic Music. The next day Cortez gave me about 50 mix CDs and began telling me about the parties and raves that were going on in Florida.
I couldn’t wait to make it out to my first party but I didn’t know where to find them or had anyone to go with, real bummer.
Instead, I continued to look deeper and deeper into Electronic Music. I started to explore the roots from Chicago and Detroit. I watched documentaries, talk long hours late at night and lurked on a ton of forums.
One of the other pivotal moments with my addiction to Electronic Music was when I randomly mentioned Infect Mushroom (The Gathering mind you) in chat while playing WoW. At this point I have to admit I was a hapless technoweenie when it came to Psytrance but I did know things.
The person that responded was Dez, still one of my best friends (and Canadian to boot, eh?). For hours we would discuss Psytrance over AIM, sending songs back and forth, linking videos and info, it was awesome.
Eventually we became good enough friends that I visited Toronto. While up there we attended Eclipse Festival 2008 – the best weekend of my life. Eclipse is a Psytrance festival out in the middle of no wheres Canada.
After Eclipse it finally set in stone, I love Electronic Music.
Since Eclipse I’ve explored other genres more thoroughly while becoming very active in the Florida party scene. Every weekend, when I get the chance, I try to make it down to Tampa or Orlando to catch a party.
Along the way I’ve met some really great people and had amazing experiences. If you love Electronic Music and you haven’t been out to a party yet, you’re missing out on perhaps one of the most enlightening moments of your life.
I became addicted to everything about Electronic Music: DJing, music production, parties, art, movies and so many other things.
The reason for starting BDJ was because I really had to talk about the thing that I love: Electronic Music and DJing.
I’ll admit I’m not the greatest in the world so the Beginner in BDJ goes hand in hand. I think as this blog grows, my love for Electronic Music grows and my experience DJing grows you’ll be able to see, hear and read some really amazing stuff.
I wanted to share with you how I got into Electronic Music. Every person has their own story on how they got into the scene, this one was mine.
Here’s to the last 15 years, let’s hope there’s many more to come! Cheers!
I’d love to hear how you got into Electronic Music! Maybe you could tell your story below with a comment, tell the world how you became so addicted to the music. Big Up!
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