“I could do that”(No actually you couldn’t): Beginnings of the Electronic Music rant, pt. 1

My electronic music rant is forthcoming; I wanted to do a little research first. In the meantime, here’s a related rant.


I believe that every critic should try to compose music once or try his/her hand at learning an instrument. I’m not talking a casual effort. Actually try.

For my part, I sang for most of high school and I made an attempt to learn the flute (Don’t ask me why) as well as the guitar. I’ve also tried my hand at lyrics and very briefly at composing. I have also made a hobby of covering songs and hiding them on my computer where they will never, ever see the light of day.

Because of this, you will never hear me say, “I could write a better song than that/ play better than that.” Whenever I hear someone say that I have the exact same response.
“Bring it.”
And if you do, I’ll shut my mouth and buy you a drink.

I’d like you all to take a moment and get some good headphones or a good speaker, or at least the best you have. Sit down and listen to a song you think is really fantastic. Not just the lyrics, but the sounds that make up that song, weather it's a minimal acoustic number or an ornate piece of electronic music or anything else. I guarantee you’ll hear the song completely differently. Even with a simple pop song.

To prove my point, lets examine a random song from the top 100
Radioactive by Imagine Dragons

Fairly simple song from the sound of it––it has a solid beat and catchy chorus.

Lets break it down:

The first thing we hear is the the drum work
Starts off simple enough, a strong, slightly distorted bass drum line, grows from there incorporating what sounds like an electric drum as well as a traditional drum kit.

While that’s happening we get a short guitar (two guitars, technically) intro, simple, not recurrent, but it launches the vocals

 Next we hear some subtle vocals, no lyrics yet, but the vocals and the electronic components start up right next to each other (for the record we are looking at four layers before the proper lyrics start

Now we actually get the vocals properly (layer 5) witch are meticulously tied back to the drum work and some keyboard work (6) that pins down the melody.
Finally,the harmonies round out the vocals (7)

And I’m not even diving into the subtelties of the song or the balancing of aformeitoned components.

For the record,  this is the first 58 seconds of the song. Less than a minute and there’s that much to a simple radio song. Radio songs have simple formulas and tend to follow age-old patterns. That is not to say they are bad, but they have a familiarity to them. Even with that formula there is complexity.

Arin, you say, I’m not saying I can write a rock song, that takes actual talent.. I’m saying I can do that “wub wub, beep, scree” stuff.
Looping back to last week’s entry, I should add a note. People riff on the ‘lyrics’ to dubstep and other electronic music because there aren’t traditional lyrics and what is there doesn't function the way we think it should.

It is very hard to put the components of electronic music into words because strictly speaking they tend to be the same instruments, but I encourage you to do a little exercise—consider this your homework. (I’ll go easy on you. Listen to, lets use an electronic music classic, Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster,” and just count the number of sounds, loops and so on that are present in that song and the variations thereon.
Take Notes, I’ll wait.
It will sound silly—you’re dealing with components that are alien to someone who listens to traditional instrumentation.

Even as a critic, here’s what my notes looked like:
First you get something that sounds like a car starting. Then two dueling sounds come in–– a lower, slightly more warped that because the backbone for the drum work, and a higher twangier one that becomes the backbone to the lyrics and the melody.
The lyrics are VERY simple. They are the same words over and over, but they become wholly different elements with wholly different feelings over the course of the song because of how they are tuned or warped.

Now pull out your computer and download or open a music composing program (ther are ones online that are free) Just try to duplicate that sound, let alone make your own.

Now go back and listen again. Not so simple is it?