Aux-In

A followup to post #65 where I was talking about the volume of music that I listen to on YouTube.

I have to be honest with movements, because they are what they are. I still have a lot of songs off my master list to get to, because my selections rule , but this is something that's been on my mind in regard to the current movements of underground electronic music.

Fortunately for some, and unfortunately for others, dubstep has largely had its time as a scene powerhouse. While dubstep is still being made, a lot of producers have moved on to making trap instead. House music: progressive house is my favorite subgenre, but in recent years, this has given way toward a move back to both traditional house and deep-house influences, of which tropical house and future house are variants. Tropical house sounds, of course, tropical-like, and future house is essentially deep house on steroids (deep-house-like sounds set to a faster pace and fused with "EDM elements"). Electro house is on a mainstage kick: loud & noisy music with no rhythm or melody that is geared toward festival-goers. Trance? Trance is gonna trance; it's doing its own thing and doesn't give a **** what the other electronic genres are doing.

Given the above, 2016 will be a benchmark year in determining if I'm going to keep up the listening volume of 101 (+/-) YouTube channels. And that number is even down from a few weeks ago, when I unsubscribed to a few channels with which I was experimenting, but whose selections weren't making their mark. In that sense, 2016 is going to be a gut check, whereby I have to wonder if the patina has rubbed off and I'm now dealing with the law of diminishing returns. That, or it's a much simpler case of being a matter of good years and bad years.

If all of this is tldr, I wouldn't blame you, so here are a few songs from subgenres that make up a very small portion of my collection.


This has a top-notch beat. I don't typically like male vocals in electronic music, but here they're very good and serve to give the song an R&B flavor w/some slight pop influences. Catchy stuff.


Song: While this has some short vocal bits in it, with the main refrain being "Take it back to the old-school," I consider this an instrumental, because the instrumental is doing 90% of the work. The refrain is on-point, however, as the song gives off a '90s vibe, particularly the part where the energetic "wooo" is heard.

Video: I wasn't keen on the music video at first, but it grew on me. The opening scene is that of the male protagonist ruminating over a Polaroid of him and his ex. In an effort to woo her back, he begins writing a letter to her, but no sooner than when he has finished, the video switches to reverse-motion photography. From there, we get a glimpse into the preceding events and how these two functioned as a couple, including seeing them in various romantic settings throughout the clip. Midway through, everything seems like it's on the up and up. However, by the time we get to the end of the video, we learn the true nature of the indiscretion, trivial as it might be. Hmm...if only I could take back what I said or did by reversing time like this on less trivial stuff .

Supplemental:

- This is the edited version. It should be longer, but I didn't find the original mix to flow as well as this.
- Beatport has this listed as house, but then again, they don't break down a lot of genres into subgenres. It's my guess that this is future house.
- Bougenvilla, a duo, makes a cameo in the video.
- I found "Take It Back" in a one-hour podcast upload on Spinnin' Records, instead of getting it from a lone upload like in other cases. I don't like to, but I skip these hour-long mixes often, because I just don't have the time to go through all of them, even if I know I'm going to miss something.


"Golden Empire" was my earliest exposure to trap music. I had no idea what it was before this. I think trap is also part of subgenres of rap, too? I found "Golden Empire" to be very grating to my ears upon first listen, but it's normal to me now, and I like it. This is mainly due to its melodicicity, bouncing bass, and Apashe's unique Style.

- Apashe is from Brussles, Belgium. I know nothing about Zitaa.

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