To be honest, I have just started to really listen to electronic music. I have a passing familiarity with it because it is a primary hobby of my brother. I will use this opportunity to talk briefly about some electronic music that I like, and why I like it.
Genre-wise I am primarily into trance because of the strong emphasis on melody. From what I've heard, I also like house and drum and bass, although I'm not too familiar with those genres. Generically speaking, I like the build up and the "bass drop" that happens in a lot of trance tracks--it really wants to make you move.
Some of my favorite trance artists so far are Ferry Corsten and Tiesto. Ferry Corsten is pictured below.
Professor Kojs played a Ferry track called Beautiful in class, demonstrating its descending B minor scale melody line. It is a pretty simple melody, but it is very effective in a dance track, especially when the bass and drums come in. That's one of the things that appeals to me about trance: a simple melody can be addicting and make you want to move. Another Ferry track that I really like right now is Fire, which samples vocals of Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran. There is essentially no difference between this track and the Duran Duran song off of which it is based, called Serious, except for the dance drums and the replacement of guitars with a synthesizer. I like the vocals, melody, and groove of this track.
Tiesto is probably the DJ who is most salient to the public. I like his Adagio for Strings, which samples the classical piece by Samuel Barber. I also really like Going Up off of the compilation called "Summerbreeze". Tiesto has a great ear for melody.
Speaking briefly of house music, I am currently enjoying Human After All by the seminal French group Daft Punk. This track has addictive synthed vocals and bass.
