YeeDM: The Exciting Mash-Up Of Nashville And Electronic Music
Is there that much difference between dancing in a honky tonk or at a heaving festival stage in Las Vegas?
Just a few years ago, it was hard to imagine someone in a cowboy hat getting down to EDM. But while it might not have made sense on a surface level, it’s become clear recently that EDM and country music actually have a lot to offer one another. Classic country music song structures provide clear opportunities to bring these heavy dancefloor-centric beats into the song, without losing all of the twang and sound that makes it country. Indeed, is there that much difference between dancing in a honky tonk or a heaving festival stage in Las Vegas?
EDC, the largest EDM festival in North America, doesn’t think so. They recently launched a YeeDC stage headlined by DJs and producers who have remixed classic tunes and created new songs of their own. Jesse Fischer of VAVO is just one of them. the “face and creator of YeeDM,” and he’s waving the YeeDM banner at a moment when country music as a whole has become far more open to outside sounds and ideas.
Since the early 2000s, country music has incorporated hip-hop, trap beats, and other sonic components of dance culture into some of its most popular tracks. And today’s country radio hits are the fodder for remixes that make up a majority of the YeeDM dominating playlists. (Just check Spotify and Apple Music’s hugely popular playlists charting the EDM and country crossover.) A significant number of folks, however, are remixing foundational country songs for EDM audiences.
VAVO, for instance, has recently taken on Toby Keith’s “Should Have Been A Cowboy” and Dave Lee Murphy’s “Dust on the Bottle.” It hasn’t been simple to bring these songs into an EDM framework. Keith’s song, for instance, has captured the collective country music imagination for decades, in large part because of its story. With the new remix, VAVO has turned it into a smooth, danceable club number. As he put it around the time of its release: “I wanted to make this remix more of a tribute than anything else and try to make it as beautiful as I could.”
For “Dust on the Bottle,” Fischer incorporated a respectful and soft touch that enhances the song while still keeping true to the original. Even more so than Keith’s, the nuances of the story are critical, and the remix’s additional elements don’t distract from it – rather, they draw attention to the plot line.
Plenty of classic country music lends itself neatly to EDM. Unsurprisingly, it’s tunes that caused genre purists to question their country bona fides at the time of their original release. Shania Twain’s pop-centric Come On Over from 1997 has been a favorite. Frank Walker remixed “You’re Still the One,” supporting this mid-tempo love song with a driving dance beat, a soft touch synth line that feels almost like a fiddle, and slow twinkly piano that – if sped up – wouldn’t sound out of place on a dancehall record.
Similarly, Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” was well received by commercial radio while attracting flak from country music purists. This year, MOTi, another pillar of YeeDM, released a remix of the 1975 crossover classic. This version departs further from its musical roots than Walker’s remix of Twain, but keeps the listener and dancer locked into the protagonist’s next move.
Where YeeDM is headed next is anyone’s guess. What’s obvious, though, is that DJs and producers are hugely inspired right now, exploring how the two genres can speak to one another. Festivals, awards shows, the media, and – most of all – the fans, are all loving this music that skillfully brings together three chords, the truth and additive synthesis.
Listen to the YeeDM Classics: Nashville edition compilation.
