How Dance Music Has Impacted My Life

Disclaimer: If this post ever gets popular, I'm going to get a lot of heat from hardcore [insert dance music genre] fans (dare I say "EDC?") because a lot of the music I like is pretty mainstream. I mean, it was weeks ago that Jack U (Diplo and Skrillex) were booed off stage at Burning Man for playing DJ Snake. Please understand that this is one guy essentially introducing/breaking his brother into a different type of genre the same way he immersed himself into the genre a few years earlier.

Today, I woke up to a text message from my brother that said the following:

Would you mind recommending a couple songs for my workout play list? Trying some higher intensity stuff and liked what you played when I visited.

Once I read that message, I walked over to my computer, went into iTunes, and started creating two playlists with the intention of creating the playlists on YouTube for my brother. This was going to take a while, so I started sending back some text messages.

Yeah, I'll get some playlists together for you. My two favorite genres are "trance" and "trap." Trap is actually really good pump up music (Google "edc Las Vegas dj snake," no quotes, click on SoundCloud). Favorite producer is Gareth Emery and his newest album is "Drive" and it's possibly the best album I've ever heard.

Baauer, the guy that did Harlem Shake, has some good stuff (Infinite Daps, Higher). DJ Snake is good (Turn Down for What, Bird Machine, Lunatic, Get Low)

Danny Avilla did "Tronco," Vicetone did "Ensemble," Bingo Players have "Rattle" and "Knock You Out"

I quickly realized that "some text messages" was an understatement. My brother's question made me think about my journey through music in general and specifically sent me back to 2012 when I first heard Rex Mundi's "Bella Monaco." It was this song (and music video) that changed the way I looked at life; my definition of success changed from the amount of money I had to a heavy focus on freedom and happiness. I remember listening to that song over and over in my apartment while trying to get myself back into shape [using two kettle bells, doing sets of 20 overhead press, curls, tricep extensions, and pushups for twenty minutes] or reading about the concept of lifestyle businesses and how they differ from startups.

You see, music has always been temporal for me. Almost every thing I remember is associated with music. Fuel's "Last Time" and "Hemorrhage [In My Hands]" will always remind me of playing Onimusha with Brian; 311 is playing Starcraft with Nate, Panic at the Disco will remind me of the Barrens in vanilla World of Warcraft; Audiobody's "You Gotta Tap" of my time in Duluth with Brett and Tyler (thank you UMD Chemistry); P!nk, Dashboard Confessional, Jack Johnson will always remind me of my time with ex-girlfriends.

I knew that Bella Monaco wouldn't help my brother get through supersets of kettle bell swings, goblet squats, rows, and tuck jumps, but for me, that's all I might need.