My 2 cents on listening to new EDM
Regardless of where you came from in your electornica listening career, noob or pro, you probably have fallen into pitfalls when it comes to deciding whether or not a song is good or not. I'll explain some of the mistakes I make (which you probably make as well) and hope the following tips will help.
It is often the case when I get a new song that I'll just skim it for a couple seconds and pass some judgment. If I feel like its a good song... okay, fine. The problem happens when you dismiss a song as junk. Assuming the song is some sort of trance/techno/house song, what appears to be junk (which it may indeed be) may actually very well work in conjunction with the rest of the song. Some personal examples of this happened with Akufen - Deck the House and with Armin van Buuren - Blue Fear. In the case of Deck the House, after listening to 10 seconds of it, I simply deleted the file. It just sounded like a glitchy radio being tuned. Complete cacophony. A year later, after reading so much praise about it, I decided to give it a chance. So I forced myself to listen to it from start to end. Lo and behold: I found myself enjoying it. And with Blue Fear, in the middle of the song, there is the weird high pitched sound that played on and on, which was quite frankly annoying. One day, I had it in a playlist and without realizing what it was at first, I came to think, "What a nice chill song." And then came the "annoying" part. But the thing was that IN CONTEXT of the rest of the song, it was quite brilliant! Which bring me to my first point:
1) Before tossing a song to the dumpster, listen to a minute or two of the song from THE START. A lot of EDM's magic comes from its context. What may never work alone might simply be the best thing ever when placed in the right context.
In a very similar vein comes repetitiveness. With some songs, you might think "Pretty cool!" and, wanting to know a bit more about it, you skim ahead... and it's the same exact thing. You skim some more... again the same. You look at the song's duration: 10 minutes. Uh oh! You begin to think that a good song suddenly became bad. However, reality is much different. The song abuses repetitiveness in a very real and a very pleasing way. In fact, if you came to actually listen to it, the repetitiveness MAKES the song. Examples in my life: Mathew Jonson - Marionette, Phuture - Acid Tracks.
2) Don't dismiss a song because it "seems" repetitive. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. And if it is, perhaps it actually makes the song even better despite surface scans.
Alright. Now you're asking about the songs that you listen to from the start and just can't stand it because it's too different from what you are used to. For those unfamiliar with "acid", the sound that the TB-303 synthesizer infamously creates, you might know what I'm talking about when you try out such a track. Even to semi-acid pros, you might still be in some trouble. And for those who fear "minimal", you can join the gang as well. The only solution to solving this is to get a few (say two or three) HIGHLY recommended songs of the genre, slap them as the only things in your playlist. If you have the strength, try ACTIVELY listening to the ENTIRE songs twice. After then, you just might be getting into the groove and decide to listen to them for the rest of the night...
Personal examples: L.S.G. - Hearts, The Field - Over the Ice, James Holden - Nothing (93 Returning Mix), Josh Wink - Higher State of Consciousness.
In conclusion, when trying out new songs (aside from those from crap genres like Happy Hardcore, Cheesy Eurodance, and the like :D) just listen to them from the start for at least a minute or until it actually gets somewhere before labeling it as bad. (Assuming the song is decently lengthed of course. ie: 6mins+)
