I saw someone online recently state the phrase, “If art is how you decorate space, music is how you decorate time.” This quote sent me spiraling in thought. 
Art may be how you decorate space, but art also speaks from the artist to the viewer. Through this, art gives feelings of comfort and understanding outside of words to said viewer. Music does the exact same thing, but as mentioned, through time.
Music sets the environment of every place that it is played in. It can curate a personality of a business, leading to those that relate to keep coming, or music can simply add to time spent relaxing. Music decorates time by connecting to those listening — we connect most to music that we feel relates to us.
Our music taste naturally follows this same train of thought. Sad country music is rarely played at a time when those listening are happy. Folk rock has a much wider variety of emotions that one will relate to, which is why it has been exponentially growing in popularity recently.
Each genre has its strong suit when it comes to the environment in which you would relate to them. At a social outing, southern rock and country music create a mood that generally fits the occasion, leading to those genres being the ones often heard at these social events.
This is ultimately why I enjoy electronic dance music, most commonly known as EDM. It is one of the most versatile genres, and therefore it the only genre I have found that I can enjoy in any state of being.
EDM is not limited by notes it can hit, ways it can be played or what it is played with. According to Armada Music, “Since EDM is the umbrella term for everything produced electronically or mainly consisting of electronic components, there are many different genres within EDM that each hold their own spot on the dance music spectrum.” This makes the genre inherently versatile.
For the purpose of the argument, I am going to strictly stick to music that has been published, and not what you are hearing from the frat DJ on any given Friday night.
EDM music has existed in the form we know it now for less than 20 years. It all started when DJ duo Daft Punk lit a spark with a singular performance at Coachella 2006 that would lead to the fire that we know as current day EDM music. 
Heath Harshman of Dance Music NorthWest stated that “Daft Punk’s performance at Coachella 2006 was the first step in a nearly two-year journey that changed the landscape of dance music.” 
Since then, EDM has only gotten bigger. Many subgenres of EDM are created all the time. With collaborations between EDM artists and artists of other genres, EDM offers a sound for everyone.
Folk-rock fans have a place with songs like “Need Your Love” by Noah Kahan, Gryffin and Seven Lions. Lovers of punk-rock have entire albums like “ILLENIUM” by ILLENIUM which features bands Motionless in White and All Time Low performing songs with EDM tracks backing them. 
These collaborations and subgenres make it so easy to connect to EDM as a genre outside of a point of language. I cannot describe to you the emotions I feel while listening to “Above the Quiet City” by cxlt. or “Line of Sight (Reprise)” by ODESZA, WYNNE and Mansionair, but the songs themselves can almost do that for me. That is why it is such an easy genre to connect to. 
EDM is not unfamiliar to a lot of college-aged adults either, as some of the most popular songs of the 2010’s were of the genre. “Titanium” by David Guetta, “Too Close” by Alex Clare, “Clarity” by Zedd and so much more contributed to the premature downfall of speakers all throughout the 2010s. 
EDM actually became so popular in the top half of the 2010’s that a 2015 article out of Spin Magazine referred to EDM as the “the contemporary ‘lingua franca’ for all of pop, and the default mode of the Top 40.” While our parent’s aux cords taught us the wonders of dad rock, the radio stations educated us on EDM. 
EDM has become so widespread now that it is honestly hard to track. Popular EDM songs still exist, but one could be a lover of the genre without touching 90% of what it has to offer. For me, no genre captures the variety of emotion in sound that EDM does. 
It does not make sense to me why EDM has the stigma that it does. Of course we all think of it at first as a music choice only rave regulars make, but I have found it is a rabbit hole that was not only fun for me to fall into, but fun for everyone I know that has.