At last week’s DV247 event, I got into a conversation with my buddy Paul Dakeyne (check out his awesome 80s Electro Pop radio show here) about this and that, and EDM blipped on the conversation radar too. He mentioned to me that he’d recently discovered that while EDM is a relatively recently coined term, it was actually mentioned on a record sleeve over 30 years ago.
And he’s quite right, as I happen to have the record in my collection. Landscape are more well-known for “Einstein a Go Go“, but also did the track shown above called “European Man” all the way back in 1981. And if you flip it over, there’s a multi-language inscription that specifically talks about EDM i.e. electronic dance music.
So is this the first specifically coined use of EDM? Obviously electronic dance music as a phrase has been around since the dawn of… well electronic dance music. But can Landscape, and specifically Richard James Burgess lay claim to coining the name?
It seems you’ll be able to ask him yourself as he’s a guest speaker at an upcoming DV247 event on July 29th. Entitled “Survive, Grow, and Prosper in the Real Music Industry”, Richard will be taking part in the keynote event. Full details are right here.
YOUR SAY
I know I have to be careful using the term EDM around these parts, but is this the first appearance of this acronym? Is it right to attribute it to Landscape? Or do you know of an earlier appearance?