Once almost exclusively an underground movement, electronic dance music (EDM) is now embraced by a mainstream pop audience. Accordingly, some of the new, radio-friendly music feels meek and calculated, especially when it's spun at high-energy festivals: The complex rhythms and synthesized orchestrations from a variety of sources that gave texture and a sense of adventure to the music now sit equal, if not secondary, to pop and hip-hop vocals. But there's a fear that hitting the mainstream will have a corrupting effect on EDM.

"If...