Jeremy W. Smith, assistant professor of music theory at The Ohio State University, presents ""Conceptual Metaphors in EDM Production: How DAW Technologies Structure Producer Discourse."
This lecture explores how producers of electronic dance music (EDM) use conceptual metaphors when explaining their compositional practices, and how DAW (digital audio workstation) technologies help structure those metaphors. Conceptual metaphors, first outlined by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), are not simply linguistic expressions but broader patterns of thought through which people conceptualize abstract domains. For example, EDM producers often describe sounds as material objects that can be shaped, sculpted, carved, or stretched. They also conceptualize sonic change as a type of motion (rising, falling, wobbling), and musical intensity as a form of physical energy (tension, pressure, buildup, and release).
Producer discourse frequently references these conceptual metaphors, outlining techniques for shaping sounds, adding movement to sounds, and building energy in the music. These techniques are realized through tools within DAWs such as envelopes, LFOs, and automation curves. While individual producers apply these tools in distinctive ways, they also draw on shared conventions circulating within EDM communities. Drawing on video interviews with EDM producers, alongside production manuals and online tutorials, Smith will foreground how producers articulate their thinking when working in DAWs. By analyzing these metaphors not as casual language but as structured ways of thinking, this lecture demonstrates how metaphors function as producer-generated theories of timbre, gesture, and form.
Jeremy W. Smith is an assistant professor of music theory at The Ohio State University. His research is primarily on the theory and analysis of electronic dance music (EDM), with a secondary focus on video game music. He has published articles about EDM in Music Theory Online, Twentieth-Century Music, and Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, and contributed a book chapter to the edited collection The Evolution of Electronic Dance Music. He is also an active musical performer, playing euphonium with local ensembles.
This lecture is free and open to the public. No ticket required.
Lectures in Music Studies is co-sponsored by The Ohio State University Libraries.
- Lectures are held Mondays at 4 p.m. in the 18th Avenue Library, 175 W. 18th Ave. (Music/Dance Library, second floor, room 205), unless otherwise noted. These events are free and open to the public. Campus visitors, please use either the Tuttle Park Place Garage or the Ohio Union South Garage. All other garages in the vicinity of the 18th Ave. Library are closed to visitors before 4 p.m.
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